 He moved to a new area where he set up a campfire and four cottonwood poles crossed together, creating the first "Larimer Square" to stake a square-mile claim on the site of the St. Charles claim, across the creek from the existing mining settlement of Auraria.The majority of the settlers in St. Charles had returned to Kansas for the winter and left only a small number of people behind to guard their claim, including one of their leaders named Charles Nichols.Larimer and his followers gave the representatives whiskey, promises, and the threat of a noose, whereby the St. Charles claim was surrendered.