Before the Lost Colony at Roanoke Island, before the Jamestown settlement in Virginia, there was Fort San Juan in the North Carolina foothills. Archaeologists studying a ceremonial mound from a Native American town called Joara last month discovered the first inland fort built by Europeans in the New World, near present-day Morganton. For nearly three decades, researchers worked at what’s known as the Berry archaeological site, certain it could reveal clues about the presence of one of six Spanish forts from the 16th century. But they lacked the evidence for any of the fortifications until now. The discovery “solidifies our interpretation that we have found Joara and Fort San Juan,” said David Moore, an archaeologist at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa and a co-director of the 27-year excavation project.
Fort San Juan represents Europeans’ first venture into the interior of the United States, Moore said. In 1566, Spanish Captain Juan Pardo and his men embarked on an inland journey a Spanish settlement on the South Carolina coast. Spanish records from the time indicate Fort San Juan was the first and largest of six garrisons built by Pardo in what would become the Carolinas and Tennessee. It’s the only one to have been discovered by archaeologists.
Morganton Mayor Mel Cohen said the public is “not aware of the gem” that is the Berry site. He hopes a local cable TV station will do a documentary on the history of the site and the Joara excavation project. “I think it’s a great asset to the history of Morganton and Burke County,” Cohen said.