The Little Duck River flows along this section of mound wall at the Old Stone Fort, a ceremonial enclosure that intensifies the natural landscape by taking advantage of an isolated hilltop set apart by two rivers. One prominent archaeologist called it the most spectacularly sited of these Woodland sacred places. In the Woodland tradition of 2000 years ago, it was common for American Indians to incorporate natural features into the design of sacred sites. With the advent of the later Mississippian tradition, Native people began to build ceremonial landscapes in the flat, rich agricultural bottomland where they had come to live, creating sacred landscapes from a relatively blank canvas. Water held a special place in the everyday life of ancient people by providing fish and fresh water mollusks that thrived in the Duck River, and it also served symbolic and ritual purposes in the life of American Indians, often helping further set apart or enhance ritual enclosures.