In January 1944 German prisoners of war from the Indianola camp came to a side camp here to help area farmers complete the 1943 corn harvest. Over the next two years the Palisade camp was activated and deactivated as needed to supply labor to harvest crops or work in beet fields. Farmers contracted with the government and paid the prisoners' wages. In December 1945 the camp closed for the last time, and POWs were returned to Camp Atlanta near Holdrege, Nebraska.

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In the spring of 1859 William H. Russell and John S. Jones established The Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express to carry passengers and freight from the Missouri River to the Colorado gold fields. The route crossed northern Kansas, detouring northwest through an area lacking wood or water, to reach the Republican River in this vicinity. The company's station eighteen was located southwest of here near the present Hitchcock-Dundy County line.

Noted newspaperman Horace Greeley took the stagecoach to Denver and stopped at the temporary tent station on June 2, 1859. He wrote "I would match this station and its surroundings against any other scene on our continent for desolation."

After The Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express acquired the Hockaday mail contract to California, its stagecoaches were rerouted through the Platte Valley beginning in July 1859. The original stations in Western Kansas and along the Republican River in Nebraska, including station eighteen, were abandoned. Emigrants and settlers continued to use the old trail for a few more years.

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In June of 1892 a Methodist Protestant congregation was organized in Logan Township, Hitchcock County, by the Rev. M.H. Noe. When the congregation outgrew its sod church, this stone structure was built on this site on land donated by Rebecca Hart. The stone was quarried five miles southwest of the church, and all work was done by hand, including cutting and hewing the rock to size. The church building was completed and dedicated in 1900 during the pastoral term of the Rev. J.E. Darby. The first board members were Wyman Mills, James L. Hoyt, Aaron McKnight, C.O. Hart, and Minnie Smith.

In 1904 the St. Paul Methodist Protestant Church was merged with the United Brethren in Christ and in February, 1907, the group was organized as United Brethren. A vigorous Sunday School program was inaugurated. The Stone Church also served as the center of community activity. Regular church services were discontinued in 1951.

In 1975 the Stone Church Community Association was formed to restore and preserve the structure as a memorial to area pioneers.

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Culbertson was the county seat of Hitchcock County for twenty years, and this marks the site of the first courthouse, used 1886-1893. Founded as a trading post in July 1873 by W. Z. Taylor, it became the county seat when Hitchcock County was organized August 30, 1873. The county was named for U. S. Senator P. W. Hitchcock, and the town was named for Alexander Culbertson, noted fur trader of the Upper Missouri then living at Orleans.

The community consisted of Taylor's store and J. E. Kleven's blacksmith shop and post office until 1875, when thousands of Texas cattle was brought into the four southwest Nebraska counties. Culbertson was the only town in the region, and the ranchers made it their headquarters, many serving as county officials.

During the years of the "open range", the ranchers spent summers on the range, but moved to Culbertson in winter, taking advantage of the schools and social life. The railroad arrived in 1881, and thousands of homesteaders flocked into the county displacing the ranchers. During this period, Culbertson became a pioneer irrigation center. In 1893, the county seat was moved to Trenton, near the center of the county.

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The adjacent stone monument erected in 1930 was first placed about a mile south of this area. Originally on the highway overlooking the canyon, it was moved to this location after the highway was relocated.

Massacre Canyon is the large canyon about half a mile west of here. The battle took place in and along this canyon when a Pawnee hunting party of about 700, confident of protection from the government, were surprised by a War Party of Sioux. The Pawnee, badly outnumbered and completely surprised, retreated into the head of the canyon about two miles northwest of here. The battle was the retreat of the Pawnee down the canyon to the Republican.

The Pawnee reached the Republican River, about a mile and a half south of here, and crossed to the other side. The Sioux were ready to pursue them still further, but a unit of cavalry arrived and prevented further fighting.

The defeat so broke the strength and spirit of the tribe that it moved from its reservation in central Nebraska to Oklahoma.

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