On Feb. 1, 1700, Iberville was given orders to head back to Louisiana and to establish the first colony in the present state of Louisiana. He selected a spot on the Mississippi River that seemed to remain high and dry. On Feb. 1, 1700, construction began on the small fort with four cannons 18 leagues from the sea, near the present settlement of Phoenix, 30 miles below New Orleans.

When completed that same year, Iberville placed his young brother, Bienville (who founded New Orleans in 1718), in command of what he named Fort de la Boulaye, or on some maps, Fort du Mississippi. Three hundred years ago this year, it became the first permanent French settlement in the present state of Louisiana.