While everyone argues about where Fort Caroline might really be, I stumbled on this article about where a Spanish fort dating to 1567 was located in all places Morganton, North Carolina.
This fort is traced back to one of Menedez's Captains, Juan Pardo and Fort San Juan. It was along the Catawba River and apparently the Spanish were trying to locate gold before they were run off by the local tribes.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130723113756.htm (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130723113756.htm)
(http://images.sciencedaily.com/2013/07/130723113756-large.jpg)
Oldest European fort in the inland U.S. discovered in Appalachians
The remains of the earliest European fort in the interior of what is now the United States have been discovered by a team of archaeologists, providing new insight into the start of the U.S. colonial era and the all-too-human reasons spoiling Spanish dreams of gold and glory.
Spanish Captain Juan Pardo and his men built Fort San Juan in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in 1567, nearly 20 years before Sir Walter Raleigh's "lost colony" at Roanoke and 40 years before the Jamestown settlement established England's presence in the region.
"Fort San Juan and six others that together stretched from coastal South Carolina into eastern Tennessee were occupied for less than 18 months before the Native Americans destroyed them, killing all but one of the Spanish soldiers who manned the garrisons," said University of Michigan archaeologist Robin Beck.
Beck, an assistant professor in the U-M Department of Anthropology and assistant curator at the U-M Museum of Anthropology, is working with archaeologists Christopher Rodning of Tulane University and David Moore of Warren Wilson College to excavate the site near the city of Morganton in western North Carolina, nearly 300 miles from the Atlantic Coast.
The Berry site, named in honor of the stewardship of landowners James and the late Pat Berry, is located along a tributary of the Catawba River and was the location of the Native American town of Joara, part of the mound-building Mississippian culture that flourished in the southeastern U.S. between 800 and about 1500 CE.
In 2004, with support from the National Geographic Society and the National Science Foundation, Beck and his colleagues began excavating several of the houses occupied by Spanish soldiers at Joara, where Pardo built Fort San Juan. Pardo named this small colony of Spanish houses Cuenca, after his own hometown in Spain. Yet the remains of the fort itself eluded discovery until last month.
"We have known for more than a decade where the Spanish soldiers were living," Rodning said. "This summer we were trying to learn more about the Mississippian mound at Berry, one that was built by the people of Joara, and instead we discovered part of the fort. For all of us, it was an incredible moment."
Using a combination of large-scale excavations and geophysical techniques like magnetometry, which provides x-ray-like images of what lies below the surface, the archaeologists have now been able to identify sections of the fort's defensive moat or ditch, a likely corner bastion and a graveled surface that formed an entryway to the garrison.
Excavations in the moat conducted in late June reveal it to have been a large V-shaped feature measuring 5.5 feet deep and 15 feet across. Spanish artifacts recovered this summer include iron nails and tacks, Spanish majolica pottery, and an iron clothing hook of the sort used for fastening doublets and attaching sword scabbards to belts.
Fort San Juan was the first and largest of the garrisons that Pardo founded as part of an ambitious effort to colonize the American South. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who had established the Spanish colonies of St. Augustine and Santa Elena in 1565 and 1566, respectively, spearheaded this effort. Of the six garrisons that Pardo built, Fort San Juan is the only one to have been discovered by archaeologists.
During the brief time the Spaniards were at Joara, Beck says, they were actively prospecting for gold but never found it. Yet the gold was there: in the early 1800s, American settlers found so much just lying on the surface near rivers that a 17-pound gold nugget was used as a doorstop and a U.S. mint was established in Charlotte, triggering the first gold rush in U.S. history.
Had the people of Joara given Pardo's soldiers more time to discover this gold, Spain would probably have launched a full-scale colonial invasion of the area, England would have had difficulty establishing its foothold at Jamestown, and the entire southeastern part of what is now the U.S. might instead have become part of Latin America.
Why did the Mississipians wipe the Spaniards out so quickly? Beck and colleagues argue that originally, the Spanish bartered with the natives for food.
"The soldiers believed that when their gifts were accepted, it meant that the native people were their subjects," Beck said. "But to the natives, it was simply an exchange. When the soldiers ran out of gifts, they expected the natives to keep on feeding them. By that time, they had also committed what Spanish documents refer to as "indiscretions" with native women, which may have been another reason that native men decided they had to go. So food and sex were probably two of the main reasons for destroying Spanish settlements and forts."
Moore said the significance of Fort San Juan extends far beyond the Carolina Piedmont.
