With the establishment of a community in the floodplain of the Green River, a local leader emerged who had enough influence to convince others to build a low platform mound and a substantial, if small, palisade. His residence was on top of the mound.
In time, use of the mound shifted - to a non-domestic, presumably ritual, purpose. Residents built a large public structure enclosed by a fence on top of the mound and a second, larger palisade around their expanding village. At that time, archaeologists think that the chief lived in a structure located close to the mound.
During the final phase of the community's growth, the mound was significantly enlarged and again served as the chief's residence. This may have been an attempt by a new, perhaps unrelated, leader to exert influence and legitimize his position by symbolically recapping the mound. The significantly enlarged palisade, with its bastions, suggests that residents were experiencing some level of local social stress, or that the chief was attempting to illustrate his power, or both.