In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Nacoochee Mound and its surrounding valley drew attention for numerous Native American burials and artifacts. An 1891 Atlanta Constitution article reported that Captain Nichols had assembled a large collection of relics found across the valley, including items from Dukes Creek and graves surrounding the mound near his residence, and antiquarian C.C. Jones indicated that he visited the site during Nichols' 1870 excavations and later described the recovered artifacts in detail in his 1873 work. Nichols did not excavate the entire mound, instead planting it in flowers and adding a summer house or gazebo on its summit. Native American mounds were generally earthen elevations for the residences of tribal and religious leaders, sometimes also serving as burial places, and Nacoochee likely served such a dual purpose. Formal excavations in 1915 by the Museum of the American Indian uncovered more than 75 burials and many artifacts, including stone tools, shell ornaments, seeds, nuts, pottery fragments, ceramic pipes, stone graves, bark-lined burials, a dog-shaped pottery vessel, more than a hundred pottery and stone pipes, and a large copper ax with part of its wooden handle preserved. Archaeologist George H. Pepper wrote in 1917 that the upper stratum of the mound contained objects of European manufacture and eleven skeletons, which suggested Cherokee construction in early colonial times, while deeper levels produced sixty-four skeletons and evidence of an earlier and perhaps different culture. Pottery sherds and their decorative motifs have been especially important in dating the burials, and preliminary work by the University of Georgia in 2004 in the surrounding village area, including contour mapping and 83 shovel tests, indicated a primary occupation from A.D. 1350 to 1600 during Georgia's Lamar period. Early local tales recorded in 1896 by George W. Williams held that Nacoochee had once been the largest town in the Cherokee Nation and strongly defended by fortifications, though current archaeological research rejects some details of those traditions. The mound and village site are now protected by Georgia's Department of Natural Resources, with no additional excavations planned and artifact collecting or digging prohibited by law.