Natchitoches, Louisiana

===Early years===
Natchitoches was established in 1714 by [[French Canadian|Canadien]] explorer [[Louis Juchereau de St. Denis]]. It is the oldest permanent European settlement within the borders of the 1803 [[Louisiana Purchase]].<ref>{{cite web|title = City of Natchitoches|url = http://www.natchitochesla.gov/|website = natchitochesla.gov|access-date = 16 January 2016}}</ref> Natchitoches was founded as a French outpost on the [[Red River of the South|Red River]] for trade with Spanish-controlled [[Mexico]]; French traders settled there as early as 1699. The post was established near a village of [[Natchitoches (tribe)|Natchitoches Indians]], after whom the city was named. Early settlers were French Catholic immigrants and creoles (originally meaning those ethnic French born in the colony). French creoles acquired lands that were developed in the antebellum years as cotton-producing [[Magnolia Plantation (Derry, Louisiana)|Magnolia Plantation]] and [[Oakland Plantation (Natchitoches, Louisiana)|Oakland Plantation]]. Each has been preserved and is designated as a [[National Historic Landmark]].

After the United States' [[Louisiana Purchase]] of 1803, migration into the territory increased from the US. Natchitoches grew along with the population in the parish. Initially, the Americans were primarily of English and Scots-Irish ancestry and of Protestant faith. They developed several cotton [[plantations in the American South|plantation]]s along the Red River. Numerous enslaved African Americans were brought to the area through the domestic slave trade to work the cotton, and provide all other skills on these plantations, generating the revenues for the wealthy planters before the Civil War.

The United States Government established a [[United States Government Fur Trade Factory System|federal fur trade factory]] here in 1805. It was removed to [[Sulphur Fork Factory, Arkansas|Sulphur Fork, Arkansas]] in 1818.<ref>Wesley, Edgar Bruce (1935). ''Guarding the frontier.'' The University of Minnesota Press, p. 40.</ref>

In the 1820s and early 1830s, Natchitoches also served as a freight transfer point for cotton shipped from parts of east [[Texas]]. Cotton shippers used a land route crossing the [[Sabine River (Texas–Louisiana)|Sabine River]] to Natchitoches, where the freight was transferred to boats, and floated down the Red River to [[New Orleans]].<ref name=holbrook>{{cite news|jstor= 30236594|title=Cotton Marketing in Antebellum Texas|last=Holbrook|first=Abigail Curlee|journal= The Southwestern Historical Quarterly|year=1952|volume=73|number=4|pages=431–455}}</ref>

When the course of the Red River shifted,<!--when was that? 19th century?  --> it bypassed Natchitoches and cut off its lucrative connection with the Mississippi River. A {{convert|33|mi|km|adj=on}} [[oxbow lake]] was left in the river's previous location which became known as [[Cane River Lake]].