In 1766, English and French Canadian traders wintered near this site and likely puzzled over strange earthen shapes nearby, not knowing that these humble grave markers were vestiges of a prehistoric mound-building culture that had spread across most of eastern North America 1,000 years before Christ. After larger mounds were discovered in Ohio in the late 1700s, some historians claimed the so-called Mound Builders were remnants of Old World tribes, while others argued they were survivors of the fabled lost continent of Atlantis. The debate continued until modern archeologists began unraveling the mystery of the mounds and their builders.