During a period of unrest between settlers and Native Americans in the 1870s, Lt. Colonel Henry Clay Merriam of the United States Army established Camp Chelan at the foot of Lake Chelan to control and safeguard the Indian population on the Moses Columbia Reservation. His family was with him for the 1880 Federal Census. The lake was largely inaccessible because of its sheer cliffs on most sides, so a makeshift road was built from the fort to the Columbia River where a courier and mail service from Walla Walla were established. The fort operated for about a year and was abandoned in October 1880 when the troops relocated to Fort Spokane.