"The events at Fort San Juan represent a microcosm of the colonial experience across the continent," he said. "Spain's failure created an opening that England exploited at Jamestown in 1607, when America's familiar frontier narrative begins. For Native Americans, though, this was the beginning of a long-term and often tragic reshaping of their precolonial world."
Interesting stuff. Fort San Juan was built by the Pardo expedition that was sent out from Santa Elena. What the article doesn't get into was this this part of the country had always been Spain's main target of colonization in "la Florida" and it was a larger undertaking than St. Augustine initially was. Santa Elena on Parris Island was seen as the most important settlement; St. Augustine was only established as a base to expel the French from Fort Caroline. It was only after the local Indian chiefdoms repelled the Spanish in Santa Elena and its associated settlements that the Spanish retreated back to St. Augustine.
I did some other research and found that Hernando deSoto had come through this area as well just 20 years prior looking for the same thing, gold.
I had forgotten that DeSoto had reached this far north.
Yea... ol Hernando said he was lookin for gold... I think it was chicks... 8)
QuoteBy that time, they had also committed what Spanish documents refer to as "indiscretions" with native women, which may have been another reason that native men decided they had to go. So food and sex were probably two of the main reasons for destroying Spanish settlements and forts."
De Soto went all over the place. Here's a map from Wikipedia covering Charles M. Hudson's suggested route of the expedition:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/DeSoto_Map_HRoe_2008.jpg/759px-DeSoto_Map_HRoe_2008.jpg)
They were in this area when they captured the Queen of Cofitachequi in Camden County, SC and took her up to Joara. However, she seems to have been the paramount chief over that area, too, as they helped her escape de Soto. De Soto made his exit after that to exit to continue harassing other Indian groups.
Looks like all of the Native American tribes he came across looking for gold were smart and just told him, "No we don't have any, but the tribe on the other side of that hill does."
Heh... just realized Florida has TWO counties named for DeSoto.
The level of interest the Spanish showed this particular area is intriguing, considering how little they actually knew about it and how many failed attempts there were. It was particularly influenced by a legends of a "land of plenty" called Chicora.
In 1521 two rather dimwitted slave traders from Spain came to a location that was most likely the mouth of the Pee Dee River in South Carolina, and managed to kidnap about 60 Indians. One of them became known as "Francisco de Chicora". The origin of the word "Chicora" isn't clear, but the Spanish understood it to be the land he came from. Back in the Caribbean, Francisco helped circulate stories about Chicora that presented it as a rich and fertile land full of gold and valuables. These stories circulated to many aspiring explorers and chroniclers, and in 1526 Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_V%C3%A1zquez_de_Ayll%C3%B3n) launched an expedition to conquer and colonize Chicora. He took Francisco, his servant, with him. Francisco went along with it... until he got his first chance to escape, abandoning the Spanish settlers to their fate and presumably returning to his people.
Ayllon soon discovered that this land wasn't anything like Francisco had said. However, he went forward with the colonization plans, founding San Miguel de Gualdape (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Miguel_de_Gualdape), probably the first ever European settlement in the United States outside of Puerto Rico. Its location isn't known, and it lasted only a few months before the harsh winter killed off most of the settlers (including Ayllon) and the survivors abandoned it.
However, the Spanish were still convinced that Chicora was real, and it continued to be discussed in colonial chronicles and publications. In 1539 Hernando de Soto landed in Florida and eventually became convinced he could find Chicora. He headed north to Cofitachequi, which he thought might be Chicora. He met and captured a powerful queen, but he found no gold or other wealth. He soon left to meander through what's now the United States looking for treasure that couldn't be found. In 1559, Tristan de Luna established a settlement at Pensacola Bay that was planned as a halfway point from Mexico to "Santa Elena," or Chicora. It was planned as a stepping stone for further conquest, but the colony collapsed.
The French also caught wind of Chicora and hoped to colonize it first. In 1562 the Huguenots under Jean Ribault built Charlesfort on Parris Island to try do just that. However, the fort was abandoned when Ribault was unable to return with relief. When René Goulaine de Laudonnière returned in 1564, they decided to play it safe and build their first settlement, Fort Caroline, on the St. Johns River, which they could determine would sustain them. However, they still intended to eventually spread northward to Chicora.
Pedro Menendez founded St. Augustine in 1565 specifically to oust the French, but the plan was always to move up to South Carolina afterward. Menendez himself didn't believe the Chicora legend, but at that point it was so entrenched that it still influenced colonization. And so, in 1566, Menendez founded Santa Elena on the former Charlesfort site, and it remained the focal point of Spanish Florida until native resistance finally caused it to be abandoned in 1587. It took over 50 years for the Spanish to learn you can't believe everything you hear.