[2] The mound was built by the Adena culture, probably around 250–150 BC,[citation needed] and lay equidistant between two “sacred circles”, earthwork enclosures each 556 feet (169 m) in diameter.

Residents of the area leveled the top in 1840 to erect a judges' stand, as they ran horse races around the base of the mound at the time.

Sines who assisted Col. Norris in the excavation, measured "Six feet, 8 3–4 inches" (205 cm) from head to heel (the Smithsonian nomination form added "but the extreme height indicated might have been an exaggeration created by earth pressing down on the burial").

Several artifacts were found buried with the skeletons, including arrowheads, lanceheads, and shell and pottery fragments.

This area extends for eight miles (13 km) along the upper terraces of the Kanawha River floodplain, in the vicinity of present-day Charleston.