{"id":3892,"date":"2026-05-29T20:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T00:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3892"},"modified":"2026-05-29T17:19:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T21:19:01","slug":"into-the-unknown-john-lederers-journeys-into-appalachia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3892","title":{"rendered":"Into the Unknown:  John Lederer&#8217;s Journeys Into Appalachia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PmFxL_WvoAA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In the late 1600\u2019s, Dr. John Lederer, a German immigrant to the Virginia colony, became one of the first Europeans to explore the Appalachian region. Between 1669 and 1670, Lederer made three trips into the Blue Ridge Mountains, traveled west and south through Native territories in Virginia and the Carolinas, and searched for a passage west through the Alleghenies.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way he encountered wolves, rattlesnakes, deadly spiders, Native villages, rumors of strange bearded white men, and stories that hinted at vast inland waterways beyond Appalachia. Lederer\u2019s journal about his travels became one of the earliest written descriptions of Appalachia.<\/p>\n<p>Be sure to subscribe to the Stories podcast.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find us wherever you get your favorite podcasts.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for listening!<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_4664\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3892-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72224896\/download.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72224896\/download.mp3\">https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72224896\/download.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72224896\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?powerpress_pinw=3892-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72224896\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"download.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the late 1600\u2019s, Dr. John Lederer, a German immigrant to the Virginia colony, became one of the first Europeans to explore the Appalachian region. Between 1669 and 1670, Lederer made three trips into the Blue Ridge Mountains, traveled west and south through Native territories in Virginia and the Carolinas, and searched for a passage [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,13],"tags":[1728,1725,1262,1513,720,456,1146,1443,1734,1732,1726,1273,894,102,1724,1731,792,1729,1727,1733,1067,1730,916,725],"class_list":["post-3892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exploration","category-the-appalachian-frontier","tag-akenatzy","tag-allegheny-mountains","tag-american-history-podcast","tag-appalachia-history","tag-appalachian-frontier","tag-appalachian-mountains","tag-appalachian-podcast","tag-blue-ridge-mountains","tag-carolina-history","tag-colonial-america-1600s","tag-colonial-virginia","tag-early-explorers","tag-frontier-exploration","tag-history","tag-john-lederer","tag-lake-ushery","tag-native-american-history","tag-roanoke-river","tag-sapon","tag-shenandoah-valley","tag-stories-of-appalachia","tag-uwharrie-mountains","tag-virginia-history","tag-wilderness-exploration"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6TX4A-10M","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3893,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3892\/revisions\/3893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}