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| The stormy Atlantic Ocean |
Growing up in Virginia, Dana learned about the famous Lost
Colony, the unsuccessful English settlement that vanished, and of Virginia
Dare, the first English child born in the New World. It wasn’t until she was an adult that she
learned that this colony was in North Carolina, and not in Virginia as she had
thought. Just shows how Virginia-centric
her early education was.
In fact, Roanoke Island is near North Carolina’s Outer
Banks, so we thought it would be a good stop while we were exploring here. We had a free week between responsibilities,
so we headed to OBX - not too far from home, sandy and salty. We arrived in Waves on a
picture perfect early Spring Thursday, and enjoyed another beautiful day the next day. Friday afternoon, the wind kicked up,
plastering sand to the backs of our necks and filling our ears with grit. Saturday
it rained 2+ inches with high winds that increased to gale force overnight
into Sunday. We decided to wait out the
high winds rather than try to drive a high profile motor home in a gale.
Sunday afternoon, when the winds decreased to a mere small
craft advisory, we drove from Waves up to Roanoke Island and Fort Raleigh
National Historic Site (Happy 102th Birthday NPS). There is a wonderful museum in Fort Raleigh,
but not a whole lot else to see. So, we
don’t have a lot of pictures for you.
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| Statue of Queen Elizabeth I who chartered the colony (statue located in the Elizabethan Gardens) |
The area was originally explored in 1584 with an expedition
of two ships sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh.
They found the native people welcoming and helpful. In fact, two native men returned to England
with them. The expedition returned with
tales of the wonderful new land.
In 1585, 107 men returned with the goal of settling and
claiming the land for England. They
explored, drew maps, and documented the flora, fauna and life of the Algonquian
people. Their commander Sir. Richard Grenville
returned to England to get more supplies.
Relations with the native people deteriorated, and the English murdered
the native chief. Fortuitously for the Brits,
Sir Francis Drake happened to sail by, so the settlement decamped with him. Grenville
returned soon after to find them gone, and left 15 men to hold the land for the
Crown.
In 1587, 117 men, women and children returned to establish a
permanent settlement. They were supposed
to settle in the Chesapeake Bay region but stopped at Roanoke Island to pick up
the 15 men. They found the body of 1
man, and no others. Their unscrupulous
ship’s captain refused to take them further, preferring to go down to Florida to
harass Spanish ships, so the colonists were abandoned on Roanoke Island. The native people had not forgotten what had
happened before, and tensions escalated.
The colony governor, John White (artist on the previous expedition and
grandfather of newly born Virginia Dare) was persuaded to return to England for
more supplies. England was at war with Spain,
so he was not able to return until 1590.
When he did return, the word CROATOAN was carved into a post and CRO was
carved into a tree. They had agreed if
the settlement was to move, they would leave word of where they had gone. A hurricane prevented White from heading to Croatoan
Island (now Hatteras Island) to see if the colonists had moved there, and he
had to return home to England. The
colonists were never seen again.
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| The restored earthen works from the settlement |
Archeologists have found remains of small earthen works that
probably surrounded the scientific labs of the first settlement. Scientists were sent to find precious metals
as part of that group. These grass-covered
earthen works have been reconstructed.
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| Lovely camellia |
On the same campus as the Historic Site, are the Elizabethan
Gardens. Built in the early 1950s, the
gardens pay tribute to the gardens of Elizabethan England that the lost
colonists had left to come to the new world.
The camellias were finishing their winter blooming season, and the
azaleas were just getting started. We
enjoyed the lovely blooms after what has felt like a prolonged winter. We could only imagine how lovely these
gardens must be when they are in full bloom.
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| Nothing says "Spring" like azaleas... |
Fort Raleigh is a sobering reminder of how dangerous and
chance-y it was for the English settlers who were colonizing the New
World. It is the beginning of a sad tale
of the treatment of the Native Peoples who had complex and well developed
cultures here. The Algonquian culture and
language were well documented by the first settlement. While there isn’t “much” to see and do at the
historic site, it is definitely worth a visit.
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| ...and tulips |
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