In 1996 a ranch foreman working along the Garcitas Creek in South Texas noticed an odd-shaped iron protrusion in the dense clay soil. In that sparsely populated area of rural Texas, any metal object would be cause for curiosity but this man had a pretty good idea what he had just discovered. For some time he had been casually inspecting this area as he made his rounds checking the grazing cattle.
Although all but the tip of the metal object was buried, the foreman was confident that he had solved one of the most elusive and legendary historical mysteries in this part of Texas.
He realized that he had found the lost French Fort St. Louis and that the metal object in the ground was one of the eight French cannon buried there. Below his feet was the site of one of the earliest European settlements in Texas.
Later, workers returned to the site with metal detectors and verified that other metal objects were buried there. Lawyers were consulted — the cannon and other relics would be protected under the Texas Antiquities Law — and arrangements were made between the owners of the Keeran Ranch and the Texas Historical Commission to maintain an element of privacy and respect for the ranchland during excavation.
Because the site would have thousands of archaeological relics, there was real concern in this isolated area about trespassing and looting. Under the Texas Open Records Law, the Office of the State Archaeologist has the authority to keep the locations of historically significant sites confidential.
For nearly three centuries the location of the earliest French attempt to colonize Texas had presented an elusive goal for historians, government officials and treasure hunters.
The general location has always been known but had remained undiscovered despite the fact that diaries provided seemingly obvious clues: eight huge, heavy French cannon marked the position of the ill-fated Fort St. Louis on the rolling coastal plains of South Texas.
Like Jim Bowie's Lost Mine at San Saba, Coronado's Seven Cities of Cibola and the Spanish search for El Dorado, the eight French cannon of Fort St. Louis became legendary and almost mythical over the centuries.
In 1995, an offshore discovery by the Texas Historical Commission renewed interest in finding Fort St. Louis and the eight cannon. That year, using a marine magnetometer, the agency discovered the remains of Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle's, flagship, the Belle, 115 miles south of Houston along the Texas coast.
The resulting excavation produced glass trade beads, a ceramic jar filled with mercury, tools and trade goods and leather shoes. But the most sensational find of all was the discovery of an almost perfectly preserved ornate bronze cannon (two additional cannon were discovered at the end of the excavation project in the mud and sand beneath the ship's hull).
This discovery and the resulting publicity led to renewed interest in locating La Salle's Fort St. Louis.
La Salle, who ended up in Matagorda Bay in an attempt to find the mouth of the Mississippi River, landed 280 people, 100 of them soldiers, in Texas in 1684. In the summer of 1685, the French erected the six log-and-pole structures that comprised the fort. Among the materials and equipment hauled overland to the site were eight huge, heavy iron cannon.
By late 1687, La Salle was dead, assassinated by a disgruntled follower, and the population at the fort had dwindled to about 20. Attacking Karankawa Indians killed everyone but five children during the winter of 1687-88.
Spanish explorer Alonso de Leon, also the Governor of Coahuila, found the ruined fort in 1689 but there was no trace of the French. Fortunately, he kept a diary and in it he recorded that "In and about the fort and houses were eight pieces of artillery, iron and of medium bore."
De Leon briefly established a Spanish presidio on the exact site of the French fort but soon abandoned it. Because of their weight and size he was unable to remove the cannon, so he buried them for future retrieval. Unfortunately, he left no record of their, or the fort's, location.
After more than 300 years of burial, archaeologists from the Texas Historical Commission and local volunteers from the Victoria, Texas, area excavated the cannon in September 1996. Since they were buried in a tight group, the excavation took only one week to complete.
Fortunately, South Texas clay does not retain water well so the cannons were protected from moisture and oxygen during those three centuries.
The nearest large town to the ranch is Victoria, Texas, where the Texas A&M University Conservation Research Laboratory rented a downtown building and established a public archaeology laboratory. Because of their involvement in the excavation and restoration of French relics from the Belle project the year before, the Texas A&M laboratory was already set up for a project like the newly recovered cannon.
Unlike the Belle’s cannon, however, these pieces had not been exposed to centuries of salt water, and the clay gumbo had actually formed a protective shield for the guns. Encrustation was carefully chipped away and the tubes meticulously cleaned and the pieces stabilized through electrolysis.
The final step of restoration was the application of a special wax coating to protect the metal from the atmosphere. Compared to the complex restoration of the Belle’s underwater cannon, this project had been relatively simple.
The cannon were repositioned as excavated and put on display at the Victoria research laboratory building.
These excellent examples of mid- to late-1600s French artillery include three 3-pdrs., three 4-pdrs. and two 6- pdrs. weighing from 700 to 1,200 pounds.
While these cannon were transported to Texas in the same four-ship colonization expedition as the extremely rare bronze 4-pdr. cannon found on the Belle, they were designed for more practical application.
The Belle’s ornate cannon featured cast decorations including an "L" symbolizing King Louis XIV who sponsored the La Salle expedition and crossed anchors with the name "Le 'Cote de Vermandois" representing the Admiral of France from 1669 to 1683. The ornate dolphin lifting handles were restored and found to be perfectly intact with minute decorations.
In contrast, the eight tubes at Fort St. Louis are listed as ordinary iron cast in one piece — each thicker near the breech.
Despite their excellent condition, several of the tubes are noticeably pockmarked. Texas Historical Commission archaeologists theorize that this is probably because, given the extreme scarcity of natural metals in the South Texas area, the cannons were probably used for various non-warfare purposes. The marks suggest that they may have been used as large blacksmith anvils.
Archaeologists have begun to pinpoint and excavate the site of Fort St. Louis. Using a magnetometer mounted on two wheels, archaeologists have mapped a 4.5 acre plot using satellite imagery from the readings to create an “underground map" showing a circle that corresponded exactly to the Spanish drawing of their presidio that had been built on the same location.
As the fort location is excavated, there is optimism that other weapons will be discovered among the buried relics. Among the inventory de Leon recorded were muskets, sabers and swords. It is not expected that additional cannon will be discovered.
The eight guns on display in Victoria represent the largest collection of French artillery pieces in this area which is historically recognized for its Spanish heritage.
(About the author: Gary Brown is a student of the Texas Revolution and longtime contributor of articles about artillery in Texas.)