Jackson County approved allowing Committee Films to visit Judaculla Rock for the filming of a documentary. The rock contains the state’s largest collection of petroglyphs. The approval came after Pisgah National Forest Archaeologist Scott Ashcraft urged County Manager Chuck Wooten to deny the request to film. Ashcraft was concerned the final product would be a display of:
“sensationalized, unscientific programming” that inaccurately distorts the ancient site’s origins.
During preliminary communications with the show’s producer and host, “they were purposely under-informing, misleading and misdirecting me along the way,” Ashcraft wrote county Manager Chuck Wooten. He added that he was forced to “push through their veil of misinformation.”
