Fort Gaston as part of the Humboldt Military District was intended to control the Hupa Indians and to protect them from hostile white settlers.

He was able to turn them back that time but the Hupa worried about their safety and began gathering their own weapons while petitioning for a fort as well.

[3] Founded in December 1859, and first manned by Captain Edmund Underwood and 56 men from a company of the 4th US Infantry Regiment, Fort Gaston from the beginning was to keep an eye on the Hupa who were suspected of aiding surrounding tribes in attacks on white settlers, ambushes of mail carriers and of stages in what was called the Bald Hills War.

[3] In 1861, the district commander proposed to his superiors a gathering of all the local Indians at Fort Gaston to stage a demonstration of drilling and firepower that would convince them to end hostilities.

[4] In the place of the withdrawn regulars, Company D, 3rd Regiment California Volunteer Infantry was sent to Fort Gaston October, 1861, operating against Indians until ordered to San Francisco August 23, 1862.

Company I, 2nd Regiment California Volunteer Infantry from April 20, 1862, joined the Fort Gaston garrison, also serving there until June 1863.

[6] From June 1863, companies B and C of the 1st Battalion California Volunteer Mountaineers relieved 2nd Regiment as garrison of Fort Gaston.

In 1889, the United States Fish Commission built a salmon hatchery at Fort Gaston; the station was abandoned in 1898 due to its inaccessibility.