10,000 years ago, the Crystal River area was home to small bands of nomadic hunters and gatherers called Paleoindians. Nomads are people that travel from place to place in order to find enough food to feed their families. They became fishermen and by about 2,500 years ago, they began to live year round near Crystal River. It is at this point that the sites along the Crystal River began to be occupied for all time. One of the principle sites is, today, a state park located about 3 miles down river from Kings Bay.

Over a period of approximately 1,900 years, beginning about 500 BC, the Native Americans at the Crystal River Site threw away great quantities of "midden material". Archaeologists sometimes refer to these Miidden Areas as shell heaps. That is because oyster, clam, mussel, conch, crab and snails seem to be just some of the favorite foods of these people. This, we believe is because the local estuary and the Gulf of Mexico provided such an abundance of these kinds of food. Also found in the Midden Area are various kinds of woodland animal bones, fish bones, turtle shells, broken pottery, broken hand tools and arrowheads. These finds represent the remains of past lifeways evident at the Crystal River Site.

The shell and sand ring also contains burials some of which were placed between layers of shells while others were not. It is not clear why this occurred or whether it was related to status or just a change in the burial customs. The platform was constructed as burials filled in the gap between the ring and the cone. It is estimated that about 1,200 to 1,500 people are buried in this complex. Located near to this burial mound complex are marker stones or stele.