The Found Colony of Roanoke?
- History Fix Podcast
- May 17
- 14 min read
Episode 114: How New Evidence Uncovered on Hatteras Island May Put the “Lost Colony” Myth to Bed Once and For All
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There has long prevailed in popular imagination a historical myth of epic proportions: The Lost Colony of Roanoke. It has all the makings of a great story. A group of 117 civilized English men, women, and children journey to an unknown land across the ocean, a land inhabited by quote “savages” so unlike themselves. When times grow tough, their fearless leader returns to England, leaving them behind, stranded on the island. It carries undertones of classic literary adventure fiction, Lord of the Flies, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson. The birth of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World, harkens back to the very birth of Christ in the bible, a promise of a new beginning, the light of England vanquishing the darkness of this untamed land. And the disappearance of the colony upon Governor John White’s return, vanished, gone, with a single clue left behind, carved into a post, the mysterious word “CROATOAN.” Here we have the makings of the quintessential unsolved mystery, a genre perfected by great novelists like Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Yes, the Lost Colony of Roanoke has captured our imaginations for 438 years because it really is the perfect story. But unlike some of the works of fiction I mentioned, this story really happened. These were real people, real fates, that we’ve romanticized and mythologized in the centuries since. And, as fun as mysteries are to think about, as good of stories as they make, the Lost Colony of Roanoke was never a mystery at all. In fact, they told us exactly where they went. Why was it so hard for us to listen? And what recent archaeological evidence is finally forcing us to accept the obvious? Let’s fix that.
Hello, my name is Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. I have breaking news for you guys, a major update today, a break in an over 400 year old cold case. A few days ago I stumbled upon a news article called something like “Lost Colony Mystery Solved After 400 Years.” And I was naturally like “um, what?” Because if you guys know me, you know the Roanoke colonies, the so called Lost Colony, are of particular historical interest to me and I’ve done a lot of research and even covered them way back in September of 2023 in a two part episode with distinguished professor Michael Oberg who is like an expert on the topic. If you missed those episodes you should definitely definitely go back and listen. It was episodes 27 and 28, I’ve linked them in the description. But I’m going to try to make this update episode stand alone too so even if you haven’t listened to them yet, welcome.
In the breaking news article I stumbled upon, it talked about how a couple of guys found some new evidence at a site on Hatteras Island which is part of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a little farther south than where I live. One of those guys is a Hatteras native named Scott Dawson. So I immediately reached out to Scott, this was all a couple days ago, this is the fastest I’ve ever gotten an episode out, had to rearrange the whole schedule for this. But I reached out to Scott for an interview and here he is.
[Scott Dawson interview]
So before we get into what Scott and British archaeologist Dr. Mark Horton found on Hatteras Island and what it seems to prove, I need to quickly recap the story of the Roanoke colonies. Bear with me if you’re already an expert, none of this will make sense without the back story. I’ll make it fun, I promise. And if you truly don’t have time for a recap and just want the update, skip ahead to around the 16, 17 minute mark. The story begins back in the 1580s. Queen Elizabeth I is queen of England and she has her eyes set on the quote New World, the Americas. Spain, her biggest rival, has already been all over the Americas and they’ve been bringing back all kinds of gold and riches, right Aztec gold that they stole and whatnot, and Elizabeth wants in. She wants to establish a colony in North America, you know maybe they’ll find some gold and riches in the name of England, convert some folks to Christianity too, but really the main purpose was as an outpost to mess with Spain as they crossed the Atlantic with all these riches. Privateering was a big deal at this point. So, in 1584, one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorite courtiers, a man by the name of Sir Walter Raleigh, arranges a scouting expedition to North America. He sends a couple guys, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe and they go to scout out a location for an eventual permanent English colony. They end up on Croatoan, present day Hatteras Island where they actually spend most of their time. This is also where they meet an indigenous man named Manteo who will return to England with them as a sort of ambassador. A small group does journey to Roanoke Island which is surprising because it’s tiny, just 12 miles long and around 3 miles wide and it’s in the middle of a shallow sound behind a barrier island, it isn’t exactly easy to get to and it’s also not a great place for spotting Spanish ships which was really the whole reason they were there. But they get there and they’re like “this is great! This is perfect!” They report being essentially wined and dined by the native people of the area, various groups of Carolina Algonquin that are sort of organized into villages, Croatoan to the south, Chowanoke to the west along the Chowan River, and then a group of villages collectively referred to as Secotan made up of Dasamunqupeac across the sound on the mainland, Roanoke on Roanoke Island, Pomeiock and some others. Amadas and Barlowe are well received and head back to England with rave reviews of Roanoke Island, taking two indigenous men with them, Manteo from Croatoan and Wanchese who was part of that Secotan group and likely spent time between Dasamunqupeac on the mainland and the outpost village on Roanoke Island. They take them to England, they go to the queen and they’re like “Roanoke is great, you have to go to Roanoke,” like they’re talking about a stop on a Disney cruise or something. They’re like “look at these guys we brought back with us, aren’t they awesome?”
