Finding 'The First Lost Colony'
Posted: Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011
Slideshow
Phillip Overholtzer, supervisor of Charles R. Jonas Library in Lincolnton, volunteers at the Lincoln County Museum of History, working with Native American pottery shards. He is also working on an upcoming library program on archaeological work at the site of a 16th-century Spanish fort built near present-day Morganton. John D. Simmons -
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Many bags of pottery pieces have been donated and are in need of cleaning and general inventory work. John D. Simmons -
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Want to go?
The Charles R. Jonas Library in Lincolnton will host "The Berry Site: Exploring Joara" at 6 p.m. March 7.
The free program will be presented by David Moore, archaeology/anthropology professor at Warren Wilson College in Asheville. The library is at 306 West Main St. For more information, call 704-735-8044.
Phillip Overholtzer's voyage of discovery into the past began behind a farm plow.
His family's spread was on Mineral Springs Mountain in southern Burke County.
Every time he turned up an arrowhead or pottery fragment, his imagination began spinning.
He had visions of the ancient civilizations that produced the curious stuff he pulled out of the ground.
At Appalachian State University, Overholtzer majored in archaeology and anthropology.
For a while, he worked as a volunteer, examining items from a field in northern Burke County where Spanish explorers built a fort at the Catawba Indian town of Joara.
The Berry site - named for the landowners - is where one of the first European settlements was built in what is now the United States, archaeologists say.
Researchers have been at work there since 1986, and the ongoing project has long fascinated Overholtzer.
That's why he's put together a program "The Berry Site: Exploring Joara" on March 7 at Lincolnton's Charles R. Jonas Library, where he's supervisor.
The speaker is David Moore, archaeology/anthropology professor at Warren Wilson College in Asheville and co-chair of the Berry Site project.
If you've got the slightest interest in Spanish explorers, Native American towns, what was happening in this part of the world in the 16th century, here's a chance to hear an expert.
The Berry site archaeology project is sponsored by Warren Wilson College, Western Piedmont Community College and the Exploring Joara Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports archaeological research in the upper Catawba River and Yadkin River valleys.
Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers stuck to my imagination in the 1980s, after I heard University of Georgia professor Charles Hudson speak at Gastonia's Schiele Museum.
This expert raised the possibility of conquistador Hernando De Soto marching up the Catawba River on an epic trek that would lead to the discovery of the Mississippi River.
Later, I heard about other possibilities - the Spanish digging for gold along the South Fork River in Gaston and Lincoln counties and on the Kings Mountain range. The stories may or may not be true. But the Berry site is definitely for real. The project focuses on a 1-acre area where 16th-century Spanish artifacts and the remains of five burned buildings have been located.
Moore recently told me that a draft of the first comprehensive report on excavations at the site may be completed this year and available to the public by late 2012. It covers 10 years of work and documents lots of exciting discoveries.
Moore mentioned a piece of wood from the inside of one building. The fragment is sawed timber - a floor plank. That's not the kind of thing you'd expect to find at that time and place. Native Americans didn't have the skills to make it; Spanish carried the plank with them into the wilderness, Moore said.
In 2008, excavations turned up the remains of a steelyard scale, resting right beside a quartz crystal. Moore explained Spanish documents mentioned how in the backwoods supplies were measured by weight - things like nails, lead and quartz.
Were the Spanish prospecting around Joara? It's just one of the many questions swirling around the site that a PBS documentary called "The First Lost Colony."
Field day
Overholtzer, 28, picked an intriguing subject for a program. He's only been at the library seven months, coming to Lincolnton after 1 1/2 years with the Catawba County Library system.
Before that, he was a teller at a BB&T bank in Hickory.
Overholtzer, who earned a master's degree in library science from Appalachian, has never worked full time as an archaeologist. But that's his first love and passion.
He volunteers at the Lincoln County Historical Association, helping identify pieces of Native American pottery found in the county.
Many bags of the fragments have been collected. Some of the pottery might have been around in villages the Spanish explorers passed on their way to Joara. Moore will put pieces of the story together in his talk about one of the region's most important historical sites - one we all should know more about.
The annual field day at the Berry Site is coming up on June 25. And every summer students, teachers, retirees and other volunteers take part in archaeological work there.
Here's a suggestion: Go to Moore's program for a quick overview then visit the actual site in June.
It might stick in your imagination and be the start of a rewarding historical journey.
Joe DePriest: 704-868-7745;
jdepriest@charlotteobserver.comSubscribe to The Charlotte Observer.
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