Fort Jesup State Historic Site

The Neutral Strip between the Sabine River and Arroyo Hondo had no government and no law enforcement. After the Adams-Onís Treaty set the border at the Sabine in 1819, Colonel Zachary Taylor built Cantonment Jesup in 1822 to impose order on what is now Sabine Parish. Fort Seldon, the previous headquarters for General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, had been too far from the Sabine conflict zone. Taylor subdued the former Neutral Strip and his forces—the Army of Observation—stayed to monitor Texas as it passed from Spanish to Mexican control, then broke away as an independent republic.

The fort became a staging ground. In 1845, Taylor commanded the Army of Observation's excursion into Texas and ignited the Mexican-American War. Among the officers who served at Fort Jesup: Taylor himself, who would ride his victories to the presidency; Jefferson Davis; Robert E. Lee. When the United States won Texas, the fort lost its purpose. The Army evacuated in 1846. The federal government privatized the site in 1869.

By the 1930s only the kitchen of Enlisted Barracks 4 remained. Residents of nearby Many raised money to restore it and create a park. Louisiana took over in 1956. The fort was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961. The kitchen now holds historically accurate furniture. A reconstructed officer's quarters serves as museum. Seven miles northeast of Many on Louisiana Highway 6, the fort sits where the United States decided what lawless meant and what it would cost to end it.