Dare’s arrival in Roanoke, a North Carolina man, Hamilton MacMillan, reported that he lived near a tribe of Native Americans who claimed that their ancestors were from Roanoke. MacMillan reported that they were able to speak English and that many of them had light skin, blue eyes, and light-colored hair, and that their bone and facial structure was different in comparison to the other native tribes in North Carolina. Some people believe that this is the Lumbee Tribe, who showed English habits of living. Some of them had facial hair, including beards, which Native Americans traditionally do not have. Researchers continue to discuss and debate the lost colony of Roanoke. The most recent theory is that the settlers argued during the months after White left, some believing that he would never return and others holding out hope. The opinion is that the group broke into two parties and went their separate ways, some heading toward Chesapeake Bay, where they had originally intended to settle, and the others partnered up and assimilated into the Croatan tribe.
Historians have traced this theory, and there is some evidence that a group of settlers did arrive in Chesapeake around this time. In 1607, John Smith and the Jamestown colonists settled in the Chesapeake area, and Smith engaged in conversation with the Native Chief Powhatan. Smith reported that Powhatan did not like new people entering his area and when they did, he attacked and killed most of them. In a conversation with Smith, Powhatan mentioned committing the murders of a group of settlers. When asked when this occurred, the date coincides with the time that a party of settlers might have arrived from Roanoke if they had left in early winter. Powhatan showed Smith proof of the colonists’ existence with trinkets he had saved from the massacre. They included a musket barrel, buttons, and pieces of iron. Other historians are quick to note, though, that Smith liked to embellish his stories, as did Powhatan, and that it is likely that Powhatan had obtained the musket barrel and other pieces by trading with other tribes, and used these artifacts to intimidate and scare colonists like Smith.
Visitors to the Roanoke settlement can see the small remnants left behind by the colonists. Ghosts are seen walking around where the fort stood and often appear standing along the beach, perhaps hoping to see a ship on the horizon bringing much needed supplies and reinforcements. Theories suggest that one of the ghosts may be the colonist George Howe, who was savagely attacked and killed by the natives while he walked the beach looking for crabs. Other ghosts may include the 15 men who were left behind to guard the settlement and murdered by the angry natives.
During my research of the Lost Colony, I had the opportunity to speak with Anne Poole, cofounder and research director of The Lost Colony Genealogy DNA and Archaeology Research Group. Anne and I were able to discuss many of the haunted sites in North Carolina, as she also leads the Carolina Ghost Hunters, which researches paranormal events around the state. Anne arranged the overnight ghost hunt in the state capitol building during the night that my research group, The Rowan Society, attended and had paranormal experiences of our own.
I spoke with Anne about her ongoing research and archaeological work at the Lost Colony area with cofounder Roberta Estes. The two women work with a team of archaeologists from England who are studying the site, and together they are determined to solve the mystery of what happened to Virginia Dare and the Lost Colony. They’re doing some incredible research, including using DNA from the descendants of the colonist families in England in order to test families in North Carolina who may be genetically linked.
For Anne, researching the Lost Colony became a passion for her at the age of ten, when her parents first brought her to the area to show her the history of North Carolina and the Lost Colony. She was hooked on the mystery from that point and has dedicated a generous portion of her time to researching the history of the Dare family and the other colonists. I asked Anne which theory she subscribed to as to where the colonists went, and she feels they stuck together and went to live with the Croatan tribe. She said from a logical standpoint, they were strangers in a new world, and there is safety in numbers. They were facing the unknown, as well as hostile native tribes, swamps, poor maps, high heat and humidity that they had not been exposed to in England, as well as the threat of alligators, bears, wolves, poisonous snakes, and other predators. She went on to explain that there’s also the evidence of Croatan written on the tree. She pointed out that if the people had headed to Chesapeake Bay, wouldn’t they have written the word Chesapeake on the tree? It certainly makes the most sense of all.
Little physical evidence remains of the colonists from Roanoke. An eerie stillness hangs in the air and in the surrounding woods.
As Anne and I continued to chat, the most interesting thing occurred. I saw a Native American man standing behind her in spirit. The more she talked about the Lost Colony and the Croatan, the stronger his energy became. His presence was so strong that I felt compelled to mention this to Anne. I described the Native American man to her and told her that I felt he was a protective guide for her, and beyond that, I had the impression that he was helping her on her quest to find the evidence of the Lost Colony. As I spoke to this man in spirit, he told me that Anne is a descendant of the Lost Colony and that it is part of her destiny to assist in finding what happened to the colonists. It appeared to me that he intends to stay with her on every step of this journey until it is complete. As I shared what I had seen with Anne, it surprised her a bit, and then she shared with me a story of a place she had been only a short while back where she had been giving a lecture on the history of North Carolina. After the talk, a woman approached her and said that she had seen a Native American man standing behind Anne during her talk. My having seen the same spirit during my conversation with Anne served to confirm this even further. It certainly left me with the understanding that Anne may very well be the person to discover the evidence that so many have looked for, as I believe her to be one of the descendants of these colonists.
Finishing up my conversation with Anne, I thanked her for her time, and we discussed holding a ghosthunting event in the future for other paranormal researchers and interested people who wish to explore North Carolina. She also confirmed for me the history of what I had found in my research about the Lost Colony. She then shared that she had experienced some supernatural experiences in some of the other places I was writing about, including the Mordecai House in Raleigh. While Anne and her daughter were there, her daughter had a ghost touch her and blow in her ear while they were in Mary Turk’s room on the Mordecai House tour.
There’s so much still to uncover about the Lost Colony of Roanoke. One thing is for sure: when you visit the Lost Colony area, it feels eerie and isolated. It looks open and unprotected, and the woods surrounding you feel dangerous. The area remains much the same as it was when the settlers arrived, and you’ll get a good idea of what it was like to live at that time.
I enjoyed the natural beauty and scenic views of the area. At the same time, I tried to imagine what it was like to be Eleanor Dare, pregnant in a new world and facing starvation, exposure to the elements, and the constant threat of being attacked and killed by natives. I also wondered how John White had been given the position and responsibility of being governor, as research shows that he was an artist by trade.
As I tuned in to the energy around the area, I thought I would sense fear, but it felt more like nervous tension, like anxiety. The daily struggle of waiting, hoping, and wondering if help would come or if an attack by the natives would occur each night would be so much to bear on a daily basis. The area has a haunted, lonely feeling that still remains today. With that much anxiety, fear, and death, it’s not surprising that ghost stories continue to be reported in the local area.
The Roanoke Island Historical Association presents an outdoor drama each summer portraying what happened to the settlers of the lost colony. The scene is striking, set outdoors on the area where the settlement once stood, using the Atlantic Ocean as the backdrop.
In my conversation with Anne Poole about the surrounding area, she shared with me another haunted story, which she has personally experienced on Roanoke Island. It began on Mother Vineyard Road, where the oldest grapevine in the United States
