Setting Stone Literary-Art Magazine started as an idea in 2001 in Brooks Vostal's Creative Writing class. He and his students wanted a place to showcase student writing, as well as artwork and photography. With some help from Miami University's Ohio Writing Project, the first Setting Stone magazine was published in the Winter of 2002.

As the story goes, the name "Setting Stone" came from a story of a Miami Tribal leader named Mecinnabe. This is from the inscription in the first issue of the magazine: "In the beginning of the 19th century, Mecinnabe, The Setting Stone, led the Miami into a peace treaty with many surrounding Native American nations..."

Over the years, the magazine evolved from being printed in-house and saddle-stitched, to being professionally printed and bound, to being mostly online. The motivation, however, has stayed the same: to provide a place that showcases the best Talawanda High School writing and art.