William Beaumont was born in Lebanon, Conn. in 1785 and died in St. Louis, Mo. in 1853. At old Fort Crawford, one mile and a half northwest of this spot, one hundred years ago, Doctor Beaumont, a surgeon in the United States Army, performed experiments on Alexis St. Martin that laid the foundation for knowledge of digestion. In honor of his pioneer work, this memorial was erected by the State Medical Society of Wisconsin in 1931.