CELEBRATION OF OPENING OF THE MUSEUM AT FORT JESUP—1959.
NO MAN’S LAND
A History of El Camino Real
by
Louis Raphael Nardini
PELICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
NEW ORLEANS—U. S. A.
© Copyright 1961
by Louis R. Nardini
Printed in the United States of America
by the American Printing Co., New Orleans
To
Orine Inez
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
In acknowledging the sources of information and the assistanceof the many persons I consulted in the preparation of this book,the author wishes to thank the following: The staffs of theSabine Parish, the Natchitoches Parish and the NorthwesternState College Libraries—with especial thanks to Miss CatherineBridges who so patiently and ably assisted me in gatheringdata for this writing. Acknowledgment is gratefully and appreciatinglygiven to those excellent authors and their publisherslisted in the bibliography at the back of this book, for it wasthrough their talent and efforts that a whole new experience wasopened to me.
I must remember too my History Teacher, Mrs. Lucille RoyCaffery, who so thoroughly planted in my mind the desire to readand study History, for it was she who told me, “It is the Historyand the Present which foretells the Future.”
I am likewise grateful to Miss Margie Harrison and Mrs.Mabel Fletcher Harrison who corrected and typed this book andto Mrs. Bernice A. Authur of Many, La., who also assisted in thetyping of this manuscript.
Louis R. Nardini
PREFACE
There are two ways to write the history of an area. First, theactual-fact-data way, which gives dates, important events and thenames of the leaders. But this does not fully explain the reasonsfor their occurrence, nor show the effect of mass participation.It omits many of the names of others involved in the incident orincidents, so that a clear picture of all the people involved islacking. Even while one is reading, he is conscious of a masseffect and realizes that a sort of team is present. He then stopsand asks himself, “Who were the others?”
The second way is to combine the legends and folklore withthe actual fact-data of an area and to use reason and imagination—toseek out the names of others connected with the adventure.Those who went their way, but most important, those who remainedto establish, fortify and settle, and by their so doing,give permanence and purpose to the area.
By using the second method, the writer believes he has givena true history of the locality of which he writes, because he hasused the actual-fact-data of the area, and added to it the economicand social life of the people involved, especially of thosewho remained to become inhabitants.
To write a history of such an area as that which includesNatchitoches, El Camino Real, Los Adais and the Neutral Strip,one must be blessed with the knowledge of several languages,and feel that he can comprehend the nature o