John Lederer’s “Mythical” Lake: Another Hypothesis

Abstract

John Lederer’s 1669–1670 travels in Virginia and North Carolina offer one of the few detailed pictures of the region at that time. His account, however, has been viewed skeptically by scholars, particularly his claim that he visited a large lake nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. Although French and Spanish accounts of a lake also exist, none was subsequently found, and it is now generally considered to be a myth. The 2013 identification of the town of “Joara,” however, provides a potential new clue. If the town visited by Lederer, called “Sara,” was the same site or was located in the vicinity, his lake actually may have existed in western North Carolina, formed by episodic blockages of the French Broad River. If supported by geological or archeological evidence, this hypothesis would burnish Lederer’s image, but it would also require re-evaluation of current ethnohistorical views of the region.