[1] Since the early days of settlement in Middle Tennessee, the "Old Town on the Big Harpeth River" has been a critical component of a common understanding of the area's prehistory.

Clark mentioned the location in an 1878 publication,[2]: 32  but no more substantial excavations were conducted until 1928: while building a bridge over Brown Creek at its confluence with the river, Williamson County road crews accidentally dug into a large burial ground, and a local man worked hard to record as much information about the site as possible.

In his book Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee, published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1876, Joseph Jones produced a detailed account of the site.

[3][4] The village area was surrounded by steep earthworks running in a 2,470 feet (750 m) semicircle,[5] portions of which were topped by a wooden palisade that is interpreted as having been intended as a protective fortification.

[4] In this type of burial, which was commonly used by Mississippian people in the central basin of Middle Tennessee, the dead were interred in shallow rectangular excavations lined with large thin slabs of limestone.

[4] A larger, 41-acre (17 ha), area was listed as the "Old Town Archaeological Site" on the National Register in 1989 as part of the Mississippian Cultural Resources of the Central Basin (900 to 1450) Multiple Property Submission.