Stone may solve mystery of ‘Lost Colony’ of Roanoke
Americans celebrated the nation’s birth this week, and one of the mysteries of its founding may soon be illuminated. This fall new research may confirm the authenticity of an engraved stone found near the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke — a stone dismissed for decades as a forgery.
“If this stone is real, it’s the most significant artifact in American history of early European settlement,” said Ed Schrader, a geologist and president Brenau University in Georgia, where the stone is kept. “And if it’s not, it’s one of the most magnificent forgeries of all time.”
On July 4, 1584, English explorers sent by Sir Walter Raleigh first landed on Roanoke Island, in what is now North Carolina. After a botched attempt to establish a settlement, Raleigh sent a second group of colonists in 1587, led by John White and comprising more families. With him he brought his adult daughter, Eleanor White Dare, and his sonin-law Ananias, a stonemason. Soon after they arrived, Dare gave birth to a daughter named Virginia.
The 117 colonists arrived too late to plant crops, and their situation quickly grew desperate. They convinced White to return to England to plead for help. It didn’t work. White arrived amid the Anglo-Spanish War, meaning every ship was commandeered to fight the Spanish Armada. He wouldn’t return to Roanoke for nearly four years.
When he finally did, he found the colony deserted. There were no skeletal remains indicating they’d been attacked. The fort was dismantled, showing they hadn’t left in a hurry. And on a fence post was carved the word “CROATOAN” — the name of a friendly Native American group nearby.
White wanted to launch a search, but the sailors he was traveling with refused. They’d only agreed to stop by Roanoke on their way back to Europe from the Caribbean, and there was a storm coming. White left with them the next day, and no one has heard from the Roanoke Colony since.
Except, maybe we have, and just didn’t realize it.
In 1937, a California tourist walked into the history department of Emory University in Atlanta with a 21-pound engraved rock he said he’d found in a swamp while traveling through North Carolina. It immediately caught the eye of Haywood Pearce Jr. — an Emory professor who also served as vice-president of Brenau, a small women’s college in Gainesville, Georgia.
On one side, the engraving appeared to be a grave marker, reading, “Ananias Dare & Virginia Went Hence Unto Heaven 1591 Anye Englishman Shew John White Govr Via.” On the other side, the inscription was much longer, and appeared to address White as “Father”: “Soone After You Goe for England Wee Cam Hither Onlie Misarie & Warre Tow Yeere ... Ye Salvages Faine Spirits Angrie Suddaine Murther Al Save Seaven Mine Childe Ananais to Slaine wth Much Misarie.”
It was signed “EWD” — Eleanor White Dare’s initials.
The inscription also hinted there were other stones to be found. According to the Brenau Window, Pearce transferred the stone from Emory to Brenau soon after, and then offered the public a bounty for the discovery of any other stones.
“And so, amazingly, all these additional stones that had been sitting around in the woods of North Carolina for 500 years just started showing up,” Schrader told The Washington Post. “You know, for 500 bucks a pop. So that’s just what happens, history of mankind, or at least, the free market.”
Within four years, nearly 50 more engraved stones surfaced, from all over Georgia and North Carolina, and mostly by a Georgia stonecutter.