In 1852 Peter Shirts located a ranch on Sidon Creek, later known as Shirts Creek, and offered John Hamilton half the water to come and settle there. Hamilton came with his family and Peter Fife. When Walker Indian War broke out they moved to Cedar City but returned in 1855. The three families built an adobe fort enclosing ¼ acre, 95 feet square, with walls three feet thick, and the houses formed part of the wall. Soon Jonathan Pugmire, Samuel White, and others came. In 1869 a new location for Hamilton Fort was selected on the main thoroughfare.