Joara - History

History

Recent archaeological finds have established evidence of both substantial Mississippian and sustained Spanish 16th-century settlement in the interior of North Carolina. 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 the English settlement at Jamestown and nearly 20 years before their "Lost Colony" at Roanoke Island.

Located northwest of Morganton, the site has been excavated in portions by the Upper Catawba Valley Archaeology Project. They hold regular open houses and educational events for the public during the summer excavation season.

Established about AD 1000, Joara was the largest Mississippian culture settlement within the current boundaries of North Carolina. It was thriving when the Spanish soldiers arrived in January 1567 under Captain Juan Pardo. They established a base there for the winter and called the settlement Cuenca. They built Fort San Juan. After 18 months, the natives killed the soldiers at the fort and burned the structures down. That same year they killed all but one of the 120 men Pardo had stationed at a total of six forts in the southeast interior, and destroyed all the forts. As a result, the Spanish ended their colonizing effort in the southeastern interior.

Effects of European infectious diseases and conquest, and assimilation by larger native tribes, led to native abandonment of the settlement long before English explorers arrived in the region in the 17th century. Cherokee, who were an Iroquoian-speaking people, migrated into western North Carolina from northern areas around the Great Lakes and used some of the former Mississippian village sites. They were followed by English, Scots-Irish and German immigrants in the 18th century.