Fort Gaston
Fort Gaston
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| Camp Gaston | |
| Near Hoopa Valley, California in United States | |
 Fort Gaston
Fort Gaston
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| Coordinates | Coordinates: 41°03′01″N 123°40′27″W / 41.05028°N 123.67417°W |
| Type | Fort |
| Area | 54 acres (21.85 ha) |
| Site information | |
| Owner | United States Army |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1859 |
| Fate | Abandoned 1892 |
| Garrison information | |
| Past commanders |
Captain Edmund Underwood |
| Occupants | Company D, 3rd Regiment California Volunteer Infantry Company K,H,F,I 2nd Regiment California Volunteer Infantry Company B, C 1st Battalion California Volunteer Mountaineers Company A, 1st Battalion of Native Cavalry, California Volunteers |
Fort Gaston was founded on December 4, 1859, in the redwood forests of the Hoopa Valley, in Northern California, on the west bank of the Trinity River, 14 miles from where the Trinity flows into the Klamath River. It was located in what is now the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. Fort Gaston as part of the Humboldt Military District was intended to control the Hupa Indians and to protect them from hostile white settlers. The post was named for 2nd Lieutenant William Gaston, of the First Dragoons, who had been killed May 17, 1858, during the Spokane–Coeur d'Alene–Paloos War.
Fort Gaston, from 1866 to 1867 officially designated as Camp Gaston, is not to be confused with Camp Gaston, on the Colorado River (sometimes erroneously called Fort Gaston). That Camp Gaston was also named after 2nd Lt. William Gaston and was founded as an advance base in April 1859 near Palo Verde, California, during the Mohave War.
In 1858, a Yurok agent overheard some men in a saloon talking about a large group of armed men that were moving downriver from Weaverville, California towards the Hupa lands to exterminate them. He was able to turn them back that time but the Hupa worried about their safety and began gathering their own weapons while petitioning for a fort as well. Founded in December 1859, and first manned by Captain Edmund Underwood and 56 men from a company of the 4th US Infantry Regiment, Fort Gaston from the beginning was to keep an eye on the Hupa who were suspected of aiding surrounding tribes in attacks on white settlers, ambushes of mail carriers and of stages in what was called the Bald Hills War. The Hupa denied aiding their neighbors but resisted providing guides to the army until 1862. However they never seemed to catch the enemy, and were in fact secretly warning them.
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