In response to hostilities on the Coquille involving William Green T'Vault's men from Port Orford, the U.S. Army established a small fort on the hill overlooking the bay in 1851. The fort lay within the new townsite laid out that same year by Tichenor—which made it the oldest platted townsite on the Oregon Coast. Dubbed Fort Orford, it housed 200+ men and 1,000+ Indian prisoners at the peak of the Rogue Wars in 1855-56. Nothing of the fort remains today.