Paynes Creek Historic State Park preserves the site of an 1849 attack on a frontier trading post and the nearby Fort Chokonikla, both rooted in the tense years after the Seminole Wars. As settlers moved into lands near Seminole reservations under policies such as the Armed Occupation Act, trade was restricted to posts along reservation edges. In July 1849, five renegade Seminoles attacked the post operated by Capt. George Payne and Dempsey Whidden, killing both men, wounding two others, and burning the store. The army soon established Fort Chokonikla for protection, but malaria-ridden conditions forced its abandonment in less than nine months.