Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: A few miles southwest of this marker is the site of Fort Vinton. As white settlers moved into Florida, demands increased for the removal of the Seminole Indians to a western reservation. The Seminoles did not wish to leave, and in 1835 the conflict known as the Second Seminole war began. The 1838-39 campaign of that war was planned with the major objective of driving Indians away from settled areas and into the southern part of Florida. New posts were to be built where needed and others, such as Fort Pierce, were to be reoccupied. Supply outposts were needed for field campaigns, and early in April, 1839, such a post, called Fort or Post No. 2, was constructed about twenty miles northwest of Fort Pierce. This fortification was abandoned by or before 1842, when hostilities ended. Early in 1850, when another concerted effort to force the remnants of the Seminoles to emigrate got underway, it was reactivated as Fort Vinton. The post was named for Captain John R. Vinton, who had served in the area during the earlier conflict and had died in the Mexican War. Fort Vinton, an outpost of Fort Capron at Indian River Inlet, was soon abandoned (May, 1850) and is not known to have played a role in the hostilities of the later 1850's.