“Unearthing Our Forgotten Past: Fort San Juan” is now on display at the Smith-McDowell House in Asheville. We will celebrate the official opening of this excellent traveling exhibit on Wednesday, August 18 from 5:30pm to 7:00pm with live music, refreshments, and games on the front lawn. The event is free and open to the public. We are also celebrating several newly completed renovations on the historic home that serves as our facility including a new copper standing seam roof and new exterior paint.
The exhibit was developed by the Exploring Joara Foundation Inc. as part of the celebration of the 450th anniversary of the Juan Pardo expeditions through Western North Carolina.
Several decades ago, archaeologists identified a site near Morganton as the location of Joara, one of the largest Native American towns in what is today Western North Carolina. Joara was occupied from approximately 1400-1600 A.D. Two Spanish expeditions (led respectively by Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo) visited the town in the 1500s. The Pardo expedition was part of a larger effort to establish a string of forts from the coast of present-day South Carolina to Mexico.
In 2013, archaeologists confirmed that Joara was also the site of Fort San Juan, which was established by Pardo in 1567, nearly 20 years before the English settlement at Roanoke on the coast of North Carolina and 40 years before the settlement at Jamestown.
Through various artifacts uncovered by the archaeologists, the exhibit showcases the Spanish occupation of Fort San Juan and the lives of the native people who lived in the Joara area.
We’ll have refreshments, live old-time music, yard games, and more.
Bring a lawn chair to sit and listen to live music on the lawn!