Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is where Sir Walter Raleigh landed on Roanoke Island (reached on U.S. 158) in 1584. The following year the first English settlement in America was founded on the island by John White, and here on August 18th 1587 White's granddaughter Virginia Dare was born - the first child of English parents to be born in North America. Thereafter the settlement mysteriously disappeared. Returning from Europe some years later White found only the enigmatic word "Croatoan" carved on a tree, indicating perhaps an attack by a local tribe of Indians of that name. The Visitor Center at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site tells the story of this "lost colony".