Through December 2019:  Mountain Heritage Center gallery at Hunter Library 161, M – F 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM. Free of Charge

NOTE: To receive a DegreePlus point, you must complete the questionnaire at the Mountain Heritage Center.

On loan from Exploring Joara Foundation, the exhibit is the first formal museum exhibit showcasing Fort San Juan and Joara, a large Native American town in the late 16th century. It was developed as part of the celebration of the 450th Anniversary of the Juan Pardo Expeditions, during the 1560s, and tells the story of Spanish exploration and the founding of a fort in what is present-day Burke County.

Archaeologists identified the site near Morganton as the location of Joara, one of the largest Native American towns in what is today western North Carolina. The town was occupied from approximately A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1600. Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo, Spanish explorers, visited the town in the 1560’s. In 2013, archaeologists confirmed that the town was also the site of Fort San Juan, established by Juan Pardo in 1567, nearly 20 years before the English settlement at Roanoke on the coast of North Carolina and 40 years before the English settlement at Jamestown in Virginia. The discovery of the fort, the earliest European settlement in the interior of what is now the United States, has changed history books.

Host: Mountain Heritage Center

DegreePlus Skill: Cultural Responsiveness