In 1847, Californio Salvador Vallejo, General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo's younger brother, sold his livestock and grazing rights in the Clear Lake area to Andrew and Benjamin Kelsey, Charles Stone and E.D.

Pomo tribesmen were also forced by Ben Kelsey to work in gold mines in the Sierra foothills.

The Indians killed both Stone and Kelsey in the fall of 1849, due to the resentment of forced labor and other cruel acts.

[1] In May 1950, the remains of Stone and Kelsey, which had been reburied on a nearby hill, were exhumed and placed in a small wooden box, which several days later was buried beneath a newly erected monument.

[2] The historical landmark was unveiled on Memorial Day of the same year along four other markers as part as California's statehood's centennial celebrations.