Archeology club delves into local history

Newsboy photo/Charles Kerr DETAS MEMBERS on a field trip to look for artifacts last year. Screening shovels of dirt ensures no fragment is overlooked.

The Deep East Texas Archeological Society (DETAS) is planning a field trip to Los Adaes, the official capitol of the Spanish province of Tejas from 1729-1770.

DETAS meets at 7 p.m. the first Monday of every month in the Newton County History Center. Dr. George Avery, station archeologist for the Los Adaes site, will speak at the Feb. 4 meeting.

"Los Adaes precedes even San Antonio and is the only provincial capitol currently intact in North America," according to Phyllis Summers of DETAS.

Other sites like San Antonio and Santa Fe were built over and became cities that are still populated today, but the Los Adaes site was abandoned in 1770. It sits on two low ridges in a lightly populated region of Louisiana near Toledo Bend.

Little remains of the architecture of the mission and fort, which were built of native wood instead of the stone prevalent in other Spanish settlements. The site has a visitor center that explains the history of the area, including the Native American tribes that preceded Spanish and French settlement.

Los Adaes was literally the end of the trail, El Camino Real de los Tejas, the "royal road" that went north of Jasper County to the tiny settlement that served as New Spain's capitol for a brief time. It was the easternmost settlement, placed just 13 miles from the French presence in Natchitoches. It was designed to stop French expansion into New Spain.

But Los Adaes was so remote from Spanish settlements and supply lines 800 miles away that the soldiers, priests and families of Los Adaes came to rely on trading with the French and help from the local Indian tribes to survive. Tribes included the Caddo and the Adai for which the town was named.

Los Adaes gained importance in Spanish eyes after The Chicken War in 1719. French soldiers, trying to expand their empire west of the Mississippi, invaded the presidio of Los Adaes and conquered the one Spanish soldier who was present. They looted the livestock of the town, but a flapping chicken spooked the French lieutenant's horse. That allowed the one lay brother at the mission to escape and report the French attack.

In a panic, Spanish settlers retreated to San Antonio until the Spanish government beefed up the presence of the soldiers at the presidio.

Los Adaes was named the capitol and remained so until 1770, when the government decided to close the outpost. Many families retreated to San Antonio, but Gil Y'Barbo took a number Adaeseños to establish a settlement on the Trinity River. They also founded the Louisiana town of Ebarb in Sabine Parish.

Today, the Los Adaes site is near Spanish Lake in Natchitoches Parish. Various archeological groups continue excavation and study of artifacts from that era. DETAS meetings

DETAS meetings are free, guests welcome. The club was organized in 1993 and is a member of the Texas Archeological Society in Austin.

Long-time member Billie Mims says since the club is one of the few of its type in East Texas, it draws members from as far as Orange, port Arthur, Huntington, Nacogdoches, and Leesville, LA.

Several members have extensive knowledge of the American Indians and the early settlers of East Texas. DETAS has also participated in several digs and surface hunts for artifacts.

Dr. Tom Middlebrook, Dr. George Avery and Dr. Morris Jackson are supervising a dig in downtown Nacogdoches with the assistance of DETAS members and SFA students.