20 April
An hour-long drive put us on Roanoke Island just as many of the attractions were opening their doors. Having studied up on the places of interest, we focused our attention on the ones in the northern part of the island. (See red arrows on the map to the right.)
Not all of our plans worked out. In the case of the Aquarium, because of the busloads of students who were intent on visiting it as well. In the case of the Island Farm, because we were early by a week and they weren’t quite ready for visitors. No problem; there was plenty else to keep up busy all day long.
Roanoke Island is located between mainland North Carolina and the barrier islands that form the Outer Banks. It’s connected to the OBX via Route 64, which runs over Roanoke Sound, traverses the island, and goes over Croatan Sound to reach the mainland.
The island gets its name from the Roanoke Carolina Algonquian people who lived here in the 16th century when the first English explorers arrived. It is the site of the first English settlement, which has gone into the history books as the Lost Colony.
Although we visited the Elizabethan Gardens first to avoid the several busloads of school kids that arrived at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site at the same time we did, I’m going to post this bit first. (No admission charged to visit this site.)
[illustration of the NPS-managed site scanned from the brochure]
Usually, we start visits like this one at the visitor center where exhibits and informative panels help us to understand what we will be seeing. Starting from the Elizabethan Gardens and working our way in reverse had us at a bit of a disadvantage, but we made up for it later, and a few informative panels along the way helped.
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Two of the men who played an important role in the history of the area.
Left: Sir Walter Raleigh sponsored the attempts to establish the first English colony.
Right: Manteo, first North American Indian christened and admitted to the Church of England.
[photos from markers on the trail]
Our first stop was at the Waterside Theater. During the summer, a drama about the Lost Colony is staged here. With our timing wrong, we moved on after a quick look-see around the theater. I understand that the symphonic production, which premiered in 1937, does a good job of recounting the over 400-year-old mystery surrounding the disappearance of 117 men, women, and children without a trace.
Our next stop was at the reconstructed earthen fort. Admittedly, there’s not much to see here, but there was an NPS marker that told of how, when he returned to the island in 1590, Governor John White found nothing more than an abandoned settlement with its log stockade. All that’s known today is that the site, which remains undiscovered to this day, was somewhere near the northern tip of the island.
The reconstructed earthen fort represents the one that remains undiscovered.
A nearby marker points out that the seed sown here later led to settlements like Jamestown
and Plymouth plantation, where more favorable conditions made their survival possible.
As luck would have it, the visitor center was being renovated, but a temporary interpretive center had informative panels and posters to fill us in on the history of the area without overwhelming us. Here’s the gist of what I learned in 30 minutes.
In 1584, Spain’s continued power-growth led Queen Elizabeth I to authorize Sir Walter Raleigh to explore and establish an English settlement in the New World. He sent two vessels and 80 men on this first expedition; they returned with glowing reports about Roanoke Island and the native population. Accompanying them were two native chiefs — a Croatan by the name of Manteo and a Roanoke by the name of Wanchese.
The poster depicts the coming together of two vastly different cultures in 1584.
These men built a fortified settlement that included a trading post and science center, and proceeded to document the flora, fauna, and native people. In the meantime, the commanding officer left to return to England for much needed supplies.
Without enough provisions to see them through the winter, the colonist pressured the native Roanokes, who had little to spare. That, combined with English-spread diseases, led to distrust between the two cultures and to the eventual killing of the Roanoke chief. When Sir Francis Drake stopped by the island in June 1586, the colonists abandoned the site to return to England with him.
When Grenville returned in August of that year, he found a deserted settlement. Leaving behind 15 men to hold the British claim, he went back to England.
The poster to the left depicts the 1585 return to Roanoke Island of Manteo and Wanchese, who traveled to England with Raleigh’s 1984 expedition.
In 1587, a third group of colonists left England, led this time by now-Governor John White. The goal was to settle the south end of Chesapeake Bay. They stopped at Roanoke Island to check on the 15 men Grenville left behind, however, they found no one. Refusing to continue on, they settled on the island and petitioned White to go back to England for assistance.
Due to war with Spain, White was unable to return to Roanoke Island until the summer of 1590. All he found when he arrived was timber palisade walls with “Croatoan” carved on one of the posts; there was no sign whatsoever of any of the colonists he’d left behind. On the assumption that they had gone to Croatoan Island, White then attempted to go there. When faced with a hurricane, however, he was forced to return to England instead.
And thus the colony was “lost.” The mystery of what happened remains unsolved.
Poster depicting John White at the defensive timber palisade upon his return in 1590.
Although there’s not much to see at Fort Raleigh, we’re glad we went to visit it as it gave us some insight into the very first English settlers to arrive in the New World. Our strategy to return to the site after the busses left worked out well, and we had a quiet walk on the grounds … which very much added to our pleasure in the day.
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