Goos established a lumber mill and schooner dock, in what became known as Goosport. The city's growth was fairly slow until Captain Daniel Goos, a Frisian by birth, came to the city in 1855. On March 7, 1861, Lake Charles was officially incorporated as the town of Charleston, Louisiana. Transliterated through French, that became the name of Calcasieu Parish. The Rio Hondo, which flowed through Lake Charles, was later called Quelqueshue, a Native American term meaning 'Crying Eagle'. By 1860, the area become known as Charles Town, in Sallier's honor. The infamous pirate, Jean Lafitte, once delivered stolen slaves and contraband to James Bowie and other enslavers in the area. The area on the east side of the Calcasieu River was defined as the southern part of the 'Neutral Ground' until ratification of the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1821. The Salliers built their home on the beach in what is current-day Lake Charles. Charles Sallier, one of the first colonizers, married LeBleu's daughter, Catherine LeBleu.

In 1781, Martin LeBleu and his wife, Dela Marion, of Bordeaux, France, were the first recorded Europeans to colonize the area now known as the LeBleu Settlement.

The Calcasieu River Bridge as seen from downtown Lake Charles. The first European colonizers arrived in the 1760s. 18th and 19th centuries Early historical events, settlement and incorporation īefore European colonisation, the Lake Charles area was home to the Native American Atakapa Ishak tribe.

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