On June 16, 1832, the Battle of the Pecatonica was fought at this place between Wisconsin pioneers under Colonel Henry Dodge and a band of Black Hawk’s Sacs. According to the account, the annals of Indian warfare offered no parallel to this battle. Of the twenty-one volunteer soldiers engaged, three were mortally wounded and one was severely wounded, and the seventeen Indians were slain. The battle was presented as making the land safe for settlement.