[2][3] Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis surveyed the privately held site in Granville, Ohio for the Smithsonian Institution and reported their findings in their 1848 publication Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley.

They note that people in the area called it "the alligator," "although the figure bears as a close resemblance to the lizard as any other reptile."

"[4] Squier and Davis note that the head, shoulders and rump of the effigy are higher than the rest of the body.

By radiometric dating of a piece of charcoal recovered from the base of the mound, they estimate its construction to have been 1,000 years BP (about AD 950).

[2] Lepper suggests that the Alligator Mound is an effigy of an underwater panther, a powerful figure in Native American myth.

They were told that it was a fierce creature that lived in the water and ate people, which they assumed to be an alligator.