French trader Joseph Blancpain established a trading post in this vicinity in August 1754 after living in Natchitoches, Louisiana, where he owned a mercantile store. Arriving with a small group of men, he soon opened trade with the Atakapan and related Indian tribes of the region, but he had entered Spanish territory, and the Spanish governor ordered soldiers to arrest the French after learning of his presence. Aided by the Bidai Indians, the Spaniards found the settlement and attacked on October 10. The Frenchmen were imprisoned in Mexico City, where authorities concluded that Blancpain was an agent of the French government. He died in prison in Mexico on March 14, 1756, and the other members of his party were imprisoned in Spain for life. The Spanish later established Presidio San Augustin de Ahumada and Mission Nuestra Senora de la Luz on the site of Blancpain's trading post, but the complex was destroyed in a 1766 hurricane. One hundred years later, archeological remains of both the French and Spanish settlements were uncovered and were later entered in the National Register of Historic Places.