Don José Vidal

José Vidal was born in A Coruña, Spain, in 1763, though accounts differ on 1765. From 1792 to 1797 he was secretary to Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, Spanish governor of the Natchez District. Gayoso granted him land across the river on condition that he build a fortified house, and in 1798 Vidal moved his family over and commanded the new post until the United States took Louisiana in 1803. He built the first steam sawmill at the post and gave land for civic buildings and the parish's first school. He died in 1823 and lies in Natchez.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Vidalia Landing Riverfront — 1.2 mi
  A riverwalk on the Mississippi at Vidalia, built on the site of the old town that moved west in 1938 when the river was cut off.
• Frogmore Cotton Plantation and Gins — 14 mi
  A working cotton farm near Ferriday that tells the plantation story through the people enslaved there, with quarters, an ancient mound and a rare steam-engine gin.

More markers nearby

• Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 — 1.2 mi
• Haney's Big House — 7.7 mi
• Frank Morris — 7.7 mi
• Jerry Lee Lewis — 7.8 mi