 George W. Jones , who would later become a U.S. Senator from Iowa , arrived in the Sinsinawa Mound area in 1827 , and in 1828 established a mining settlement there . The first structure at the settlement was Jones 's own log cabin , built during the spring of 1828 in two days . The cabin measured 49 feet ( 14 @.@ 9 m ) by 17 feet ( 5 @.@ 2 m ) and each room had one door and one window . When the Black Hawk War began four years later he also built a small fort at the site . The remains of the fort , one of many constructed in the region to protect local residents , are said to still stand at the entrance to the Sinsinawa Dominican complex . One of the men who assisted Jones in building the fort 's blockhouse was Enoch Robinson , a soldier who later helped bury the victims of the Sinsinawa Mound raid . At the time of the attack Jones was with Henry Dodge 's militia volunteers , on the way to meet overall commander General Henry Atkinson at Lake Koshkonong , then a marsh region . 
