Day 7 - off to Roanoke Island NC

We left our Misty Mountain (Charlottesville) campgrounds on the Saturday following Monticello trip - heading to North Carolina. The end of the day brought us to The Refuge at Roanoke, a campground on Roanoke Island that sounds more romantic than it is BUT we had a full hook-up which by now you should understand means electric, water and our own personal sewage dump.

This Roanoke Island is about halfway down the Cape Hatteras peninsula which we were eager to explore. It is also the place where there was The Lost Colony of Roanoke. There are two towns on the Island, Manteo and Wanchese which are both names of Algonquin indians who befriended the settlers. Manteo is the more developed of the two towns and where we got a totally amazing "breakfast in a bowl" at TL's Family Restaurant, that is, grits, a biscuit, bacon, sausage, cheddar cheese and two eggs for $7.00 (and yes, in a bowl). Not to be missed. Manteo is the town where there is also Festival Park which was a lovely park for the dogs, also pictured below) and Fort Raleigh Historical Park where we learned all about the Lost Colony.

The Lost Colony turns out to be a lot less mysterious than I had thought. There were two excursions funded by England to the New World in about 1585 mainly for the purpose of bringing back New World wealth. The first group had with them one artist and one scientist which is great for the historical record because there are interesting paintings of the Algonquins, how they lived, the fauna, etc. This first group of settlers recorded how welcoming and generous the Algonquins were. But the relationship soured. There are accounts of how the Algonquins would give the settlers 60 otter pelts in return for one pot and there is a general feeling in the writing that the settlors were consistently getting the better deal. And then also, the Algonquin started getting deathly ill with Western diseases. At a certain point, the settlers decided to kill the chief of the Algonquin. This may have been because the Settlors wanted more of what the Algonquin had or it may have been because the Settlors heard that the Algonquin were intending to attack them. I read both versions.

Fortunately for the Settlers, after they killed the chief, an expedition showed up that took the lot of them off Roanoke Island and returned them to England. Two Algonquins returned with them, Manteo and Wanchese. One or two years later another group of Settlers came, this time with women and children, and this is the group that became known as the Lost Colony. It is also the group that produced Virginia Dare as the first European child born in the New Country.

Well, would you want to be a part of this second group after the first group killed the Algonquin's chief? No. things did not go well for them and they insisted that the governor of their group return to England to bring back more supplies because guess what - the Algonquins were not being very forthcoming. When the governor left he told them that if they had to leave to write the name of where they were going on a tree, and he also told them that if they were leaving in distress to use a certain word.

Well, the governor got back to England but due to circumstances (all boats being used in war with Spain) he was never able to get back to Roanoke. But years later another ship stopped there and there was no sign of the settlement. Neither were there graves or signs of war. Carved into a tree was the word COA which was understood to mean Croatan which is now known as Cape Hatteras. Croatan was also the home town of either Manteo and Wanchese, or both, so it makes sense that if circumstances dictated the settlers needed to leave they would go there.

No intact evidence was ever found of the Settlers down in Croatan. However, there were indians that had grey eyes and spoke of ancestors that would talk into a book. They were very proud of these ancestors. So it seems likely that the settlers went down to the end of the Outer Banks where they might have more support from the local indians (not sure what tribe) and that they eventually melded into the group. So interesting! but I guess I always thought that they disappeared as in maybe getting beamed up.

There's another amazing restaurant on Roanoke Island called the Front Porch which has excellent coffee brewed on site and fabulous baked muffins and other baked goods. Unusually good.

We left Roanoke the next morning and moseyed on down to Charleston.Read more