District of Louisiana
The District of Louisiana, or Louisiana District, was an official and temporary United States government designation for the portion of the Louisiana Purchase that had not been organized into the Territory of Orleans or "Orleans Territory" (the portion of the Louisiana Purchase south of the 33rd parallel, which is now the Arkansas–Louisiana state line). The district officially existed from March 10, 1804, until July 4, 1805, when it was organized as the Louisiana Territory.
| District of Louisiana | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Incorporated and unorganized territory of the United States | |||||||||
| 1804–1805 | |||||||||
A map of the District of Louisiana | |||||||||
| Capital | St. Louis | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| Governor | |||||||||
• 1804–1805 | William Henry Harrison | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | October 1 1804 | ||||||||
• Organized | July 4 1805 | ||||||||
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The area north of present-day Arkansas was commonly referred to as Upper Louisiana. The United States District of Louisiana had two incarnations: first, as a federally administered military district (March 10, 1804 - September 30, 1804); then as an organized territory (October 1, 1804 – July 4, 1805) under the jurisdiction of the Indiana Territory.
A similarly named "Louisiana District" had also previously been an administrative division under Spanish and French rule.