Indians constructed the mound and earthworks of the Mount Royal Site between A.D. 1250 and 1500. They built the mound as a place to bury their dead, and it grew in phases. When Clarence B. Moore excavated portions of the mound in the 1890s, he discovered burials and artifacts scattered throughout. One of those artifacts was a copper plate embossed with designs identical to those which decorated a plate found in a mound at Spiro, Oklahoma. The Mount Royal Site is important because it helps demonstrate the extent of the prehistoric trade networks established by Eastern American Indians.