Intended to continue the 1976 publication The History of Carrier Mills, it updates and supplements, but does not duplicate the material in the earlier book. It also contains material on school athletics, Lakeview and the African-American community and brief biographies of prominent people who came from and passed through Carrier Mills. This book provides information about churches, schools and businesses in Carrier Mills, Illinois as well.

Archaeological sites throughout southern Illinois provide a chronicle of the varying ways people have lived in that area during the past 10,000 years. This book focuses on the results of a five-year archaeological investigation in a 143-acre area known as the Carrier Mills Archaeological District. This area, rich in archaeological treasures, offers many keys to the prehistoric people of southern Illinois. Archaeologists in this study have sought to learn the ages of the various prehistoric occupations represented at the sites; to better understand the technology and social organization of these prehistoric people; to collect information about diet, health, and physical characteristics of the prehistoric inhabitants; and to investigate the remains of the 19th-century Lakeview settlement.