Sylvia R. Longoria
Sylvia R. Longoria’s column is published Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. She can be contacted at
longoria@caller.com.
Sunday, February 13, 2000
Europe’s first colony in Texas unearthed
Evidence matches Goliad site with La Salle’s fortress
Three weeks ago, archaeologists began the most extensive excavation of Fort St. Louis,
unearthing conclusive evidence that the historic Spanish fort, Presidio La Bahia in Goliad, was
first built on the same soil where French explorer Rene Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, had
established Texas’ first European colony.
A paper trail of Spanish documents dating back to the late 1600s always have stated as much,
corroborated in part by oral histories passed down through generations from the area’s
pioneering families.
But until now, the precise location of these historic French and Spanish settlements had
always remained a Texas mystery.
Spurred, however, by the 1996 discovery of eight buried iron cannons belonging to La Salle on
the Keeran Ranch near Victoria, the Texas Historical Commission’s team of archaeologists
began a full-scale investigation of the site in January, only recently narrowing their focus to a 4
½-acre site on the ranch.
The break came last spring when archaeologists, using a supersensitive metal detector called
a magnetometer, finally ferreted out the elusive lady, Nuestra Senora de Loreto de la Bahia del
Espiritu Santo, the fort Capt. Domingo Ramon established in 1721 on the ruins of Fort St. Louis.
“The Spanish and French occupations of the site now being excavated represent two of the
most important historical and archaeological discoveries in Texas history,” said Jim Bruseth,
archaeology division director with the Texas Historical Commission. “We are well on our way to
uncovering the great chapters of early Texas history.”
Scholars expect the discovery will shed tremendous light on Texas’ first European settlement,
as well as the Spanish colonization of the region. “This is where Texas started,” Bruseth said.
“La Salle’s building of Fort St. Louis is why we have our Spanish heritage we are so proud of.”
Our history today is directly linked to events that occurred three centuries ago on this piece of
ground.”
Filling in the Gaps
Although Fort St. Louis only now is beginning to see the light of day after three centuries of
burial, much about daily life in this 17th-century French colony has never been a mystery. That is
so because of a detailed diary that La Salle’s trusted aide, Henri Joutel, left behind.
However, little is known about the Spanish fort Nuestra Senora de Loreto, commonly known
as La Bahia, which Spanish presidio records indicate was named Nuestra Senora Santa Maria
de Loreto de la Bahia del Espiritu Santo after Italy’s Our Lady of Loreto.
“That is what makes these findings so exciting,” said Carolina Castillo Crimm, a Sam Houston
State University history professor who has just finished a historical book about the settlement of
Victoria.
“We’ll finally be able to look at some of these materials and begin filling what has been a very
huge gap in the record.
Fort St. Louis
What is known is that La Salle, in search of the mouth of the Mississippi, landed in Matagorda
Bay, then Spanish-claimed territory, in 1684, where he and some 180 colonists established a
settlement, ultimately moving it inland the following year along Garcitas Creek in present day
Victoria County.
In 1687, La Salle was killed by his own men, his settlement destroyed by Indians who killed all
of the colonists except for five children. The Fort St. Louis survivors remained with the tribe until
they were rescued years later by the Spanish and ultimately were repatriated to France.
Meanwhile, news of the French settling in the northern Gulf Coast reached New Spain,
prompting the Spanish to mount 11 expeditions by land and sea to find and drive out the foreign
incursion.
Spanish explorer Alonso De Leon finally came upon Fort St. Louis in 1689, but all he found
were its ruins along with eight cannons. Anticipating future use of them, he buried them near the
fort.
The Presidio
Thirty-two years later, Nuestra Senora de Loreto was established to protect other missions
and to prevent further French encroachment.
In 1726, however, conflicts with Indians forced Spanish authorities to relocate the presidio and
mission to the Guadalupe River between Victoria and Cuero near present-day Mission Valley. It
relocated a final time in 1749 to its present site, Presidio La Bahia, in Goliad, at the
recommendation of Jose de Escandon, whom the Spanish government had authorized in 1747
to settle the Rio Grande region.
But here is where it all started, said Andres Tijerina, assistant professor of history at Austin
Community College, of the Fort St. Louis/Nuestra Senora de Loreto excavation site.
“These two occupations clearly demonstrate that the French incursion stimulated a reaction by
the Spanish to re-establish its claim, a move that ultimately began the Texas land grants and
Spanish ranches,” Tijerina said
To find the site of these two key historical settlements, however, took some hi-tech tools of
