Judaculla Rock exhibit on display at museum

This article features an event that occurred in the past.

A new exhibit that focuses on the effort to preserve Judaculla Rock, an ancient petroglyph located in Jackson County’s Caney Fork community, will be on display at Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center from Friday, March 26, through Saturday, July 10.

North Carolina’s largest petroglyph and an important cultural site for the Cherokee people, Judaculla Rock is a soapstone boulder on which hundreds of mysterious symbols were carved. The rock is located at a 15-acre site that once was a prehistoric Native American settlement, soapstone quarry and sacred place, said Trevor Jones, curator at the Mountain Heritage Center.

The Judaculla Rock Preservation Project is a restoration effort aimed at preventing further environmental damage to Judaculla Rock and protecting the surrounding land and water while enhancing the visitor experience. The project involves Jackson County, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, U.S. Forest Service, North Carolina Rock Art Project, Cherokee Preservation Foundation, Caney Fork Community Development Council, WCU’s Mountain Heritage Center and members of the WCU faculty.

The exhibit at the Mountain Heritage Center includes site drawings for walking trails and interpretive elements proposed by the Jackson County Recreation and Parks Department. The exhibit also explains the significance of the site and feature soapstone artifacts that were quarried from the area thousands of years ago, Jones said.

For more information about the Judaculla Rock Preservation Project, contact Emily Elders, recreation project manager for Jackson County, at 828-293-3053 or by e-mail at emilyelders@jacksonnc.org.