Roanoke colony

Has the mystery of the lost Roanoke colony been solved? A local expert appears to have dug up compelling evidence! The disappearance of 115 people in the

The Roanoke settlement is thought to have failed because it was poorly supplied and the colonists failed to ally with or befriend the Native peoples. Roanoke is referred to as the Lost Colony because of the mysterious disappearance of the settlers and the destruction of its buildings, giving birth to myths and conspiracy stories. However, historians contend that hardships and improved relations drove the colonists to assimilate with the Natives.

John White's watercolor of Secotan in what is now NC.

Explore the oldest mystery of colonial America.

An artifact found 20 years ago turns out to not be what archaeologists thought

It looks like some new clues, pottery shards, have turned up in the mystery of the lost colony of Roanoke.

Newer evidence places the Lost Colonists in Bertie County. Best evidence suggests they traveled a short distance to 42-mile long Hatteras Island. Their descendants are being DNA tested now.

The disappearance of the Roanoke Colony in the late 1500s is one of early America’s great mysteries. New clues have brought us closer to solving what happened.

In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh established an English colony on an island in what is today the state of North Carolina. After a slow start, over 100 people moved to the island to start a new life and establish this English outpost at the edge of the new world. When a ship returned to the colony in 1590, what they found shocked them and began a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. Learn more about the Lost Colony of Roanoke and the puzzle that still challenges historians.