science to unearth, said Robert P. Drolet, a Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
archaeologist working in cooperation with the THC on the excavation site.
And with some tools nowhere near hi-tech.
Finding the prize
The reading from the magnetometer, which detects one/one millionth of the magnetic force it
takes to move a compass needle, picked up an anomaly in the soil, one that on paper
resembled a large ring. After reducing it to scale, an 18th-century architectural plan of the 1721
presidio was superimposed over the magnetic data.
The two images matched.
“It was amazing,” said Bruseth, who will lecture about the excavation project and its
significance February 22 at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History. To the team, it
must have seemed like some “X marks the spot” adventure fiction plot line from Hollywood. “The
rings just fit perfectly, and we knew that this doughnut-shaped thing was La Bahia.”
What hasn’t been found yet, Drolet said, is the presidio’s Mission de Espiritu Santo.
“The artifacts in truth only tell a tiny piece of the story,” Drolet said, “What we shouldn’t ignore
here is the more important question, and that is, “What was the rest of the encounter?”
Hopefully, we’ll begin developing a better understanding of what went on between the Spanish
and the Indians.”
Three weeks into the dig, and about six inches to 2½ feet below the surface, the THC has
already extracted metal tools, weapons, European glassware and indigenous ceramics.
Archaeologists have also come upon the first structural remains pertaining to the Spanish
presidio and because French artifacts are now beginning to turn up as well “only means we’re
hot on the trail of the French fort below,” Bruseth said.
Caring for history
Most of the artifacts are being sent to the Fort St. Louis Public Archaeology Laboratory in
Victoria, a working lab open to the public during the week. The remainder, those deemed
unstable and requiring additional conservation work will begin being shipped to Drolet this week
at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History.
Where the items will ultimately be displayed is a decision that has not yet been made, Bruseth
said.
“All this is very exciting,” said Castillo Crimm, explaining that the information gleaned from
Nuestra Senora de Loreto will help experts compile a more comprehensive history of Texas
missions, one that for now pales in comparison to what the Californians have been able to piece
together of their own mission legacy.
“It’ll be up to the scholars to take these archaeological finds and build upon what we know in
order to better understand not only the missions, but the Texas Coast and the lives of the native
Indians during this period,” Castillo said.
Discovering Texas roots
And understanding the presidios and its missions is key, Tijerina added, because it leads to
the very civilian settlements that grew around them.
“The presidios were small missions inhabited by a few Franciscan missionaries and a garrison
of soldiers to protect them,” Tijerina said. “But the soldiers very quickly brought wives, civilian
families and settlers, all of whom brought permanence to these settlements, beginning the
Texas we know of today.
“They brought with them an all-important permanence, a permanence that you continue to see
today.”
Look at most any Texas city phone book today and you’ll see the names Esparza, Luan,
Seguin, Menchaca and so forth,” Tijerina said.
“You can still open a phone book in Victoria and the name of De Leon,” he said. “Texas is one
place you can to from reading a historical account to the latest phone book. You can literally see
the missions, the presidios, the dams; the acequias (canals), the aqueducts built back then from
Loop 410 San Antonio. You can actually see the fields they once irrigated. Their mark is not
only in the blood of Texas’ pioneering families still here, but on the land itself.”
Presidio La Bahia Timeline
Some important dates in the history of Presidio La Bahia:

1519 – Alonso Alvarez de Pineda of Spain maps the Texas coast

1682 – Spanish missionaries build the first two missions in Texas, near present-day El
Paso

1685 – Rene Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, establishes French settlement in
present Victoria County

1689 – Alonso De Leon’s expedition finds the remains of La Salle’s Fort St. Louis

1722 – Presidio La Bahia and Mission Espiritu Santo established on ruins of French
settlement

1726 – Presidio La Bahia and mission move to Mission Valley site

1749 – Presidio La Bahia and Mission Espiritu Santo move to San Antonio River

1775 to 1783 – The American Revolution is fought

1779 to 1782 – La Bahia cattle drives aid the American Revolution
Public Archaeology Laboratory and Education Program
The public is invited to visit this working laboratory, where artifacts from the site are processed
daily.
For lab visits and school programs, contact the project’s education coordinator at (361) 5701356.
TEXAS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
Fort St. Louis Archaeological Project
113 West Santa Rosa
PO Box 2207
Victoria, Texas 77902-2207
http://www.thc.state.tx.us/
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