While scouting the bottom lands adjacent to the Lavaca River in 1890, W.H. Huffaker unearthed a piece of iron. It proved to be a well preserved cross. Many thought the site of Fort St. Louis had been found but later discoveries made this theory doubtful. Whether this cross was the cross erected by La Salle at the founding of the fort and mission in 1685 or a cross that adorned a church within the fort, or a burial cross that marked the grave of a high official of the expedition is debatable. The history of its use will probably never be known, but it is generally believed that it had some connection with La Salle's Colony.

 

The cross forms, on the upright and the cross arms, a fleur-de-lys, and there are two drilled holes in the upper part of the main staff. The cross could have held either the form of the dying Savior or the Arms of France. The inscription on the Arms of France. The inscription on the cross is two letters "M" and "S", crudely cut, probably signifying "Maria Sanctissima". 

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In 1917, at a meeting of the Episcopal Diocesan Council in Port Lavaca, the cross was presented to Grace Church. It was installed on the porch of the church building then located at the porch of the church building then located at the corner of Guadalupe and Leona Streets. 

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A hurricane in 1945 destroyed that building but the La Salle cross was salvaged. When the present church building was erected, the cross was placed in the new edifice. With the expansion of the church building in 1970, the La Salle cross was given a place of honor in the narthex. 

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