The town takes its name from the Natchitoches, a Caddo people. The National Register nomination says the name comes from the language of the Natchitosh, a tribe of Caddo living along the Red River, and Louisiana State Parks says Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis built two huts in their village in 1714. The National Park Service calls Natchitoches the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase, the northernmost navigable point on the Red River and the eastern end of El Camino Real de los Tejas.
The historic district follows both sides of the old river channel, now Cane River, and Front Street is brick paved and looks out over the water. The nomination records that the Red River shifted its channel between 1825 and 1850 and left the town five miles from the river, which it names as the most important factor in preserving the old town. It also counts the largest bousillage construction in the South, a mud, moss and deer-hair infill. The Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on Second Street dates its parish to 1728, according to the visitors bureau.
Thousands of enslaved Africans arrived in this valley under French and Spanish rule, the National Park Service writes, and Spain's liberal manumission policies produced a growing population of free people of color, whose descendants are today's Creoles of color in Natchitoches. The district became a National Historic Landmark in 1984. The visitors bureau at 780 Front Street runs a free guided walking tour; call 318-356-5555 for times.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour