The Mysterious Disappearance of Roanoke Colony

(clock tower ringing) (crows squawking) (thunder booming) (dramatic music) - This week on BuzzFeed Unsolved, we discuss what may be the oldest mystery in the United States, the lost colony of Roanoke. Do you know anything about this one, no? - Colonial intrigue.

- It's pretty much an entire island of people vanishing. - Poof. - Without a trace.

- They poofed. - Yeah, I guess you could say it that way. - Yeah, we heard about this in grade school.

- You learned about this in grade school? - I went to a very grim grade school. - That explains a lot.

Let's get into it. On May 8th, 1587, approximately 120 settlers left England and sailed to Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina, arriving some time in July 1587. The governor of the new 1587 Roanoke settlement was John White, an explorer and artist.

There were a few small attacks (war sounds) from local Native Americans within the first month, and the colonists reportedly desperately wanted John White to return to England and retrieve more supplies for them, such as food, tools and more people. So on August 25th, 1587, just a month after arriving, White sailed back to England to gather supplies, leaving behind 115 colonists. 87 men, 17 women and 11 children, including his own daughter, Eleanor White Dare, who had just given birth to a daughter, and White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare, the first baby born in North America to English parents.

- [Shane] Whoa. That's cool. - [Ryan] Yeah, and she's kind of like, at least the name Dare is kind of etched into all of our history, like there's Dare County.

- Yeah, I'm familiar with that. It's such a pain in the ass to have to go back to England all the time. - I've done things where I forget something at home when I go to work.

I forget my laptop at home sometimes, I gotta drive back. Could you imagine if you went out on a voyage, and you realized (snaps fingers) fuck, forgot. - Food.

- (laughing) Well, looks like I'll hop back in the boat. See you in three years. - It took three fucking years?

- (laughing) Yeah. Unfortunately, White's timing was poor. England was on the verge of going to war with Spain, (cannons booming) which had a particularly strong armada, and he was unable to return to Roanoke for some time.

It was not until August of 1590, three years later, that White would finally make his way back to the island. To his bewilderment, when White arrived, he found that the entire colony had vanished without a trace. The only clue left behind was the word Croatoan carved into a fence post, and Cro, carved into a tree.

If they had the foresight to write that clue, why not leave more clues? - [Shane] They didn't have like a fridge that they could put a little magnet and a note on. - [Ryan] (laughing) No, I mean-- - [Shane] Did they have quills?

- [Ryan] They obviously had a tree and fence posts that they could carve into. Why not carve a little map? - [Shane] They could have just added like a see you there.

- [Ryan] Something like that, help 'em out. - [Shane] FYI went to Croatoan. - [Ryan] Be back never.

- [Shane] TTYL. - [Ryan] (laughing) See you soon. - [Shane] Your fam.

- [Ryan] Or not, 'cause we're dead. - If he's sailing back to England to get supplies, and they get surrounded by Natives who say, hey, you're coming with us. And they go, oh you think so?

Let me grab my knife. Oh, we don't have the knives yet. (Ryan laughs) I guess, where do you want us to go?

What do you want us, oh you want us to jump in the ocean? You got it. I'm saying, I'm doing whatever they tell me.

- So you think they lined them up and walked themselves into the ocean. - I think they said, get in a single file line, walk into the ocean. - [Ryan] White then reportedly made two attempts to sail south about 50 miles to the nearby Croatoan Island, now known as Hatteras Island, to search for the colonists.

However, according to White, both trips were foiled by storms, and he was forced to turn back each time. Because the boat White was using was privately owned, he was unable to try looking for a third time. He returned to Europe and moved to Ireland, where he passed away in 1593, never knowing what became of his family.

- [Shane] What if they hated him? - [Ryan] What? - [Shane] What if they just hated him?

- [Ryan] The entire colony hated him and decided we're just gonna bounce-- - [Shane] Yeah. - [Ryan] And leave without all of the supplies we needed? - [Shane] I mean, they seem like they were doing fine.

