Warren Wilson College to Host Showing of The First Lost Colony March 11

"The First Lost Colony," an episode of "Exploring North Carolina" that recently aired statewide on UNC-TV, will be shown March 11 at Warren Wilson College. The 30-minute program, free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. in Canon Lounge of the Gladfelter Student Center.

The program features continuing research by Warren Wilson College professor David Moore and fellow archaeologists at the Berry archaeological site near Morganton. The 12-acre site is the location of Fort San Juan, built by Spanish conquistador Juan Pardo in 1567 - two decades before Sir Walter Raleigh established the famous "Lost Colony" on Roanoke Island.

Artifacts from the Berry excavation will be exhibited at the March 11 showing. Moore also will be available to answer questions about the project and the 2008 Warren Wilson College Archaeology Field School from June 16-July 11.

For more information contact Moore at 828-771-2013 or dmoore@warren-wilson.edu.

http://www.warren-wilson.edu/storyteller/NEWS/NEWS-benjand-2008-2-28-11-57-57.php

National Science Foundation Grant Yields Pay Dirt

By Janet Crain

Warren Wilson College professor David Moore and fellow archaeologists Robin Beck and Christopher Rodning began planning a research project and field school at the Berry site in 2001. They were awarded a National Science Foundation grant of $167,012 for two summers of excavations at the Berry site near Morganton.

The Berry site along Upper Creek is the location of an ancestral Catawba Indian town named Joara, at which the Spanish captain Juan Pardo built Fort San Juan in 1567. The garrison was the earliest European settlement in the interior of what is now the United States, predating the earliest English settlement at Roanoke “The Lost Colony” by 17 years. The early Spanish attempts at settlement were partially responsible for spurring on the English efforts, which though not successful initially, culminating with the Jamestown settlement, did permanently establish the English in North America.

Professors Beck, of the University of Oklahoma, and Rodning, of Tulane University, have been working with Moore to help write this early story of European exploration and settlement in eastern North America.

Under the Upper Catawba Archeology Project, the archaeologists are researching the long-forgotten episode of Fort San Juan's founding and its fiery destruction in the spring of 1568.

When awarded this grant in 2006, Moore stated; “When we began planning our research project and field school in 2001, it was our goal to work systematically to have a legitimate chance to receive a major award such as this, Chris and Rob and I are really excited to receive this grant, and appreciate the support we have received. We're now actively engaged in planning for next summer.”



Now this long planned archaeological dig is paying off in a big way.


http://www.warren-wilson.edu/storyteller/NEWS/NEWS-jbowers-2006-9-18-11-17-1.php


http://www.worldsedge.net/desoto/BECK_FROM%20JOARA%20TO%20CHIAHA.htm


http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:GLvXxydhHfYJ:www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/collateral/articles/F05.first.people.pdf+de+soto+fort+burke+county&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us

De Soto's Fort Located?

If Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo had been successful and established a series of permanent settlements, we might all be speaking Spanish in this country rather than English. That’s one conclusion that archeologist Rob Beck of the University of Oklahoma likes to tell people about when he describes the discovery of Fort San Juan on the upper Catawba River in Burke County north of Morganton.That fort was established by de Soto’s men in 1567 – a couple of decades before Sir Walter Raleigh’s expedition set out from England and established a colony on Roanoke Island that disappeared – and became known as the Lost Colony.

The Fort San Juan story is told in a new episode of UNC-TV’s “Exploring North Carolina” series produced by narrator Tom Earnhardt of Raleigh and videographer Joe Albea of Greenville. It airs tonight at 8:30 p.m. and repeats Friday, Feb. 1 at 9:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 3 at 6 p.m.The program describes how Beck and other archeologists, including David Moore of Warren Wilson College near Asheville and Christopher Rodning of Tulane, assembled the evidence that linked the 12-acre site in Burke County to a known site at Parris Island. S.C., where Spanish explorers established a fort in what then was called northern Florida.

Continued here:

http://jackbetts.blogspot.com/2008/01/was-first-lost-colony-in-burke-county.html