This section is starting with a general review of early European exploration in today’s continental United States. This is necessary to dispel the notion that the English were the first explorers and had the first settlements in the continental United States, and to impress upon students the early timeline of exploration.
During the late 1400s and early 1500s there were many explorers – primarily Spanish, English, and French – in today’s continental United States. There were several failed settlement attempts: Pensacola, Charleston and others. There were several settlements that only lasted a few years: Popham Colony in Maine and others.
By the 1540s the French had built small fortifications in New York (Albany). The Dutch first built a fort in 1609 along the Hudson River.
1526 – Spanish: Failed attempt in Georgia (around Sapelo Island)
1540 – French: Short-lived fortification along Hudson River, Castle Island (Albany)
1559 – Spanish: Failed attempt around Pensacola Bay in Florida
1562 – French: Failed attempt near Parris Island, SC (Charlesfort)
1565 – Spanish: St. Augustine, first permanent settlement in today’s United States
1566-87 – Spanish: Santa Elena site (Parris Island)
1585 – English: Failed attempt on Roanoke Island in North Carolina (Lost Colony)
1598 – Spanish: New Mexico missions
1604 – French: Short-lived settlement on Saint Croix Island, Maine
1607 – English: Short-lived settlement, Popham Colony, in Maine
1607 – English: Jamestown in Virginia
1609 – Spanish: Santa Fe, NM
1609 – Dutch: Fort along Hudson River
1610-1613 – English: Expansion of Jamestown colony southeast in Virginia, including NE section of North Carolina
1614 – Dutch: New Netherland (New York, New Jersey, Conn.)
1620 – English: Plymouth Colony (Massachusetts)
1624 – Dutch: New York City
1629 – English: Puritan colonies (Conn. and Massachusetts)
1638 – Swedish: Fort Christina (Delaware)
The most important explorations related to North Carolina, Western North Carolina and Henderson County include the following:
In 1524, almost 100 years before the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts; a Spanish expedition commissioned by Lucas Vásques de Ayllón meets American Indians in a place the Indians called Chicora, between the Cape Fear and Santee rivers in what is now North Carolina. A Spanish colony called Rio Jordan is established but abandoned within a few years.
Also during this time, Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano meets Indians in the Cape Fear and Outer Banks regions of North Carolina.
It was in 1540, 67 years before Jamestown and 80 years before the Pilgrims, that a Spanish expedition led by Hernando De Soto explored the western portions of present-day North Carolina, seeking gold. De Soto and his men visited Indian communities, introducing smallpox and other diseases.
Then, from 1566 to 1567, Spanish explorer Juan Pardo, seeking gold, leads an expedition through what is now Western North Carolina. Pardo is well-received by the Cherokee, and visits the Catawba, Cheraw, Wateree and Saxapahaw as well.
Pardo establishes Fort San Juan.
http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~arch/berrysite
http://archive.archaeology.org/0907/abstracts/north_carolina.html
http://www.tulane.edu/~crodning/beckmoorerodning2006.pdf
The following information is a compilation, summary and direct quotes of archaeology reports and other information related to the Berry Site (Joara and Fort San Juan) near Morganton in Burke County, N.C. Visit the above web sites for more information. References also include the following:
Beck, Robin A., Jr. (Winter 1997). “From Joara to Chiaha: Spanish Exploration of the Appalachian Summit Area, 1540-1568”. Southeastern Archaeology 16 (2): 162–169
Beck, Robin A., Jr.; David G. Moore (Winter 2002). “The Burke Phase: A Mississippian Frontier in the North Carolina Foothills”. Southeastern Archaeology 21 (2): 192–205
Moore, David G.; Beck, Robin A. Jr.; & Rodning, Christopher B. (March 2004). “Joara and Fort San Juan: culture contact at the edge of the world,” Antiquity (Vol 78 No 299)
Berry Site
The Berry Site northwest of Morganton has changed our knowledge of the American Indians in North and South Carolina and Spanish exploration and settlement. The discovery is requiring a reassessment of the history of European contact with American Indians.
Joara was the site of Fort San Juan, established by the Juan Pardo expedition as the earliest Spanish outpost (1567-1568) in the interior of what is now North Carolina. This was 40 years before Jamestown and 20 years before the “Lost Colony” on Roanoke Island.
The narrative of Juan Pardo’s travels and settlement at Joara, written by his scribe Bandera, were discovered and translated in the 1980s. In 1994, John E. Worth’s discovery and translation of the 1584 Domingo de Leon account, together with the identification of 16th-century Spanish ceramics and hardware at the Berry site in Burke County (Moore and Beck) helped American archaeologists work out an accurate route for Pardo’s Southeastern expedition.
