New archeological discoveries may finally solve the greatest mystery of Colonial America in this history of Roanoke and Hatteras Islands. Established on what is now North Carolina’s Roanoke Island, the Roanoke Colony was intended to be England’s first permanent settlement in North America. But in 1590, the entire population disappeared without a trace. The only clue to their fate was the word “Croatoan” carved into a tree. For centuries, the legend of the Lost Colony has captivated imaginations. Now, archaeologists from the University of Bristol, working with the Croatoan Archaeological Society, have uncovered tantalizing clues to the fate of the colony. In The Lost Colony and Hatteras Island, Hatteras native and amateur archaeologist Scott Dawson compiles what scholars know about the Lost Colony along with what scholars have found beneath the soil of Hatteras.
In 1587, John White and 117 men, women, and children landed off the coast of North Carolina on Roanoke Island, hoping to carve a colony from fearsome wilderness. A mere month later, facing quickly diminishing supplies and a fierce native population, White sailed back to England in desperation. He persuaded the wealthy Sir Walter Raleigh, the expedition's sponsor, to rescue the imperiled colonists, but by the time White returned with aid the colonists of Roanoke were nowhere to be found. He never saw his friends or family again. In this gripping account based on new archival material, colonial historian James Horn tells for the first time the complete story of what happened to the Roanoke colonists and their descendants. A compellingly original examination of one of the great unsolved mysteries of American history, A Kingdom Strange will be essential reading for anyone interested in our national origins.
*National Bestseller* A sweeping account of America's oldest unsolved mystery, the people racing to unearth its answer, and the sobering truths--about race, gender, and immigration--exposed by the story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. In 1587, 115 men, women, and children arrived at Roanoke Island on the coast of North Carolina. Chartered by Queen Elizabeth I, their colony was to establish England's first foothold in the New World. But when the colony's leader, John White, returned to Roanoke from a resupply mission, his settlers were nowhere to be found. They left behind only a single clue--a "secret token" carved into a tree. Neither White nor any other European laid eyes on the colonists again. What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke? For four hundred years, that question has consumed historians and amateur sleuths, leading only to dead ends and hoaxes. But after a chance encounter with a British archaeologist, journalist Andrew Lawler discovered that solid answers to the mystery were within reach. He set out to unravel the enigma of the lost settlers, accompanying competing researchers, each hoping to be the first to solve its riddle. Thrilling and absorbing, The Secret Token offers a new understanding not just of the first English settlement in the New World but of how the mystery and significance of its disappearance continues to define and divide our country.
Well before the Jamestown settlers first sighted the Chesapeake Bay or the Mayflower reached the coast of Massachusetts, the first English colony in America was established on Roanoke Island. David Stick tells the story of that fascinating period in North Carolina's past, from the first expedition sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 to the mysterious disappearance of what has become known as the lost colony. Included in the colorful cast of characters are the renowned Elizabethans Sir Francis Drake and Sir Richard Grenville; the Indian Manteo, who received the first Protestant baptism in the New World; and Virginia Dare, the first child born of English parents in America. Roanoke Island narrates the daily affairs as well as the perils that the colonists experienced, including their relationships with the Roanoacs, Croatoans, and the other Indian tribes. Stick shows that the Indians living in northeastern North Carolina -- so often described by the colonists as savages -- had actually developed very well organized social patterns. The fate of the colonists left on Roanoke Island by John White in 1587 is a mystery that continues to haunt historians. A relief ship sent in 1590 found that the settlers had vanished. Stick makes available all of the evidence on which historians over the centuries have based their conjectures. Methodically reconstructing the facts -- and exposing the hoaxes -- he invites readers to draw their own conclusions concerning what happened. Exploring the significance of that first English settlement in the New World, Stick concludes that speculation over the fate of the lost colony has overshadowed the more important fact that the Roanoke Island colonization effort helped prepare for the successful settlement of Jamestown two decades later. "Had it been otherwise," he contends, " those of us living here today might well be speaking Spanish instead of English." The four hundredth anniversary of the exploration and settlement of what came to be called North Carolina occurred in 1984. For that occasion, America's Four Hundredth Anniversary Committee commissioned this factual and readable history.
In telling the tragic and heroic story of Roanoke, the lost colony, award-winning historian Karen Ordahl Kupperman recovers the earliest days of English exploration and settlement in America the often forgotten years before Jamestown and the landing of the Mayflower. Roanoke explores Britain s attempt to establish a firm claim to North America in the hope that colonies would make England wealthy and powerful. Kupperman brings to life the men and women who struggled to carve out a settlement in an inhospitable environment on the Carolina coast and the complex Native American cultures they encountered. She reveals the mixture of goals and challenges that led to the colony s eventual abandonment, and discusses the theories about what might have become of the first English settlers in the New World as they adapted to life as Indians. With a new preface and afterword written by the author, Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony brings the fascinating story of America s earliest settlement up-to-date, bringing together new work from scholars in a variety of fields. The story of Roanoke remains endlessly fascinating. It is a tale marked by courage, miscalculation, exhilaration, intrigue, and mystery."
