Twenty-eight settlers, organized as the Buffalo Militia, built Fort Jewell after three white men were killed at the milldam on the Solomon River. The fort had sod walls four feet thick and seven feet high, enclosing a space fifty yards square, and stood four blocks due east of this memorial. It was erected in honor of the pioneer settlers of Jewell County by Desire Tobey Sears Chapter D. A. R. in 1934.