This two-story jail was erected in 1891, the year Motley County was organized, after County Judge H. H. Campbell and commissioners Dan Browning, A. B. Cooper, J. J. John, and W. E. Power awarded a construction contract to local builders J. F. Aiken and J. T. Cornett. Cells were on the top floor of the structure and the jailer's living quarters on the lower level. The first courthouse, also built in 1891, later burned, but this jail remains as a symbol of Motley County's frontier heritage.