The United States troops came and went, occupying the site of Coutt's Camp Calhoun, which Major Heintzelman, November, 1850, called Camp Independence.

In March, 1851, he re-established his command on the spot where the futile Spanish mission of Garces's time had stood, and this was named Fort Yuma.

It was abandoned again in the autumn of the year, as had been done with the camps of the previous seasons, but when Heintzelman returned in the spring of 1852 he made it a permanent military post.
* Brigham Young and his followers crossed to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.
Meanwhile a gang of freebooters, who left Texas in 1849, found their way to this point and acquired or established a ferry two or three miles below the old mission site.

Their settlement was called Fort Defiance in contempt for the Yumas.

They were led by one Doctor Craig.