Roanoke Island — Lost Colony Site

In 1587, 115 English settlers established the first English colony in the Americas on Roanoke Island. When Governor John White returned in 1590, every settler had vanished without a trace — the only clue a word carved into a tree: 'CROATOAN.' No bodies, no graves, no signs of attack were found. The fate of the colonists remains one of American history's greatest unsolved mysteries. The site at Fort Raleigh reports apparitions in Elizabethan dress walking the earthen ramparts, particularly the figure of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America.