Manteo and Wanchese have very differing opinions of their time spent in England. Manteo is loving it. He’s like “oh wow, look at this big city, look at all these people, look at all this cool technology, they have glass and metal and guns. This is also impressive. The English would make such powerful allies. They would really help us out against our own enemies.” Wanchese is looking at it and he’s like “oh no, this is bad. These people are going to destroy us.” In 1585 they send a second expedition. This one is a military expedition made up of around 108 men, mostly soldiers, and they’re tasked with the job of setting up a settlement. They’re gonna lay the groundwork, put the infrastructure in place, build the houses, that sort of thing so that later they can send women and children for a permanent colony. This group is led by a man named Ralph Lane and Lane turns out to be a terrible terrible man for this job, a terrible man in general honestly. They return, across the ocean with Manteo and Wanchese in tow and as soon as they hit land, Wanchese takes off. He’s “like peace out. I don’t want anything to do with this.” They start setting up shop on Roanoke Island, and fairly quickly relations with the indigenous people, which had been so great according to Amadas and Barlowe, start to sour. This is partly because Ralph Lane is just a terrible diplomat. Amadas and Barlow were like “more wine, please” and Lane is like “you steal that silver cup? I will kill you all,” literally that literally happened. So Lane is blowing it. Also disease is blowing it. Indigenous people are getting sick with these mysterious diseases from England that they have no immunity to, and they start to view it as like an intentional attack by the English, so relations start to sour, and Lane starts getting all conspiratorial.
He starts to concoct this conspiracy that the leader, the weroance of Dasamunquepeac named Wingina (he later changed his name to Pemisapan), Lane starts to concoct this conspiracy theory that Wingina is trying to get them killed, and this goes so far in his mind, although there’s really no, there’s really no truth behind it, but he takes this so far that he actually ends up killing Wingina, the cut off his head. And then you know, after you cut off the head of the leader of the people who are feeding you, that’s a problem and so they hole up in their fort. They’re starving and seemingly screwed, but then luckily, very luckily for the English, they are rescued by fellow English explorer Sir Francis Drake, who is sailing by on his way home from Saint Augustine and he stops to sort of check on the colony and he finds them in really really bad shape and so they hop on Sir Francis Drake’s ships and they sail back to England and that expedition truly ended in disaster.
Now surprisingly, very surprisingly considering how poorly the last expedition ended. The queen agrees to send another group, this time men, women, and children to establish that permanent colony. Don't worry they’re not gonna go to Roanoke Island, well they are gonna go to Roanoke Island for a minute, but then they’re gonna go farther north to the Chesapeake Bay to establish the colony. This group is led by a man named John White, who actually accompanied the 1585 expedition under Ralph Lane. He went on that expedition too as an artist, he like painted pictures and maps of the area and stuff so you know I guess they’re like “hey you’re a great artist. You wanna be governor?” and they send John White as governor this time. So they sail back to Roanoke first because they need to check on 15 men who had been left behind last time to hold the fort. They’re not just gonna maroon them there. They’re gonna go get these guys or whatever and then they’re gonna go up to the Chesapeake Bay to set up their colony in a place where they haven’t already burned every single bridge. But when they get there, to Roanoke Island, John White goes with some men to the site of the old fort, Fort Raleigh, and they find only skeletons. The men have not survived and they’re like “pkay, let’s get the heck out of here” and they head back to the ship.
