April 16, 2025 • 16 mins
Send us your strange and spoopy stories and it might be featured on an episode!
What befell the 115 inhabitants of the Roanoke Colony who mysteriously vanished in 1590? Left with only two cryptic clues—the words "CROATOAN" and "CRO" carved into a post and tree—this centuries-old American mystery continues to captivate our imaginations.
Governor John White's journey is particularly heartbreaking. After establishing the colony in 1587 with settlers including his own daughter Eleanor and newborn granddaughter Virginia, he sailed to England for supplies. What should have been a brief trip stretched into three agonizing years as the Anglo-Spanish War prevented his return. When White finally made it back to Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, he discovered a ghost town where a thriving settlement once stood.
The most compelling theories suggest the colonists didn't vanish mysteriously but rather integrated with friendly Native American tribes. Archaeological evidence supports this idea, with discoveries showing English artifacts alongside indigenous items in the same soil layers. Researcher Scott Dawson argues the colonists likely joined the Croatoan tribe, with whom they'd established friendly relations, to escape starvation and conflict with hostile tribes. Other possibilities range from disease outbreaks to violent ends, though the complete absence of human remains raises questions about these darker scenarios.
Whether a tale of survival through cultural integration or America's first major disappearance, Roanoke's legacy endures in our cultural consciousness, inspiring everything from scholarly research to popular entertainment like American Horror Story. What's your theory about what happened to America's lost colonists? Share your thoughts and subscribe for more explorations of history's most fascinating mysteries.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nikki (00:00):
Land, you say, as you raise your hand and point in the
direction of a tiny outskirt ofland.
Well, from far away it is tiny,but up close it's massive.
As you get closer to land, yourshipmates begin to get ready to
disembark.
Your crewmates tie the ship tothe dock and put a wooden plank
(00:22):
to connect the ship and the dock, so it is much easier to get
off the ship.
You put your right foot on topof the plank and put a little
pressure onto the plank to makesure it is steady Steady enough,
you think.
Then you take your left footand put it on the plank and
start to walk along it.
You make your way to the otherside and take a step off the
(00:46):
ship's wooden plank.
You look around at the familiarplace.
It's been a while since thelast time you have visited, but
with good reason.
War, a war with Spain, and theSpanish Armada had delayed your
return back to the island.
You tell your men to startunloading the ship and they all
nod and begin moving cargoaround.
(01:08):
You begin to walk straight,because last time you were here
they weren't too far away.
You make your way into thewoods.
You put your hand on yourweapon because you don't know
what to find or what might findyou out in these woods, which
you aren't very keen about.
(01:28):
After a few moments of walking,you exit the woods and come
upon a settlement.
A confused look comes acrossyour face and you stop.
You look around the settlementand there's no sign of life.
But that's impossible, youthink to yourself.
You walk towards the middle ofthe settlement where last time,
(01:51):
three years ago, it was full oflife, people, animals, and now
there's nothing.
You decide to look in some ofthe houses that are still up,
but again you find nothing.
You hear footsteps and look inthe direction that they are
coming from, hoping that it'sone of your colonists.
(02:13):
But it is one of your shipmates, unfortunately.
He stops next to you and scansthe area.
Is this where they were?
He questions you and you nod.
I don't understand where theycould be.
Your voice reaches an octavehigher and you get angry.
You grab your weapon and throwit in a nearby tree.
(02:35):
The shipmate sighs and goes toretrieve your weapon that is now
stuck in the tree.
John White, the shipmate callsout in an alarming tone and you
run over to where he's at.
You can't believe your eyes.
Right above your blue-handledweapon are the words C-R-O that
(03:01):
were carved in the tree.
The shipmate runs to a nearbypost and reads Croatoan.
He yells at you.
You grab your weapon from thetree and run over to the man and
then obviously your shipmate,where he is.
How could you have missed this?
(03:22):
You look at the post and brushyour fingers against it.
