Embedded in the side of a hill in Jackson County lies one of the endearing mysteries of the North Carolina mountains. The Judaculla Rock, a mammoth soapstone boulder larger than most offices, features a bizarre maze of lines and drawings that has baffled scientists and archaeologists for more than a hundred years.
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No one knows who made the drawings, when they were made or what they mean. Experts agree, however, the Judaculla Rock is one of the most amazing pieces of rock art, or petroglyphs, in the southeastern United States. Researchers have identified more than 1,500 unique motifs on the rock, more than three times as many found on any other known petroglyph.
“This is a fantastic example of native rock art,” said Scott Ashcraft, a geologist with the U.S. Forest Service who started cataloguing petroglyphs in western North Carolina in the late 1990s. “In some ways we’ll never know the whole story. There are kind of broad interpretations as to what it is telling us, but specifically, the interpretation may be lost to history.”
The Judaculla Rock is located on the Parker family farm in Sylva, N.C., about 30 minutes west of Asheville. Archaeological evidence from the site indicate it most likely dates to the Late Archaic period (3000 to 1000 BC), which means the drawings are at least 3,000 years old.
Noted 19th and 20th century anthropologist James Mooney lived with the Cherokee for several years in the late 1800s. He published the first recorded interpretation of the myth of Judaculla (Tsul’kälû, The Slant-eyed Giant) in “Myths of the Cherokee,” which was published in 1898.
According to Mooney, Cherokee elders believed Judaculla lived on Richland Balsam Mountain at the head of the Tuckaseegee River. They told Mooney the rock is a map of Judaculla’s hunting territory, depicting a swath of land that ranges west to beyond the mountains of Tennessee and south to present-day Georgia.
The lower right corner of the rock features a carving that resembles a seven-fingered handprint. According to Cherokee lore, Judaculla made the handprint when he leapt from his home several miles away and landed on the rock.
Others theorize the rock is a crude map of the region. According to this interpretation, the two long lines that traverse from the top to the bottom on either side indicate rivers, and the other markings show settlements of different Native American tribes.
The site would have been lost to history without the efforts of the Parker family, Ashcraft and Jackson County leaders. The land on which the rock sits has been in the Parker family since the mid 1800s. As early as the 1930s, Milas Parker recognized the rock’s historical value and began preservation efforts.
With so many tourists and Cherokee visiting the site each year Parker asked the federal government to make access easier by building a road to the site, to no avail. He offered the small tract of land on which the rock sits to the Smoky Mountain National Park Museum, but was rebuffed again.
The federal government’s disinterest and the family’s lack of resources almost resulted in the rock being lost to history. By 1959, the site had fallen into such disrepair that J.B. Parker, Milas’s son, realized it would soon be swallowed by the earth.
“My family had no resources to maintain the rock,” said Jerry Parker, J.B.’s son who now lives at the site. “My father wanted to do something to preserve the rock. He wanted to do it so children could come and visit the rock.”
The family found an ally in Jennings Bryson, who at the time served as chairman of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. Recognizing the significance of the site, Bryson engineered a deal for the county to purchase the rock and surrounding land for the token price of $750.
“Some time ago it became apparent that the writings that cover the face of Judaculla Rock would soon disappear unless steps were taken to preserve them,” he said in the Asheville Citizen-Times in October 1959. “Too many of our native landmarks are disappearing because of indifference to our heritage. It is only after they have vanished or been torn down that we realize we have lost something precious, something that can’t be replaced or brought back.”
The county had the best intentions but no knowledge of how to preserve the site, Ashcraft said. A cinderblock shelter built in 1962, to protect the rock from the elements, did more harm than good by causing water from a natural spring underneath to pool, at times completely submerging the rock.
The small, enclosed shelter could accommodate only a handful of visitors. Parker said if too many people crowded into the shelter, visitors would stand on the rock. The shelter was torn down in 1966.