- [Ryan] No, because they sent him to go get supplies, that was the purpose of-- - [Shane] Right, I'm saying that's their, that's their like, yeah, you better leave for three years. - [Ryan] Oh, you're saying that they faked starvation? - [Shane] Yeah.

- [Ryan] You think they all were doing a bit? - I think they were doing a bit. Good colonial razz.

Just like, he's buying it! He's going to that other island! (Ryan laughs) - Oh my God.

- We got him! He left. They all came back out, had a little pig roast.

- The locals are in on it too and they're all snickering behind the bushes. (Ryan snickers) - We got him good. - Look, he's sailing away!

- What an idiot. (spooky music) - To this day, nobody knows for certain the fate of the lost colony of Roanoke. Even more chilling, despite 115 people disappearing, no bodies or signs of a mass grave have ever been found.

Historians have theorized on the lost colony in the hundreds of years that have passed and plenty of people online have pointed to supernatural causes. None have been able to provide conclusive evidence. That being said, let's jump into the theories.

The first theory is that the settlers were murdered by a local Native American tribe. In fact, a previous attempt had been made by the English to colonize Roanoke Island years before between 1585 and 1586, but they soon returned to England after attacks from some of the Native Americans they encountered, as well as a shortage of food. The governor of the first Roanoke colony, Ralph Lane, was not known for his diplomacy with the Native Americans.

Lane would actually go on to kill the king of the local tribe, Wingina, in an attempt to prevent the Natives from rising up against the colonists. - [Shane] Not the best diplomat. - [Ryan] (laughing) No.

- [Shane] Not great negotiation there. - [Ryan] I think this guy was just a little bit of a situation where it's sour grapes. He came, he thought he was going to be welcomed because he's this English lord.

- [Shane] Yeah. - [Ryan] And when someone doesn't bend the knee, he gets a little pissed off. - [Shane] Mm hm.

If I'm a native, and I got people trampling around. - [Ryan] Yeah. - And I'm saying, hey, you guys maybe get out of here?

You know, I'm getting kind of sick of this. You're bumming me out, also, you don't own this fucking land. Maybe you could leave.

And they're like hm, no! We're waiting for our friend! He's gonna bring us blankets.

(Ryan laughs) I'd be like, alright. Let's kill these dudes. I kill 'em.

I wanted 'em out of there in the first place. So yeah, I'm gonna take a little broom and a dustpan, mop up their bones, throw 'em in the ocean! (thunder) - [Ryan] This prompted Sir Francis Drke to come rescue the colonists and bring them back to England.

As you know, a different set of English colonists would return about a year later in 1587 and vanish. Though, as mentioned before, no mass graves or any large scale number of bodies have ever been found that might support the idea that over 100 people had been murdered. - So there was an attack the month before he left.

- Yes. - I mean, I think we're done here, right? - Why do you think we're done here, there's no-- (Ryan stammers) - There's a lot of animosity there.

- Yeah, but there's no evidence to that this ever went down. - Where do you want the evidence to be? It could be anywhere.

- I want-- - You got a big, wide-open wilderness there. You can stuff bones anywhere. - I mean, I'm sure they've excavated it.

They've looked for it. - They've excavated the whole-- - It's an island, it's not like it's big. - They could have moved them off the island.

- Sure, but there still was no signs that there was a mass attack. - Did they drag the ocean? (Ryan laughs) For bones?

- I guess not. - Also, I mean, it's not like there's forensic teams back then. - Yeah, I guess-- - They're not like, we've combed the island.

- I guess no one's at their desk-- - The year is 1600. - (laughing) We're out there dusting for prints. - We combed it as best as we could, we looked.

(Ryan laughs) I got on top of a large hill and did this. (Ryan laughs) Didn't see bones. They vanished.

(spooky music) - [Ryan] The second theory is that the English settlers joined a nearby friendly Native American tribe and assimilated. One possible Native American ambassador was a man named Manteo, who traveled to England in 1584, but also made a second year-long trip after that between the two Roanoke expeditions. In fact, he sailed back to Roanoke with John White and the new colonists in 1587, spending months together on the journey across the Atlantic.

