The Lost Colony of Roanoke

Mass Disappearance: What happened at Roanoke

Quite possibly one of the strangest and most mysterious mass disappearances is the case of the lost colony of Roanoke! It was John White an Englishman that brought more than 100 men, women and children to the island of Roanoke in North Carolina in 1587.

This was one of the first attempts by the English to achieve a presence in the new world. It was Sir Walter Raleigh that dispatched White, the original plan was for White and the colonist to be dropped off in the Chesapeake Bay area and establish a colony there. But, on route they stopped by Roanoke on the 15 men that were left there to maintain English presence. However, when white got there the 15 men were nowhere to be seen. it was then decided that the Colonist should stay at Roanoke!

After a while the supplies began to at Roanoke began to run out. So, pressure was put onto White to go back to England and ask to assistance. Reluctantly White set sail back to England. White left behind 115 colonists including his wife, his daughter and his granddaughter. After a while White set back to Roanoke with the much-needed supplies and a new crew, White made it back to Roanoke on august 18th 1590. But, when White and the new crew got there not a single person could be found! Plus, it was apparent that every structure had been taking down, carefully and not in a rush. Plus, there was no sign that anything had been destroyed forcefully.

There was no sign that the colonist had been forced out or had been under attack. But, yet all 115 colonists were nowhere to be seen! The only thing White found that was out of the ordinary was the word Croatoan that had been etched into one of the trees!

The name Croatoan was the name of one of the local Indian tribes, however this tribe was friendly towards the colonists White never managed to find out if the colonists stayed with the Croatoans and with bad weather white was forced to go back to England. White never came back to Roanoke and subsequently never found out what happened to the colonists and what happened to his own family!

Even to this date no one knows what happened to the colonists. Some theories have been put forward. The strongest theory is that they assimilated with the local Croatoan tribe or perhaps were massacred by a local tribe. However, no evidence has ever been found to support this theory. The thing is with Roanoke mystery is, no one really knows what happened to the colonists! Roanoke has gone down as one of the greatest unsolved mass disappearances of all time.