The Roanoke Colonies were an ambitious attempt by England’s Sir Walter Raleigh to establish a permanent North American settlement with the purpose of harassing Spanish shipping, mining for gold and silver, discovering a passage to the Pacific Ocean, and Christianizing the Indians.
Meant to be the first permanent English settlement in North America, the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island vanished in 1587 along with its 117 settlers. The lost colony of Roanoke is one of history's most compelling mysteries, complete with pirates, skeletons, hoaxes, and chilling coincidence.
The mystery of what happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke has puzzled historians for centuries. English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh founded the colony in modern-day North Carolina in 1587, but the settlement was lost after all its residents mysteriously vanished in 1590.
Roanoke - England's attempt at an American colony. In 1584, Elizabeth gave Walter Raleigh a charter, allowing him to form a colony in America. Raleigh and Elizabeth hoped that the colony...
A prominent American mystery, the lost colony of Roanoke has captivated historians and archaeologists for generations. Learn the facts behind the disappearance of the settlement and its...
Discover the story of The Lost Colony on Roanoke Island and unearth a mystery that has baffled historians for centuries.
Ongoing excavations at two sites in North Carolina have yielded new clues about what may have happened to the English settlers who vanished from Roanoke Island around 1590.
John White, c 1585-1590. The British Museum. Destination Roanoke: In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh’s first colonization attempt set sail for Roanoke Island, which he named “Virginia” after Queen Elizabeth, the “Virgin Queen”. Six-hundred people and seven ships traveled across the Atlantic, prepped to create a military colony on Roanoke Island.
For centuries, the disappearance of 117 colonists from Roanoke Island has been this country's oldest mystery. Now, stonework experts Jim and Bill Vieira will use cutting-edge technology to take...
Ongoing excavations by archaeologists from The First Colony Foundation have revealed new findings on the historical narrative of the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke. The Roanoke Colony refers to two colonisation attempts in North America by Sir Walter Raleigh during the 16th century.
Extracting DNA from 16th-century bones on Roanoke Island, Hatteras, or at Site X could provide a reliable link between the settlers and their descendants, but that genetic material remains...
New archeological discoveries locate another possible satellite settlement of the"lost" colonists of Roanoke. Learn more about this 2020 study.
The Roanoke Colony was England's first colony in North America, located in what is today North Carolina, USA. Established in 1585 CE, abandoned and then resettled in 1587 CE, the colonists had little regard for their new environment and were soon in conflict with the peoples who already inhabited the region.
Lost Colony, early English settlement on Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina, U.S.) that mysteriously disappeared between the time of its founding (1587) and the return of the expedition’s leader (1590). In hopes of securing permanent trading posts for England, Walter Raleigh had initiated.
These skills and his wealth were to be used to attempt to colonise the Americas, first at Roanoke and later through the Virginia colony. Raleigh’s charter enabled a colony to be established on land not already claimed by any ‘christian prince’.
The Roanoke colony may have been doomed from the start: It failed in 1584, 1585 and again in 1587. But where did the last group go?
On Aug. 27, 1587, John White, the governor of Roanoke Island colony, an English settlement in what is now North Carolina, sailed to England in hopes of gathering badly needed supplies and...
Newfound survivor camp may explain fate of the famed Lost Colony of Roanoke. Find provides “compelling evidence” to help solve one of America’s oldest historical mysteries. More than a hundred...
The lost colony of Roanoke is one of the most-notorious mysteries in American history; the cryptic clues left at the abandoned settlement and the lack of any concrete evidence make it the focus of wild speculation and theories.
A gold signet ring excavated from the Cape Creek site on Hatteras Island, engraved with a prancing lion or horse, may have belonged to a prominent member of the Roanoke colony.