Judaculla Rock is one of America’s most significant historical places and one of the Cherokee’s most important ancestral places, revered through the ages for its rich cultural legacy. The rock is carved with approximately 1,548 designs, more than any other known petroglyph boulder in the eastern United States, with images and designs engraved into the surface to symbolize important places, stories, or events. Archaeologists believe intensive use of the site began 3,000 years ago, when soapstone boulders were quarried for making bowls. Petroglyph carving began around 1,500 years ago and likely continued until early European settlement disrupted Cherokee lifeways and traditions about 300 years ago. For nearly 100 years, the Parker family protected the boulder on their farm from vandalism that has defaced or destroyed many of North Carolina’s petroglyph sites. In 1959, Milas Parker donated a one acre tract around the boulder to Jackson County, and in 2011, his grandson Jerry Parker placed 107 acres of the family farm into a permanent conservation easement that protects the broader cultural site and preserves the undeveloped mountain experience for generations to come.