Chaguate

Chaguate was an Indigenous chiefdom in the Ouachita River country, known for the salt produced in its vicinity. Its communities occupied a landscape of wooded valleys and saline waters, where salt could be used locally and exchanged with others. In 1542 the survivors of the de Soto expedition reached Chaguate on their westward journey under Luis de Moscoso. One Spaniard, Francisco de Guzmán, left the expedition there and remained among the local people.