During the War of 1812, General William Hull ordered the construction of a road connecting his troops at Detroit with supply bases located in Ohio. Hull's Road began in Dayton and passed through Urbana on to Detroit. The road was by no means a major thoroughfare. It did, however, help advance settlement in the northwestern corner of Ohio. Settlers now had a path to follow northward, making it somewhat easier for them to transport their belongings. They also had quicker access to the more settled areas of Ohio. Most of the people moving northward were seeking farmland. Hull's Road assisted these people in transporting their crops to their markets. Many soldiers who served under Hull also returned following the War of 1812 to claim the choicest parcels of land, territory that they had first laid eyes upon while marching to Detroit along Hull's Road.

This historical marker represents the route, or trails,  used by military leaders during the War of 1812. Hull's army were mobilized at this point,  building the road as they progressed.

This point also marks the location of a battle over land possession between Shawnee Indians and George Rogers Clark's 1782 expedition during the Revolutionary War. Clark led at least 1,000 men into Ohio from Kentucky, where at the mouth of the Mad River, they defeated a contingent of Shawnee sent to halt the troops' passage north. When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the United States became the official claimants of the Ohio territory. This was the only battle of the war that occurred on land that became the city of Dayton.