This was not a military encampment. Susanville’s Roop’s Fort also known as Fort Defiance had no military affiliation either.
By the end of 1859, tensions were fraught between the Indians and the settlers. Then the following spring witnessed the outbreak of the Pyramid Lake War of 1860. Residents of the Honey Lake Valley took precautions and fortified themselves at different places. At Janesville, the residents built a stockade measuring 63’ x 90’ from pine logs that were12 to 14 feet high. After the fears of Indian attacks had subsided, the fort was used as a private school from 1861-1864. In 1865, the school was abandoned and area residents helped themselves to doors, windows and anything else they wanted. Asa M. Fairfield wrote, “The stockade stood for a good many years and fell down a log at a time.”