The captain of the ship, who was a Portuguese guy named Simon Fernando, he is like “nope, this is it. This is the last stop. We’re not going farther north. We’re not going to the Chesapeake Bay. You’re gonna have to make this work her.” For whatever reason, none of the explanations for that really make any sense but whatever reason he refuses to take them to their intended destination and so they are forced to set up shop on Roanoke Island, where everyone hates. As expected, it doesn’t go well. One of the colonists is shot with arrows and killed while fishing and they don’t have enough supplies. They are not self sufficient. The 1585 group under Ralph Lane relied heavily on the native people for food and then they burnt that bridge when they beheaded Wingina. This group, they don’t know how to grow crops. Even if they didn’t know how to grow crops, the area was experiencing the worst drought in 800 years, it would’ve been very difficult. So John White is pretty much forced to return to England for more supplies just after the birth of his granddaughter Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World. And so he’s forced to leave his daughter and his newborn granddaughter behind and return to England.
But it’s OK cause he’s coming right back, right, he’s just getting supplies coming right back. The problem is, when he gets to England, they are at war with Spain. Remember their old rival Spain? And the queen needs apparently every single ship to defend against the Spanish Armada and so John White is unable to get a ship to return to Roanoke Island for three years. In 1590 he finally manages to catch a ride on a privateering ship which takes him to Roanoke Island. He actually arrives on the island chillingly on his grandaughter’s third birthday. But when he gets there, when he gets to the settlement site no one‘s there. But there are some clues left behind. Carved into one of the palisade posts is the word CROATOAN in all capital letters. A nearby tree also has the letters CRO carved into it. Also, there is no cross. If they were in danger, they were supposed to carve this particular type of cross but there is no cross and the houses have been carefully disassembled and taken with them. Croatoan, if you remember, was the name of the village where Manteo was from on present day Hatteras Island. And John White knew this well, he even wrote in his journal, this is my friend Bill Rea voice acting for me. I’m stealing this from episode 28.
Bill Rea is a legend y’all, that was a treat. So White goes “great, they’re safe, they went with Manteo to Croatoan. We’ll just go find them there.” And he hops back in the ship and they try to sail down to Croatoan, but they’re met with terrible storms that batter the ship and blow them back and back and back until they are forced to turn around and return to England without ever verifying that the colony had moved to Croatoan. And so after that, instead of just being like, oh, they moved to Crotoan to live with Manteo’s people, everybody was like “they disappeared. What happened to them? It’s such a mystery.” A lot of theories have been proposed that the colonists did not survive. And these theories rest on them being killed either by the Spanish, who were zipping around that area in their ships and actively at war with England, or by neighboring groups of indigenous people. Then there is another survival theory that, despite carving CROATOAN into the post, they actually went west towards the Chowan River. That had apparently been a plan they discussed with John White before he left, to go quote “50 miles into the maine.” And artifacts have been found at a site called site X at the mouth of the Chowan River, that suggest an English presence - a metal aglet which is part of an old shoelace, a flint lock which is part of a gun, some pieces of North Devon plain baluster jars which were used by the English for canning, and a shard of English pottery, Surrey-Hampshire English Borderwear. But the thing is, none of this proves that English people actually lived at site X. All of those things could have arrived there through trade with Native Americans. And same with the sites of old Croatoan villages on Hatteras Island near the present day town of Buxton. Until recently, prior finds there really only proved trade with the English. There was nothing to suggest that they lived there for any length of time, until now. That’s where Scott comes in.