Furthermore, after Manteo was baptized upon his return to Roanoke, John White declared Manteo to be the chief of the Roanoke and Croatoan tribes, whom the English called the Croatan. This guy, on the way back to the island is just like-- - You will be chief! (Ryan laughs) I say so.

I'm a white man. - Yeah, well if John says so, then let's set it up! There's your crown, there's your chair!

- What a piece of shit. - [Ryan] However, Manteo was only from the Croatan tribe, not the Roanoke tribe. He could not control them, and so he ended up going back to Croatoan Island with his people, possible returning at some point to Roanoke to take the colonists with him to Croatoan Island.

In 1888, 54 Croatan Native Americans petitioned congress for aid, describing themselves as a remnant of White's lost colony. A few months later, the directors of the Ethnological Bureau responded writing, quote, it was thought that traces of white blood could be discovered among the Indians, some among they having gray eyes. It is probable that the greater number of the colonists were killed, but it was quite in keeping with Indian usages that a greater or less number, especially women and children, should have been made captive and subsequently incorporated into the tribe.

End quote. In 2015, archeologists found a series of objects of European origin on Hatteras Island, where the Croatan tribe resided. This included broken bowls from England, the hilt of an iron rapier sword (sword unsheathing) and a writing tablet made of slate, that may have still had the letter M printed on it.

And aglets. The sword is of a type used in England in the 16th century and the hilt of it would have belonged to an Englishman of high standing. The writing tablet would have been used by educated, upper-class Europeans.

Aglets are small copper tubes used before the 17th century to secure wool fibers. Therefore, these findings would seem to point to the presence of colonists of roughly the same time period and class as the people of Roanoke. However, most of the European finds on Hatteras Island were among other objects that date back to the 17th century, about 100 years after the disappearance of the Roanoke colony.

Last but not least, this theory could explain the carving Croatoan that the settlers left behind, perhaps as a clue to their whereabouts. - So John White didn't look for them on this new island? This-- - He tried to but then the storm.

- He failed. So they could have chilled there for a while and then eventually were like, well, hey I heard other people are moving in a couple states over. - I guess.

- Near Philly. We're gonna go check that out. - Possibly.

- Get some cheese steaks. - [Ryan] Which brings us to our third theory, that the lost colonists didn't move to Croatoan but instead, moved inland. If you'll recall, John White, the governor of Roanoke, was also an artist.

He was also part of the original failed Roanoke expedition and between 1585 and 1593, he created a detailed watercolor map titled, quote, La Virginea Pars, end quote, that shows the North Carolina coast and includes both Roanoke and Croatoan Island, which are colored red. The cartography of the map is thought to be extremely accurate, described by museum experts as, quote, the most careful, detailed piece of cartography for any part of North America to be made in the 16th century. End quote.

And, when compared to modern satellite imagery of the same area, the only differences in the map are the naturally changing shapes of the coastline. Yeah this guy wasn't looking at Google Earth. - [Shane] No.

- [Ryan] He was like, I don't know how you even do that. I guess I'm not a-- - How do you do it? - [Ryan] I don't know anything about cartography.

- You don't. - I'm not a cartographer. - You absolutely do not.

- Well neither do you. - [Shane] Well, yeah. - [Ryan] I think if you told me to make a map of Hollywood right now, I would have a hard time doing it.

- Sometimes, if I'm figuring out how I wanna rearrange furniture, I'll make a little map of my room and then, you're like, oh, I didn't even include the closet! I forgot there's a closet here! I can't even map my apartment!

- Wait, you've-- - You've never done that? - You make maps of your room? - I think we had a map off, I would win.

- I would be, I'd be devastated. At a glance, this seemed like nothing more than a map but upon closer inspection, this map was revealed to perhaps hide secrets that seem straight out of the film National Treasure. - [Shane] I was gonna say!

