Bradford M. Jones
Collections Manager/Curatorial Facilities Certification Program Manager
Texas Historical Commission

In the 1990s, the Texas Historical Commission excavated the lower hull of La Salle’s ship La Belle. Wrecked in 1686 in Matagorda Bay, among the nearly 2 million artifacts recovered from the ship were many that revealed the military side of the expedition. In much the same way the French deserter Dionicio Tomas betrayed the expedition’s plans to Spanish interrogators, the various weaponry recovered from the hull betrays to archeologists the colony’s role in a military venture to wrest from Spain control of silver mines in northern Mexico. Through a discussion of the weapons of war found aboard La Belle, this talk will explore La Salle and King Louis XIV’s aspirations of conquest over 300 years after they came to ruin.

Bradford M. Jones has been an archaeologist for six years for the Texas Historical Commission’s Archeology Division. Currently the Curatorial Facility Certification Program Manager and AD’s Collection Manager, Mr. Jones has nearly 20 years of experience in the archaeology and history of Texas, Ecuador, and Peru. In addition to serving as the La Belle Collection Manager, Mr. Jones is an editor and author of the La Belle technical volume and currently working on the analysis and publication of the THC’s excavation of the site of La Salle’s Fort St. Louis and the 1720s location of the Spanish Presidio La Bahía.