The county decided to build another shelter in the early 1970s. This shelter, which Ashcraft said was more of a lean-to, covered the rock but was not enclosed, which prompted a different set of problems.
Water dripping from the roof created a furrow that ran alongside the western edge of the rock. The shelter did not discourage visitors from walking on the rock. Ashcraft said tourists continued to climb on top for photos, chip off pieces as souvenirs or carve their initials into the rock.
In 1998, North Carolina State Archaeologist David Moore recommended to the Jackson County Board of Commissioners that the shelter be removed. He argued the natural light would allow visitors to better view the ornate drawings on the rock. To keep visitors away, he recommended commissioners build a fence and viewing stand.
“It had gotten into a very bad condition,” Ashcraft said. “If you came here seven years ago, you wouldn’t recognize the place. Half the rock was buried underground, there was water all around and graffiti on the rock.”
Ashcraft began working with Jackson County and the Cherokee Nation in 2007. The county provided funds to clean the surrounding area and route the water away from the rock. Students from nearby Western Carolina University, members of the Cherokee Indian Tribe Historic Preservation Office and residents of the Caney Creek community provided landscaping.
An observation deck was added in 2011, and the county fenced off the rock to keep visitors from causing further damage. The county worked with the Cherokee to provide signage in both English and Cherokee.
“I’m proud of Jackson County,” Ashcraft said. “For being a little mountain county of moderate means, they really stepped up for this.”
The rock is an important site for the Cherokee. Before their forced removal in 1838, large numbers of Cherokee convened at the rock each fall for a “big hunt” and asked Judaculla for permission to enter his domain. Once granted, the Cherokee would hunt for game to ensure they had enough food for the year.
Parker said many Cherokee still visit the rock, believing the site is a spiritual gateway to another world.
Tribal leaders played a pivotal role in the preservation efforts. Besides providing funds, the tribe helped the county and Ashcraft gain a better understanding of the site’s importance to the Cherokee Nation. Ashcraft credited the county and the Parker family, dating back to Milas Parker’s initial conservation efforts in the 1930s, for including the Cherokee in the project.
“What was critical was listening to the Cherokee,” Ashcraft said. “Once we got them out here and told them all our great ideas, we realized they weren’t great ideas for the Cherokee. It really changed things quickly on how we were going to deal with all of this. We came up with a really good product that was the best of two worlds.”
All the site improvements led to the Judaculla Rock being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
J.B. Parker’s son, Jerry, has taken over the family role as unofficial caretaker of the site. He was born on the family farm in 1950, just a few hundred yards from the rock. His family moved closer to the nearby town of Sylva in 1955 so he could attend school. He stayed in Sylva until 1981, when he built a house on the original farmstead and returned to the farm. His house sits less than 100 yards from the site.
“When I was a little boy, there was a creek right there (above the rock), and I would play in that creek,” he said. “People would come and ask for the legend, and I would tell them what my father told me. Sometimes they would give me a quarter.”
Parker estimates that as many as 10,000 people per year visit the rock. He believes the steps the county has taken will preserve it for future generations, upholding the wishes of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather and keeping a North Carolina mystery alive for generations to come.
His belief is echoed by the National Park Service in the site’s application to be included in the National Register of Historic Places: “This pro-active and hands-on conservation and management of Judaculla Rock has turned the site into a textbook example of how rock art sites in other parts of the country can be preserved, interpreted and gainfully presented on a sustainable basis to the visiting public for generations to come.”
How to get there: The Judaculla Rock is located near the Western Carolina University campus in Cullowhee, N.C. From N.C. 74, take exit 85 to Business Route 23 through Sylva. Stay on 23 for a little more than a mile and turn left onto 107. Stay on 107 for eight miles and turn left onto Caney Fork Road. Go 2.5 miles and turn left onto a gravel road near the sign for Judaculla Rock. The rock is near the end of the gravel road about half a mile from the main road.
Edits by Todd 