Established in 1840 by Jonathan Bird on the Military Road from Red River to Austin, Bird's Fort stood near the site where an important Indian treaty marking the line between the Indians and the White settlements was signed on September 29, 1843, by Edward H. Tarrant and George W. Terrell for the Republic of Texas, and where the ragged remnant of the ill-fated Snivell Expedition sought refuge on August 6, 1843.