University of Minnesota archaeologist Lloyd Wilford discovered and tested this ancient village site in 1933, and larger excavations were conducted here in the 1970s, after which the site was named in his honor. Along with the nearby Cooper site on the peninsula to the southwest, it revealed the remains of neighboring ancient villages with both summer and winter houses. Artifacts and features excavated here were similar to those at the Cooper site, and these villages existed when French explorers Duluth and Hennepin visited Kathio. In the 1600s, the village here was smaller than the one at the Cooper site, with three summer houses, two winter houses, and an estimated population of 25 to 40 people. University of Minnesota archaeologists excavated the site in the summers of 1974, 75 and 76, discovering artifacts, fire pits, and house floors from a village dating to the time when European explorers first visited the area. Archaeologists also found evidence of later use of the site, as dozens of shallow depressions showed it had served as a wild rice processing area later in the historic period. Ojibwe families harvested wild rice from Ogechie Lake from the 1700s until about 1970, when the lake stopped producing harvestable quantities.