Long before white settlement, an Indian trail from the sanctuary at Pipestone Quarry to the "Three Rivers of the Sioux" near Ft. Thompson passed close by this area. Dakota's first road, the Ft. Ridgely & South Pass Wagon Road, forded the James seven miles north in 1857, and the rock ford marked that site. In December 1862, the "March to Moscow" relief expedition from Minnesota to Ft. Thompson passed by "Mazeppa Hill," two and a half miles northeast, now called Big Mound. In 1865, the Big Cheyenne Wagon Road from Minnesota to Montana crossed the James at Big Mound. The first settlers arrived in 1873, when George Walker, W.M. Tait, and G.W. Hunter filed a few miles downstream, followed in 1874 by W.G. Santee, Cyrus Ingram, and W.R. Belcher; the Ingram and Belcher families then staged a Fourth of July celebration on Big Mound to the delight of Indians. Santee became postmaster at Forestburg on November 5, 1875, the furthest north in the James Valley for four years. The area had been part of Buffalo County in 1864, Hanson in 1870, Bramble in 1873, and Miner in 1879. Forestburg became county seat on December 2, 1880, but after the election of 1882 Howard won and took the records from a reluctant Forestburg. In 1883, a bill creating Brisbine was introduced, but possible gubernatorial displeasure led to the name Sanborn instead, and two sets of county commissioners sat at Forrestburg and Letcher until Woonsocket won the 1884 election and settled the dispute. The first train reached Forestburg on November 12, 1883, though the railroad had already pushed north to Letcher in the fall of 1882.