A few miles southwest of this location stood Fort Vinton. As white settlers moved into Florida, demands grew to remove the Seminole Indians to a western reservation, but the Seminoles did not wish to leave, and in 1835 the conflict known as the Second Seminole War began. The 1838-39 campaign was planned chiefly to drive Indians away from settled areas into the southern part of Florida, with new posts to be built where needed and others, such as Fort Pierce, to be reoccupied. Because supply outposts were needed for field campaigns, a post called Fort or Post No. 2 was constructed early in April 1839 about twenty miles northwest of Fort Pierce. This fortification was abandoned by or before 1842, when hostilities ended. Early in 1850, during another concerted effort to force the remaining Seminoles to emigrate, the post was reactivated as Fort Vinton. It was named for Captain John R. Vinton, who had served in the area during the earlier conflict and had died in the Mexican War. An outpost of Fort Capron at Indian River Inlet, Fort Vinton was soon abandoned in May 1850 and is not known to have played a role in the hostilities of the later 1850s.