[3] The fort (present-day city of Natchitoches) was founded by a French Canadian, Louis Juchereau de St. Denis in 1714 while he was traveling to Mexico on a trade mission.

When St. Denis reached the village of the Natchitoches Indians on the Red River of the South, he had two huts constructed and left a small French detachment there to guard the stores and trade with the Native Americans.

In 1731, an attack by the Natchez Indians exposed the vulnerabilities of the fort, prompting French officials to send engineer Broutin to oversee the construction of a larger and stronger fortifcation.

[7] In addition to Claude Charles Du Tisne and Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, there were other notable soldiers garrisoned at the fort in its early years as a frontier outpost 1714-1740.

In 1719, when Blondel heard of the war in Europe between Spain and France, he and a small detail of 5 French soldiers left Fort St. Jean Baptiste des Natchitches and attacked the nearest Spanish fort: San Miguel de Linares de los Adaes Mission (Capital of Texas and Los Adaes) near the El Camino Real in present-day Robeline, Louisiana.

All of the metal hinges and latches were made at a local foundry and most of the 2,000 treated pine logs which form the palisade and approximately 250,000 board feet lumber for the buildings were sourced from within Natchitoches Parish.