Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

The word carved into a post — *CROATOAN* — is still the only answer anyone has. England's first attempted settlement on Roanoke Island vanished sometime between 1587 and 1590, when supply ships failed to arrive. Most modern scholars believe the colonists assimilated into local indigenous tribes, but the case has never been closed. The National Park Service preserves the site today, alongside a Freedmen's Colony established here in 1863 and the outdoor drama *The Lost Colony*, performed at the Waterside Theatre every summer since 1937.