Martin Molinoy Duralde (c. 1736 – November 21, 1822) was a native of France who came to North America with the fur trade, surveyed the original square for St. Louis, and served as a Spanish colonial administrator in Louisiana.

[2] He migrated to North America in 1767 and was involved in the establishment of St. Louis in what is now the U.S. state of Missouri, surveying the first town square.

[1] He worked in the fur trade, hunting and exporting peltry, and eventually moved from the Illinois country to Louisiana for business.

[2] In 1795 governor Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet appointed Duralde commandant of the Opelousas post, which position he held until 1803.

[3] Duralde was interested in "the natural world and used geologic evidence and Native American oral histories to compare contemporary and historical landscapes and vegetation.

[22] Duralde died on the return trip from the Mexican-American War, where he had worked as some kind of merchant to the troops; the entire ship caught yellow fever, except for one young boy, possibly an enslaved cabin boy, and Duralde was found dying beside the dead captain after the ship drifted aground near New Orleans.

Henry C. Duralde, his brother, went to California for the gold rush but died by drowning after falling overboard from the steamer Yuba on the Sacramento River in 1850.

[26] J. V. Duralde Jr. was once a candidate for Louisiana state office on the Know Nothing ticket and was president of the Grosse Tete and Opelousas Railroad.