Archaeologists hope for historic discovery on new dig at 'Lost Colony' site
The "Lost Colony" has been one of North Carolina’s most iconic mysteries for centuries, and now a new effort is underway to find out what happened to the state’s first English settlers.
While researchers know it’s a long shot, they’re hoping to write the next chapter in a story that’s integral to our country's history.
“That’s the million-dollar question right, what happened to the Lost Colony?” National Parks Service cultural resource manager Jami Lanier said.
“We joke around sometimes, like what if we actually found it, you know?” First Colony Foundation research associate Eric Deetz said.
In 1587, 116 men, women and children arrived on Roanoke Island in the Outer Banks to establish the first English settlement in the United States.
It was called Fort Raleigh, and after setting up their community, the colonists looked for support from back home.
“John White was elected by the colony to return to England to get supplies,” Lanier said. “And when he returned, the colonists were gone.”
Three years later, the settlers had vanished from Fort Raleigh without a trace – the only clue left behind were the letters “CRO” carved in a tree, and the word “Croatoan” carved into a gate post.
Over the centuries, Fort Raleigh has become known as the Lost Colony, one of the most famous mysteries in the state.
Each summer thousands of people flock to the site, some to see an outdoor play based on the events, and others who want to find out what happened next.
“We’re looking at evidence from the first colony,” Deetz said. “This is a known site, we know that they were here.”
Today a team of archaeologists are starting a new search for clues on Roanoke Island, the latest effort to find the exact location of the settlement that’s been going on since the 1800s.
They’re excavating an area that’s believed to have been used as a science workshop by the English military in 1855.
“Being that it’s always been somewhat of a protected park, it hasn’t been fully excavated willy-nilly,” Deetz said. “There’s a lot of areas that have not been excavated yet.”
The area currently being excavated by the archaeologists has been dug up since the 1990s; however, the researchers said thanks to new knowledge of what life was like in the 1500s, their main goal with this dig was to find more information about the town the settlers left behind.
But maybe they could come across something new – a sign left behind by the Lost Colony before they struck out to their next destination in this New World they searched for so many years ago.
“That’s part of the folklore of the site, everybody knows about it, it’s a mystery,” Deetz said. “The general public really identifies with this story and the history of this site, and that’s what makes it important to maintain as a park, but also to continue researching so we can know more about it.”
The team has permission to dig at the site at Fort Raleigh for 10 days in total.
