Ste. Genevieve is the oldest permanent settlement in Missouri founded in the late 1740s about two miles south of its present location on the banks of the Mississippi River. In 1763 the French ceded the land east of the Mississippi to Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris. Creoles from Canada and east of the Mississippi flocked to Ste. Genevieve after George III issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763. After settling on the west bank the French and Creole settlers were to discover that France had also secretly turned over the west bank to Spain to form Louisiana (New Spain) via the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762) although the community retained the French language and character. Following a flood in 1785, the town moved from its initial location immediately next to the Mississippi about a half-mile inland and two miles north. The oldest buildings of Ste. Genevieve (which are described as "French colonial") were all built during the Spanish rule. The most distinctive buildings during this period was the "vertical log" construction where walls of buildings were built based on posts dug into the ground.