Unearthed Secrets: Shocking New Artifacts May Finally Reveal the Fate of the Mysterious Roanoke Colony
The settlement was abandoned, and the only clue about what happened was a single word carved into a tree: “CROATOAN.”
In the more than 400 years since everyone seemingly vanished, numerous theories have sought to explain the fate of the Roanoke colonists. Some have suggested a terrible fate befell the Roanoke settlers, with rumors of cannibalism becoming pervasive. Others theorized that the colonists may have died off during a harsh winter.
Even the word “Croatoan” — the original name of Hatteras Island and the Native American tribe who lived there — developed its own morbid mythology.
Some have claimed that the poet Edgar Allan Poe, shortly before his death, had been muttering the word “Croatoan.” Amelia Earhart had allegedly scrawled the word in her journal shortly before her fateful final flight. Horror writer Ambrose Bierce had purportedly slept in a bed etched with the word mere nights before he vanished. The walls of the prison cell holding Wild West stagecoach robber Black Bart reportedly had “Croatoan” scratched into them — and he was never seen again after his release.
But there is no concrete evidence to suggest that any of this is actually true. Most likely, these stories were concocted later to add to the mystery surrounding Roanoke and the Croatoan tribe. What it shows, though, is how the story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke continued to both baffle and intrigue people for centuries.
Finding Croatoan/FacebookArchaeologist Mark Horton, who has been assisting Dawson in excavations on Hatteras Island.
Scott Dawson wasn’t buying it, though.
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