The first settlement in Eastern Kentucky began here when Mathias Harman's hunting party built a lodge in 1755. Harman returned with other Virginians in 1787 or 1789 and built a stockade, but Indians prevented the planting of crops, the settlers returned to Virginia, and Indians burned the fort. Two years later, Harman and others built an enduring station here that broke the Indian hold on the Big Sandy Valley and opened it for settlement.