The Lost Colony of Roanoke is one of the most puzzling mysteries in America's history. In 1587, 115 colonists sailed to the new world, eager to build the brand new Cittie of Raleigh, only to disappear practically without a trace. Where did they go? What could have possibly happened? Who better to collect and share the clues than Jean Fritz and Hudson Talbott? The creators of Leonardo's Horse, an American Library Association Notable Book, again combine their masterful talents to illuminate a tragic piece of history that still fascinates Americans today.
When Governor John White sailed for England from Roanoke Island in August 1587, he left behind more than 100 men, women and children. They were never seen again by Europeans. For more than four centuries the fate of the Roanoke colony has remained a mystery, despite the many attempts to construct a satisfactory, convincing explanation. New research suggests that all past and present theories are based upon a series of erroneous assumptions that have persisted for centuries. Through a close examination of the early accounts, previously unknown or unexamined documents, and native Algonquian oral tradition, this book deconstructs the traditional theories. What emerges is a fresh narrative of the ultimate fate of the Lost Colony.
The Outer Banks have long been of interest to geologists, historians, linguists, sportsmen, and beachcombers. This long series of low, narrow, sandy islands stretches along the North Carolina coast for more than 175 miles. Here on Roanoke Island in the 1580s, the first English colony in the New World was established. It vanished soon after, becoming the famous "lost colony." At Ocracoke, in 1718, the pirate Blackbeard was killed; at Hatteras Inlet and Roanoke Island important Civil War battles were fought; at Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills the Wright brothers experimented with gliders and in 1903 made their epic flight. The Graveyard of the Atlantic, scene of countless shipwrecks, lies all along the ever-shifting shores of the Banks. This is the fascinating story of the Banks and the Bankers; of whalers, stockmen, lifesavers, wreckers, boatmen, and fishermen; of the constantly changing inlets famous for channel bass fishing; and of the once thriving Diamond City that disappeared completely in a three-year period.
The tale begins over three-hundred years ago, when the Fair People—the goblins, fairies, dragons, and other fabled and fantastic creatures of a dozen lands—fled the Old World for the New, seeking haven from the ways of Man. With them came their precious jewels: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls... But then the Fair People vanished, taking with them their twelve fabulous treasures. And they remained hidden until now... Across North America, these twelve treasures, over ten-thousand dollars in precious jewels, are buried. The key to finding each can be found within the twelve full color paintings and verses of The Secret. Yet The Secret is much more than that. At long last, you can learn not only the whereabouts of the Fair People's treasure, but also the modern forms and hiding places of their descendants: the Toll Trolls, Maitre D'eamons, Elf Alphas, Tupperwerewolves, Freudian Sylphs, Culture Vultures, West Ghosts and other delightful creatures in the world around us. The Secret is a field guide to them all. Many "armchair treasure hunt" books have been published over the years, most notably Masquerade (1979) by British artist Kit Williams. Masquerade promised a jewel-encrusted golden hare to the first person to unravel the riddle that Williams cleverly hid in his art. In 1982, while everyone in Britain was still madly digging up hedgerows and pastures in search of the golden hare, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt was published in America. The previous year, author and publisher Byron Preiss had traveled to 12 locations in the continental U.S. (and possibly Canada) to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1984 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum. Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.
2nd EDITION. UPDATED AND EXPANDED. (HARDCOVER PUB. 2019, PAPERBACK 2020) Among America's coastal icons, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse ranks at the very top, alongside the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge. The other two are in major metropolitan areas. The lighthouse is on a fragile, 50-mile-long, two-thirds-of-a-mile-wide island 30 miles out to sea. Those who visit Hatteras understand they're decidedly in the ocean and only marginally on land.For a remote patch of real estate with a year-round population of little more than 3,000, Hatteras has witnessed extraordinary history. It may have been the destination of the Lost Colony. Blackbeard likely hobnobbed with the locals. The Monitor went to its watery grave nearby. Radio towers on the island made history's first transmission of music and received the distress call from the Titanic. Billy Mitchell proved the ascendancy of air power by sinking a pair of mothballed battleships offshore. Bodies washed up on the beach following U-boat attacks during World War II. The surfmen at the island's lifesaving stations made some of the most heroic rescues ever.But Hatteras Island: Keeper of the Outer Banks is more than a history. It is rather, as author Ray McAllister says, "a conversation with an island." It tells of a vacation paradise that can change instantly into a storm center, of a resort island kept largely free of development-but hardly of controversy-by a national seashore park. It tells of the hardy few who brave the Hatteras winters, those who come to catch record-sized fish from the piers, those who travel disaster-prone Highway 12 and who drove the bare sand before it, those who stood and watched as a 208-foot lighthouse was moved half a mile."Pull up a chair," McAllister says. "Have a listen."