- [Ryan] I knew you would like a Nick Cage reference. It's one of Nick Cage's best performances. - [Shane] It stinks.

- [Ryan] The Declaration of Independence. In 2012, a nonprofit organization called the First Colony Foundation requested that the British Museum reexamine two small patches on the map. Using patches to cover mistakes or damage was a common technique in 16th century map making, because maps took so much time and work to create that starting over wasn't a viable option.

Using x-ray spectroscopy, infrared light, and other imaging techniques, the British Museum was able to determine that the smaller patch was covering a four-pointed star outlined in blue and filled in with red. According to the British Museum's report, quote, while the detailed interpretation of this symbol is beyond the scope of this study and is best left to experts in the field, it seems certain to represent a fort or fortification. End quote.

In other words, the star may show the location of a fort inland from Roanoke Island, on the western side of Albemarle Sound, where the colonists could have resettled. He covered it up and they found it by using light, and I'll, here I'll demonstrate this. I actually prepared this for you.

This is the map, right? - Yeah, I know how light works. - Yeah.

That's the map. - Yeah, you put a light underneath, you'd see-- - Yeah, look how dope this is. Just a little map that you could see the star!

- I know what light looks like-- - It's so cool! - When you shine it through a piece of paper. - But like, I'm just saying, it's freakin' awesome.

- You didn't prepare enough to put a star on there? - There's a-- - Oh. I actually couldn't see it.

There you go. - Now you could see the star. Yeah, it's pretty good, right?

- It's good. Good work. - [Ryan] Further adding to the mystery, when examined closely, it was discovered that there are actually light markings of this possible fort on top of the patch as well.

The British Museum's report posits the markings faded over time, but it also proposes, quote, one other possible if rather romantic explanation is that these lines could reflect the use of an invisible ink. An ink that would only be revealed when treated in some way, usually by applying heat, end quote, as demonstrated in the film National Treasure. These invisible markings could be accomplished by using milk or lemon juice.

- [Shane] Great. I'm on board. - [Ryan] I will say this.

- [Shane] What? - [Ryan] I tend to lean that it's invisible ink, mainly because, why did they cover it up with a patch only to write on top of it again the same exact thing? - Right.

Like, he was like, I'll put this here. Oh, shit. Maybe I don't want people to know about this.

Patch it up. Maybe I want some people to know about this. (clicks tongue) - Yeah.

- Squeeze a lemon. - Then he gets to-- - Milk a cow. Doot doot doot doot.

- And then he gets to Nick Cage it. - Yeah. - [Ryan] If this fort was indeed intended to be hidden, why the secrecy?

Some speculate White could have wanted to hide the colony's location from the English court, which may have contained spies. Whatever the marks indicate, they believe this evidence supports the idea that the settlers could have left Roanoke Island for this inland location. Interestingly, John White himself reportedly made an oblique reference to a location 50 miles inland from Roanoke Island in his account of what happened when he returned.

Excavations on this site have turned up evidence of Europeans, including Surrey-Hampshire border ware, a type of ceramics that was discontinued soon after Jamestown in 1624, and aglets, the aforementioned copper tube used before the early 17th century to secure wool fibers. This is the best indication of tying the location to Roanoke colonists, though these items cannot, without a doubt, be dated to the same exact timeframe. Even if it's eventually confirmed that the colonists moved inland or to Croatoan Island, many possible unanswerable questions remain, such as why did they leave Roanoke Island?

And what happened to them afterward? Since no definitive existence of any of the 115 lost colonists was documented after August 25th, 1587, these questions have led some to point to supernatural causes. - Oh.

No no no no no no. - [Ryan] What's wrong? - I'm just, I'm bracing myself for whatever stupid-- - [Ryan] Whatever truth comes out here?

- Don't. No. - [Ryan] Is that what you're scared of?

- That's not what I'm expecting. Look, I mean, once you get through the stuff that makes sense, you tend to land on aliens. - [Ryan] Which brings us to our fourth theory.

