Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, in Manteo, on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, commemorates the first efforts of the English to colonize America. Between 1585 and 1587, the English soldier and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh organized two colonies on Roanoke Island. Neither colony survived, and evidence of the exact location of the colonists’ dwellings has never been found.
In 1585, Raleigh sent 108 men to America. The men established a colony on Roanoke Island. Raleigh intended the colony to be a base for capturing and looting other countries’ ships. But the settlement proved unsuitable for this purpose. In addition, tensions developed between the settlers and the American Indians who lived there. In 1586, the colonists returned to England.
Raleigh sent a second group of 117 settlers, including women and children, in 1587. Shortly after the colonists’ arrival, John White, the colony’s governor, sailed back to England for supplies. War between England and Spain kept White from returning until 1590. When he arrived back at Roanoke, he found that the colony had been abandoned and the colonists had disappeared. Although White made several attempts to locate the settlers between 1590 and 1602, he never found them.
A visitor center at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site contains artifacts from what may be America’s first science laboratory. In 1991, archaeologists working at the site discovered remains of a metals workshop believed to have been established by Thomas Harriot and Joachim Ganz, two scientists who were among the 1585 group of colonists. The center also contains copies of water-color paintings of the New World by John White and exhibits on the colonists and Elizabethan life. The center houses the Elizabethan Room. This room contains original oak paneling and a stone fireplace from the house of a wealthy English family of the late 1500’s, such as would be found in the homes of the colony’s investors.
The site’s Elizabethan Gardens are a memorial to the lost colonists. They are typical of the gardens cultivated by the colony’s financial backers. At the site’s Waterside Theater, summertime visitors can watch The Lost Colony, a dramatic musical performance that tells the story of the 1587 colony.
Fort Raleigh became a national historic site in 1941. The National Park Service operates the site.
