The Lost Colony of Roanoke

The most famous disappearance in American history. John White left his colony on Roanoke Island in 1587, including his granddaughter Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas, and when he finally got back in 1590 the place was empty. The houses had been taken apart and everything portable carried off, which is not what a massacre looks like, and one word was carved into a palisade post: CROATOAN. White read it the obvious way, that they had moved to Croatoan Island, and could not reach it before the weather turned him home. The competing explanations are assimilation with the local people, an attack, and a severe drought that tree rings place squarely across 1587 to 1589. Public historic site, Dare County, North Carolina.