That the colonists' disappearance was an instance of mass abduction by aliens. Some believe aliens would explain why the colonists' bodies were never discovered. And if Croatoan was in fact a clue to where they were going, then why did the colonists not offer any other substantial clues, such as a note, or a map?

Perhaps, because they left the island in haste and not on their own volition. And while I'm going off the deep end, let me end this theory with one last point. What if the hidden symbol on the map is not in fact a fort, but rather, a craft to signify a landing spot?

Obviously, if this were true, it would absolutely be something that would be hidden. - [Shane] It's mass abduction! Maybe they all lined up in a row and just got in the tractor beam one at a time.

- [Ryan] Yeah. - [Shane] That's like when you go to the bank and they, it's one of those little chutes. Just people lining up to get-- - Oh yeah, just go into the-- - In that pneumatic tube.

- [Ryan] Just sucked up into the tube. - Thoonk. - Yeah.

- [Shane] Thoonk. Thoonk. - That's a knowledge bomb right there.

- No, that's not a knowledge bomb. - I just did a airstrike. I did a flyover.

You're down there going, yeah, they walked into the ocean! And I dropped the bomb right on top of your big, stupid head. - I don't think that's-- - And now, you're startled by the truth.

You're dazed. - I think you have altitude sickness. - There's stars away from, rounding your eyes.

- There's no stars here. I think you're insane. - No.

Don't you think that's pretty cool? That that could in fact be a sign, like a crop circle? - Yeah, but again, if you're already stressed out that these people wrote on a tree something without any context, why is he not gonna write on the map, hey, we saw something weird here, instead of just putting a strange little symbol.

- Because maybe they assimilated with the alien culture and it's much better there. - [Shane] No. - They're on the prairies and fields of alien landscape, eatin' little alien berries.

Eatin' alien popcorn with half alien kids and half human. - You're hearing yourself saying these things, right now. You're committing to this.

This is what you want to be known as. - [Ryan] Shockingly, aliens is not the most outlandish theory. - What did, wait.

Wait, hang on. (Ryan laughing) It didn't even occur, I didn't even, I didn't even hear the words that you were saying when you said, brings us to our next theory because I thought that was as dumb as it was gonna get. - I told you, you have no idea where this is going.

And with that, we have our fifth theory, that the lost colony of Roanoke disappeared due to a zombie plague. (Ryan laughing) Hear me out. I got some, I got some, I got some stuff here.

- Read it. - [Ryan] A researcher named Andre Freeman, from the Zombie Research Society, believes zombies would explain the swift disappearance. Quote, a sudden undead plague sweeping through the unprepared colony would quickly become a horrific, violent feast, leaving not a single man, woman or child alive.

End quote. Roanoke was after all an island, so it would conceivably contain the infection to the confines of the shoreline. Before you tune out, Harvard archeologist Lawrence Stager claims he actually discovered evidence that would suggest mass cannibalism on Roanoke.

Granted, Roanoke was experiencing the most extreme drought in the area in 800 years, so some would say this evidence points to the fact that colonists turned to plain old cannibalism rather than the walking dead. - [Shane] You think that's maybe more likely? - [Ryan] Maybe.

What if this is the only case of zombies ever and because it was on an island, it was contained, so therefore it would never happen again? - What if, it's not? There's nothin'.

- There is that bath salts thing where someone thought that guy was a zombie. - He was alive! He had a beating heart.

- Yeah, they were poppin' him with bullets and he was just taking them. - Yeah, 'cause he was on drugs, Ryan. - He was getting peppered.

He was like, feed me more bullets! Yeah! In the end, the mystery of Roanoke continues to baffle.

Did they simply relocate, perhaps joining a neighboring tribe? Were they killed due to tensions with the locals? Or, does the answer lie beyond our comprehension?

The true fate of the legendary lost colony of Roanoke remains unsolved. (creepy music) - Hey Ryan, I like your shirt. - Thanks, I like yours too.

- Thanks. - [Both] Buy it here.