Kolomoki is one of the largest and most important mound groups in the southeastern United States. Most of this mound complex was constructed about A. D. 200-600, during the Middle Woodland Period, in the particular time archaeologists call Swift Creek because the pottery types found here are similar to those found at the Swift Creek site in central Georgia. Mounds D and E, with E partially covered by the museum, were explored in the 1940s and 50s by Dr. William H. Sears, who found evidence of elaborate burials reflecting the lifestyles of a highly complex culture rich in art, craft, and tradition. The museum is now part of a memorial to a great man who was buried here. Mound D, five hundred yards east, revealed more knowledge about the people who lived here, and eight hundred yards east stands the fifty-seven-foot-high Great Temple Mound.