[Scott Dawson interview]
I was truly intrigued by Scott's theory as to why the story of the Roanoke Colony became so misguided. I hadn’t really considered the politics behind it but it makes a whole lot of sense, especially if you’re familiar with Dare County politics and how everything tends to play out here. I do think there were racial biases at play too though. I think centuries old racist views of Indigenous Americans also play a role. I mean there’s no other way to say it. The white people who wrote history did not want to believe, they did not want to even consider the option, that the English, these civilized Christian people, would intentionally go to live with people they viewed as godless savages. That was never the plan. The plan was for the indigenous people to assimilate with the English, to convert to Christianity, to give up their own culture and customs, to become English, not, not at all the other way around. And so to accept the possibility that the English assimilated with the Croatoan, gave up their English customs, interbred, had, you know, biracial babies God forbid. That was not something they were willing to accept. In fact, they would rather believe that the English, these men, women, and children were massacred, brutally murdered by these people whom they viewed as savages. Which option supports their deeply ingrained racist views? Assimilation or massacre? Our minds are deeply complicated beasts. We do not like to have our beliefs challenged. It goes against everything our brains are trying to do biologically, which is to make sense of things, to understand, to be in control and when you think you know and understand something so deeply and so fully, in this case “these native people are godless savages and the English would never under any circumstances forsake their Englishness, their Christianity, their civility, to go live with them.” That is your deeply rooted perception, your context for understanding the world and then you see that word “CROATOAN” carved in the post. And underneath it all you know exactly what that word means but challenging deeply rooted beliefs is, is painfully difficult. Your brain rejects it. “Croatoan? Hmm? There not here? I don’t know where they went? They must have disappeared. I bet the savages killed them, that’s what savages do.” And this misguided thought, sparked out of a need to defend long held beliefs, grows and grows as the story is retold over and over again, as it’s transformed into a myth of epic proportions. And whether it’s based in racism or greed, politics, tourism dollars, there is motive there to try to manipulate this story. But now, now it seems we can put that myth to bed. The evidence found on Hatteras Island, evidence of a blacksmith, hammer scale, which seems to prove an English presence over a long period of time, may finally force us to face the obvious answer we tried to bury for so long.
[Scott Dawson interview]
It’s important work, setting the record straight. It’s the whole mission of History Fix, the whole reason I pop into your airwaves each week and, you know, I think Scott’s right, I think the mystery of the Lost Colony will endure for a lot of people for the simple reason that they want it to. But I’m personally ecstatic over these new findings. The thought of the colonists making it to Croatoan, and being accepted amongst the people there. And, really not trying to conquer them, right, just joining them and living with them willingly in this beautiful blend of cultures where you have Algonquin style longhouses interspersed with an English style blacksmith forge. Where you have relationships between two groups of people who were so incredibly different in almost every way. It’s a testament to our ability, our potential to accept and love one another no matter what. And I think it’s such beautiful closure to what has always been a very tragic story. The story of the Lost Colony is a tragedy, the murder of Wingina, the deaths of so many indigenous Americans by disease, misunderstandings, outright aggression, an inability to work together, to see past differences, we have women and children, babies lost, presumed dead, murdered. That’s not a fun story, that’s a gut wrenching tragedy. Why are we so determined to hold on to it when in reality, if the new evidence found on Hatteras means what it appears to mean, the real story had a happy ending. We set aside our differences, we overcame our differences, and we got along and that is not an ending you see repeated often throughout history. Let’s teach that to our children, that we are capable of happy endings. The colonists may have been lost to England, but to another group entirely, they were found, not the Lost Colony of Roanoke, the Found Colony of Croatoan.
Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. And a huge thank you to Scott Dawson, I have linked the website he mentioned in the description in case you want to support the work they’re doing. Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix.
Information used in this episode was sourced from The Head in Edward Nugent’s Hand by Michael Oberg and Island Free Press. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.
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