During the 1960s and 1970s, several archaeological surveys were conducted in Burke County to determine possible locations of Joara (De Soto’s Xuala) and Fort San Juan. By the 1980s, archaeologists had reduced the number of possible locations and began limited excavations. These surveys and excavations showed that the upper Catawba River Valley had a sizable native population during the 14th to 16th centuries.
In 1986, a breakthrough occurred at the Berry excavation site (named for the family who own the property). Archaeologists discovered 16th-century Spanish artifacts. This evidence, supported by the discovery of Spanish narratives, caused a reevaluation of Pardo and De Soto’s routes through North Carolina.
State and university archeologists and historians now state that Fort San Juan was the first European settlement in the interior of the United States. Since 1986, state and university archaeologists have turned up thousands of artifacts.
The effort has brought national attention in National Geographic, Smithsonian and Archaeology magazines and a PBS documentary, “The First Lost Colony.”
Further excavations at the Berry site throughout the 1990s and 2000s have yielded remains of native Joara settlement and burned Spanish huts, and more 16th-century Spanish artifacts. The survey and excavation data make it clear that a sizable 14th to 16th century population inhabited the upper Catawba and Yadkin river valleys. This population is identified primarily through the distribution of sites with a preponderance of soapstone-tempered Burke series ceramics. This series is also believed to represent proto-historic Catawba ware.
In 2007, the team found evidence of Spanish building techniques. These artifacts were not trade goods but objects used by the Spanish in settlements.
Joara is particularly interesting for the interaction between American Indians and the Spanish, who were relatively few in number and depended on the natives for food.
Pardo Expedition
In December 1566, Juan Pardo left the Spanish town of Santa Elena (Parris Island, S.C.) and traveled into North Carolina in search of an overland route to Mexico. During his march, he built a string of small forts between modern-day Beaufort, S.C., and what is now western Tennessee.
Scholars have debated about the routes of Pardo and de Soto for years, but research at the Berry site provides evidence that both of these expeditions passed through the upper Catawba Valley of North Carolina.
Joara is thought to have been settled some time after AD 1000 by the Mississippian culture, which built an earthwork mound at the site. The Joara natives comprised the eastern extent of Mississippian Mound Builder culture, which was centered in the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys.
Joara was the largest Mississippian-culture settlement in present-day North Carolina. The town served as the political center of a regional chiefdom that controlled many of the surrounding native settlements.
Joara was built by the Cheraw, who are closely related, and possibly directly related (ancestors), to the Catawba.
For many, many years scholars thought the town was Cherokee, but modern scholars and archaeologists no longer believe this.
In 1540, Hernando de Soto led a Spanish army up the eastern edge of the Appalachian mountains through present-day Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. This expedition recorded the first European contact with the people of Joara, which de Soto’s chroniclers called Xuala.
Twenty-six years later, on Dec. 1, 1566, Capt. Juan Pardo and 125 men departed from Santa Elena (Parris Island) under orders from Gov. Pedro Menendez de Aviles to claim the interior for Spain. Pardo was to pacify the native inhabitants, convert them to Catholicism and establish an over-land route to Spanish silver mines in Mexico. The Spanish thought they were much closer to the mines than they were.
To stay close to food sources on their journey through the foothills, the Spanish traveled northwest where there were friendly natives who would help to feed them. The small Spanish force stopped near Charlotte and Denver in Lincoln County before arriving at Joara in January 1567.
Snow forced the Spanish to establish a winter base. They built a wooden fort at the north end of Joara and named it Fort San Juan. The Spanish kept a base in Fort San Juan and claimed sovereignty over several other settlements in the region, including one near Hickory, another in Catawba County and a third in Rowan County.
When Pardo received word of a possible French invasion of Santa Elena, he left 30 soldiers at Joara, and four soldiers and his chaplain in Rowan County. Hernando Moyano was left in command at Fort San Juan.
During the spring of 1567, Moyano led expeditions into Virginia and Tennessee. They built another fort in Tennessee.
Pardo returned to Fort San Juan in September 1567 to find the local inhabitants angered by the Spanish raids and demands for food, women and canoes. The effect of newly introduced diseases was also destabilizing the community, causing resentment towards the Spanish. Pardo left Fort San Juan and marched to re-supply Moyano’s troops in Tennessee.
Pardo first took his troops to a village near Asheville, passing through the Swannanoa Gap, and on to today’s Canton. (See narrative below) After re-supplying Moyano’s troops, Pardo returned to Santa Elena.
Shortly after May 1568, news reached Santa Elena that the Indians had burned the six Spanish forts and killed all but one of the 120 Spanish men stationed in those garrisons. Pardo never returned to the area, and Spain ended all attempts to conquer and colonize the southeastern interior.
