Known to the English as early as 1685, Savannah Town was an Indian town that stood at a major northwestern entrance into South Carolina on the trading routes to the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Lower Cherokees, and both the town and river took their names from the Savannah Indians who lived in the area. After the disastrous Yamasee War, Fort Moore, called the most important of South Carolina's early forts, was built here in 1716 to protect the province from future attack and to guard the vital trading routes to the major Southern Indians, remaining garrisoned until 1766, when the growing settlement of Georgia made it unnecessary.