[4] The site is a rock shelter in a bluff overlooking Cross Creek (a tributary of the Ohio River), and contains evidence that the area may have been continually inhabited for more than 19,000 years.

The site operates as a division of the Heinz History Center of Pittsburgh and has a museum and a reconstruction of a circa 1570s Monongahela culture Indian village.

Miller delayed reporting his findings so as to not attract vandals, until he contacted James M. Adovasio, who led the first excavations of the site in 1973 until 1979 by the Cultural Resource Management Program of the University of Pittsburgh.

The site also has yielded many tools, including pottery, bifaces, bifacial fragments, lamellar blades, a lanceolate projectile point, and chipping debris.

Remains of flint from Ohio, jasper from eastern Pennsylvania and marine shells from the Atlantic coast suggest that the people inhabiting the area were mobile and involved in long-distance trade.

Meadowcroft has also yielded the largest collection of flora and fauna materials ever recovered from a location in eastern North America.

Evidence shows that people gathered smaller game animals as well as plants, such as corn, squash, fruits, nuts, and seeds.

A recent (2013) survey carried out by the Society for American Archaeology reported support from 38% of archaeologists, with 20% rejecting the early dates.

[12] Criticism of these early radiocarbon dates has focused on the potential for contamination by ancient carbon from coal-bearing strata in the watershed.

[16][17] Meadowcroft Rockshelter may be one of the oldest known sites of human habitation in North America, providing a unique glimpse into the lives of prehistoric hunters and gatherers.

These authors also note that small blades and polyhedral cores are absent from subsequent Paleoindian fluted-point assemblages in this region, reinforcing the technological distinctiveness of the Miller complex.