The best guess as to who created and used the site were the McFarland and Owl Hollow communities, modifying the site over a period of time.  There are similar Middle Woodland enclosures, especially in Fort Ancient, Ohio, but also in Stone Mountain, GA, Pinson, TN, Louisiana, Florida and Kentucky.  All of these sites share certain features, such as summer solstice alignments, parallel embankments, prominent bluffs and limestone pavements. (Connolly 1998, Faulkner 19868, Pearsall and Malone 1977) Interestingly, it is the sites in the Southeast that are the oldest. But Akin believes that for the people of the Upper Duck River, the main function was that of “cultural intensification,” meaning that once a year (or perhaps more) the people of the surrounding area would come together to celebrate their beliefs and cultural links with each other, and honor past and future generations.  Social contracts were reinforced, and groups were bound together by their efforts to build sites like Old Stone Fort.  These people didn’t spend a lot of time sharing trade goods with the other communities.  Instead, they shared ideas and ways of expressing their religious beliefs, created alliances, and found marriage partners. (Akin 2016) Considering the distances between other ceremonial sites like Pinson Mounds or Stone Mountain or in Kentucky there was clearly a need to create a ritual and cultural center that would draw and serve the people in the eastern part of the state, and in fairly easy reach of other areas. I could not help but think, as I walked around the trail and onto the plateau, that this would have been one heck of a prehistoric Bonnaroo site, complete with tents, fires and all-night drum circles!