Established in 1737 near the second site of Fort St. Jean Baptiste after the original French outpost was moved following the Natchez Indian attack of 1731, the American Cemetery is considered one of the oldest cemeteries in the Louisiana Purchase and reflects the long and colorful history of the Cane River National Heritage Area through the civic, religious, military, and political leaders buried there. It was originally known as Catholic Cemetery because the area’s first residents were mostly French and Catholic, but its name changed as non-Catholic Americans began to be buried there. Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, founder of Natchitoches, is believed to have been buried there in 1744 though no headstone survives, and the oldest surviving grave marker is the 1797 stone of Dame Marie Ann D’Artigaux, a French noblewoman who came to the New World with her husband after being banished from the French Royal Court. Early graves were sometimes marked by iron crosses forged by blacksmiths and engraved by French artisans, and burials three and four deep were common in keeping with old Cane River traditions. Those buried there include members of the Buard, Cloutier, Lambre, Metoyer, Prud’homme, Rouquier, and Sompayrac families, soldiers who died in the Red River Campaign of the Civil War, and veterans of World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. Legends connected with the cemetery include a red oak on Second Street said to have been planted by St. Denis as a grave marker for the daughter of a Natchitoches Indian chief, and a tradition that Davy Crockett’s wife is buried there though no gravestone has been located. By the early 20th century the cemetery had fallen into neglect, but local women formed the American Cemetery Association in 1904, secured support from the City of Natchitoches and other organizations, and restored and preserved it; that work continues today. Among notable people buried there are Jean Pierre Emmanuel Prud’homme, Alexander Sompayrac, Carmelite "Cammie" Garrett Henry, Leopold "Leopole" Caspari, John Gideon Lewis, Sr., Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer and Marie Therese Coincoin, Dr. John Sibley, and Mayor Theodore Edward Poleman.