Beginning in late 1854, Draperville Fort was built on the present site of Draper Historic Park, with some expansion to the north and south, to protect pioneers who had been homesteading the area since 1849. Its construction followed Brigham Young’s April 10, 1854, call for the Saints to build forts, wall in their cities and villages, guard their property, and keep weapons ready, amid skirmishes from Sanpete to Salt Lake Counties between settlers and warriors of Timpanogos Ute Chief Walkara, who opposed Mormon efforts to suppress Indian slave trading and the growing intrusion on Native American hunting grounds. Ebenezer Brown, the first settler to arrive in South Willow Creek in 1849, donated 5 acres of his 160-acre homestead so the community could build a place of safety. The adobe brick and clay walls took two years to build and enclosed a fort measuring 126.5 yards east to west and 192.5 yards north to south, with walls 8 feet high and 1 foot wide and lookout slots every 14 feet. Homes faced inward toward the center, beginning with Ebenezer Brown’s house, along with other small houses on the south wall, Perry Fitzgerald’s two-story home on the east wall, the LDS Church tithing office and granary, the Relief Society Hall, Norman Brown’s adobe brick home that also served as the first schoolhouse, Lauritz Smith’s blacksmith shop by the northwest entrance, John Fitzgerald’s home in the northeast corner, and Ann Fitzgerald’s attached candy store. A garden in the southwest part of the fort contained apple and peach trees and was planted by William Terry with seeds carried across the plains from Rhode Island. By 1855, the community had grown to 222 people; as space became necessary beyond homes for church, school, and public meetings, a vestry was built in 1860 across from the Norman Brown home, and in 1863 a main hall was added, after which the building became known as the Old White Meetinghouse. Community life also included a large dance pavilion near the west gate and, in 1859, an 80-foot by 100-foot bowery east of the White Meetinghouse, an open pole structure with a thatched willow roof used in warm months for church conferences, concerts, performances, and other large gatherings. Although most families kept homes and livestock outside the fort, increased hostilities, raids, and thefts led them to spend days on their homesteads and nights inside the fort in small temporary shelters of wood and logs with dirt floors and sod-and-willow roofs, some no larger than a wagon box. The fort was never attacked. After Brigham Young signed a peace treaty with Chief Walkara in 1854 and Indian difficulties ceased in the late 1850s, settlers gradually returned to their homesteads and the fort walls were dismantled. The Old White Meetinghouse and some original homes remained, and in 1892 the Draper First Ward Church was built on the property. The fort gave the pioneer community sanctuary, security, and unity during a time of danger.