On May 25 they departed from Xuala (Joara near Morganton) and climbed “over a very high range,” going through Swannanoa Gap and probably reaching the vicinity of present Ridgecrest, North Carolina (Ranjel 1922:104). The next day they continued on, reaching a little plain where they waded in the waters of the French Broad River, near present Asheville, North Carolina. Presumably they learned from the Indians that the water of this river eventually flowed into the Mississippi River (el rio del Spiritu Sancto). Here, although it was already late May, the weather turned very cold.
The chroniclers of the Juan Pardo expedition indicate that in 1567 there was in the vicinity of Asheville a small town named Tocae (DePratter et al. 1983:143). If this town existed in De Soto’s day, no mention is made of it by any of the chroniclers. The next day they traveled along a large stream (arroyo) which they crossed and re-crossed many times, i.e. the French Broad River. The following day, on May 29, they arrived in Guasili, which was probably located near present Marshall, North Carolina (Elvas spells it “Guaxule”).
John Lederer
Almost 100 years after the Spanish left Western North Carolina (1669 to 1670), John Lederer, a German-born physician, led three expeditions to explore the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Carolina Piedmont.
Lederer’s writings are an important source for the early history and mapping of the Southeast. He was primarily searching for passes through which traders and settlers might travel. He writes of the Cheraw and Cherokee.
http://rla.unc.edu/archives/accounts/lederer/lederertext.html
http://www.virginiaplaces.org/settleland/lederer.html
John Needham, Gabriel Arthur
In 1673 it is possible that two explorers entered a section of Henderson County.
http://rla.unc.edu/archives/accounts/needham/NeedhamText.html
http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/books/sondley_f_a/sondley_chapter_04.htm
http://nativeheritageproject.com/2012/09/17/the-indian-path-in-buncombe-county/
John Needham and Gabriel Arthur most likely went up an Indian trail through Hickory Nut Gap to the Swannanoa River to try to set up trade with the Cherokee. This is approximately U.S. 74 through Bat Cave and Gerton.
This contact led to a century of trading with the Cherokee with British agents.
By 1700, the Cherokee began a deerskin trade with colonial settlers. From North Carolina and Virginia, they used the Indian path to Charleston, S.C. The Saluda Trail follows approximately the old U.S. 25 through Henderson County.
John Lawson
It was also in 1700 that surveyor John Lawson began a thousand-mile journey through the Carolina colony (North and South Carolina). In 1709, Lawson publishes “A New Voyage to Carolina.” The book describes flora and fauna and groups of Indians he visited for over a decade. These included the Cherokee, Cheraw and Catawba. Lawson also publishes a map.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/lawson/menu.html
http://www.nchistoricsites.org/bath/lawson.htm
George Chicken
In 1715, British Maj. George Chicken led an English expedition from Charleston, S.C., against the Cherokee. The expedition went as far as Murphy. There are several books and history texts recounting this expedition.
Chicken, George (1895) “Journal of the march of the Carolinians into the Cherokee mountains, in the Yemassee Indian War, 1715-16,” in Langdon Cheves (ed.) Charleston, SC, Yearbook, 1894. Charleston, SC: Walker, Evans, and Cogswell: 313-54.
____ (1916) “Journal of Colonel George Chicken’s mission from Charleston, S.C., to the Cherokees, 1726,” in N. D. Mereness (ed.) Travels in the American Colonies. New York: Macmillan: 95-172.
http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?MarkerId=Q-10
James Adair
James Adair, an Englishman, lived and traded among the southeastern Indians for more than 30 years, from 1738 to 1768. He covered the territory from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River. He encountered and lived among Indians, advised governors, spent time with settlers, and worked tirelessly for the expansion of British interests against the French and the Spanish. Adair’s acceptance by the Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw provided him the opportunity to record, compare and analyze their cultures and traditions.
Adair’s written work was first published in England in 1775. His observations provide one of the earliest accounts of southeastern Indian cultures.
Adair, James, trader with the Indians. The history of the American Indians; particularly those nations adjoining to the Missisippi [!] East and West Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia: containing an account of their origin, language, manners, religious and civil customs, laws, form of government, punishments, conduct in war and domestic life, their habits, diet, agriculture, manufactures, diseases and method of cure… With observations on former historians, the conduct of our colony governors, superintendents, missionaries, & c. Also an appendix, containing a description of the Floridas, and the Missisippi [!] lands, with their productions–the benefits of colonizing Georgiana, and civilizing the Indians–and the way to make all the colonies more valuable to the mother country.. London, E. and C. Dilly. 1775.