In the eighteen sixties, Oregon sought better roads for commerce, communication, and faster military response to conflicts between settlers and Native Americans, but lacking funds, the state used the federal Wagon Road Act of eighteen sixty-four to grant private companies ownership of lands along the roads as payment for construction. Part of a wagon road built by the Oregon Central Military Road Company and the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Wagon Road Company runs here. Most of the companies awarded these contracts were incompetent, and bribery and payoffs were common. Fear of Native American tribes in Eastern Oregon fueled support for road building and became an excuse to confiscate Tribal land. The Klamath Tribes' homeland was significantly diminished after the Oregon Central Military Road was built across land granted to the construction company through the Wagon Road Act. Tribal members protested, but at that time they had no political influence and could not change the outcome. Fort Klamath was occupied by the First Oregon Cavalry, and in eighteen seventy-three it became infamous as the site where Captain Jack and three others of the Modoc Tribe were hanged.