Roanoke: A Colony. A Word. A Vanishing.Episode 71:36
The County Where Survivors May Have Gone
After weather ends White's rescue, centuries of traditions and competing theories move the search beyond Roanoke Island.
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Transcript
CROATOAN was carved into a chief tree beside Roanoke's abandoned entrance.
John White returned to Roanoke Island on August 18th, 1590. The empty entrance held its silence beneath the rain.
White intended to sail to Croatan, but lost anchors and bad weather stopped the attempt.
The Lost Colony disappeared from Roanoke and was never found again; its fate remains a mystery.
Croatoan was both the name of a people and the name of a place.
Algonquian peoples had lived around Roanoke for thousands of years before English settlement.
White believed the colonists had moved to Croatan after finding the message. A disappearance can leave a message without leaving an answer.
A major drought struck the Outer Banks in 1587 and lasted for three years.
Hatteras, associated with Croatoan, has no definitively linked remains, graves, buildings, or village sites.
White instructed colonists to carve a cross over the letters or name. No cross or sign of distress appeared with CROATOAN.
In 2012, researchers discovered a symbol beneath a patch on White's map.
Near Albemarle Sound, researchers found pottery from four European origins.
Archaeologist Nick Luccketti called the variety compelling evidence of several settlers.
Bertie County artifacts have not been definitively linked to the Lost Colony.
Where it leaves off
The new trail pointed toward a possible final destination for some colonists in Bertie County—but it still could not prove who survived.
Next: Episode 8, The “First” Colony That Arrived Millennia Late
Sources
- John White Returns to Roanoke; an excerpt from "The fift voyage of Master John White into the West Indies and parts of America called Virginia, in the yeere 1590" (1600) - Encyclopedia Virginiaencyclopediavirginia.orgprimary
- We Finally Have Clues to How the Lost Roanoke Colony Vanished | National Geographicnationalgeographic.comsecondary
- Sir Walter Raleigh'stile.loc.govsecondary
- Brochure - Fort Raleigh National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)nps.govsecondary
- The Lost Colony - Fort Raleigh National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)nps.govsecondary
- Major Theories of the Lost Colony - Fort Raleigh National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)nps.govsecondary
- Newfound survivor camp may explain fate of the famed Lost Colony of Roanoke | National Geographicnationalgeographic.comsecondary
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