 In 1940 the highly respected archaeologist Gordon Willey and Richard Woodbury reexamined the Fort Walton Mound and other sites Moore had visited.Their work here was mentioned in Willey's highly acclaimed work "Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast," which he completed when he worked for the Bureau of American Ethnology Smithsonian Institution.By 1960 Dr. Charles Fairbanks, an archaeologist and professor at Florida State University, was contacted by the city and he excavated the mound to determine the original size, shape, and construction method of the mound.