In June 1832, an alarm spread throughout the mining region that Black Hawk and his band were marching north from Illinois, and hastily built stockades were erected throughout the lead region. Fort Jackson was built on this site with vertically placed logs arranged in a square enclosing cabins for the garrison and their families, with two-story blockhouses fitted with gun ports on the southeast and northwest corners. During the Black Hawk War, it served mainly to distribute military supplies and was dismantled shortly afterward.