Roanoke

Roanoke Island lies between the Carolina mainland and the barrier islands of the Outer Banks. It takes its name from the Algonquian-speaking people who inhabited the area when English ships arrived in the 1580s. On the island's southern end, a settlement used for fishing had long provided its inhabitants with oysters, clams and other food from the surrounding waters.

Walter Raleigh sponsored an English settlement on the island in 1585; a second group of men, women and children arrived in 1587 under John White. White sailed back to England for supplies but was delayed by war with Spain. When he returned in 1590, the settlement was deserted and the word “CROATOAN” had been carved on a post. The colonists' subsequent fate remains one of the enduring mysteries of early English America.