Following the acquisition of Florida by the United States in 1821, the Seminole had conflicts with encroaching settlers and troops throughout the Seminole Wars, when the United States tried to remove the Seminole to Indian Territory. In 1835, the Seminole burned Palatka, a major port on the St. Johns River, then the major artery into Central Florida. Consequently, the US built Fort Kingsbury, a stockade defense, in 1838 at Enterprise in the area of what is now Thornby Park, across the lake from Fort Mellon, built in 1836 at Mellonville (now Sanford).