The Allendale, South Carolina site, known as the Topper site, which has had ongoing excavations for several years, has unearthed many artifacts, as it was a long lasting site of human occupation due to an outcrop of chert, which was valuable for making stone tools.
As early as 9,000 BCE, Native Americans came to Montana City to collect chert, a rock similar to flint which was used to make spear tips, arrowheads, and knives.
Its middle and upper Miocene upwelling-rich assemblages, and its unique highly siliceous rocks from diatom-rich plankton, became diatomites, porcelainites, and banded cherts.
Settlers were attracted to the area by its numerous streams, used to power gristmills, sandstones and clays for use in construction, lime-sweetened soil, and chert for road construction.