It reads Croatoan.
You take a second look at yourshipmate.
What on earth befell thesepeople?
You say that is one of thegreatest mysteries of the lost
colony of Roanoke, where 115inhabitants just disappeared and
(03:46):
no one knows why or how.
But today we're going to goover some very interesting
theories.
(04:09):
Hello and welcome back to theSanctum of Strange podcast.
I'm Nikki, your host, and thisweek we are going to be focusing
on the lost colony of Roanoke.
I figured every week or so wedo a different podcast episode.
So we do a different podcastepisode some weeks it's going to
(04:30):
be on actual friends andviewers who've had paranormal
activities in their lives, orit's going to be on a famous I'm
just going to call it a famouscase, kind of like Roanoke
mysteries that are unexplainedand maybe people that are
unexplained, just unexplainedand strange things.
Which leads us to today'spodcast episode of Roanoke.
(04:52):
I know I've mentioned thatbefore, but I'm so excited to
tell you this story.
Originally, this idea came frommy co-worker and she's always
found a fascination in Roanoke.
So I was like you might as welljust do Roanoke as the very
first episode of the spookyseries.
So our story so far takes placein present-day North Carolina.
(05:14):
Back in 1587, there was anEnglish colony of about 115
people.
In 18, ooh, in 1585, there werea group before the Lost Colony
who were led by Ralph Lane, whotried to make a settlement on
Roanoke Island but due to foodshortages and fights with the
(05:37):
local Native American tribes,they had to leave and go back to
England in 18, excuse me, in1586, go back to England in 18,
excuse me, in 1586, which I meanstinks, because they tried so
hard to start a new settlementbut they were met with so much
pushback that they had to goback and you know, for
(05:57):
everyone's safety, that stillsucks trying to make something
work and then just ultimately itnot working out.
So then a year passes and in1587, haha, I got it right that
time in 1587, a new group wentto Roanoke Island.
This group included women andchildren and was led by none
(06:20):
other than John White, our maincharacter from the beginning of
the podcast.
So imagine setting up and then,a few weeks later, john, our
person from the beginning of thepodcast, has to leave for
England to get more supplies forthem, ie the colonists.
Imagine just getting up andleaving because you have to go.
(06:43):
It's not something you want todo, but everyone's running out
of food, water supplies, youknow, ammunition, etc.
Etc.
What have you?
So John White leaves hisdaughter, eleanor Dare, and his
granddaughter who was just born,whose name is Virginia, and he
returns to England.
Well, he couldn't go to thecolony for three years because
(07:05):
the war with Spain and theSpanish Armada, religious
tension built.
Spain was Catholic and Englandwas Protestant.
The war, although it wasn'tofficially declared, was bought
about by religious beliefs.
Political rivalry, rivalry trysaying that 18 times fast
political rivalry and traderivalry why can't I say that
(07:28):
word today?
I apologize Lots of conflict ona number of different fronts.
So it was almost impossible notto go to war.
Imagine having a friend andbeing like nah, we don't get
along at all whatsoever, youjust wouldn't be friends with
them.
Imagine that situation.
The English also wereinterfering in Spain's affairs.
(07:49):
So King Philip of Spain decidedto invade England and tried to
overthrow the queen, who wasElizabeth at the time.
And Elizabeth didn't reallylike it and she had to fight
back.
If an invasion is happening inyour town and or city, wouldn't
you want to fight back andprotect the people and the
(08:10):
things you love?
You wouldn't just sit aroundwhile some stranger takes
everything you worked hard toget right.
Right.
So, war main events.
In 1585, the war started withthe Habsburg Kingdom of Spain
and the Kingdom of England.
England's military hadexpedition to today's Spanish
(08:34):
Netherlands under Robert Dudley,who is the Earl of Lakeshire
Excuse my pronunciation, I mightsay this name's wrong, I
apologize.
So this guy who was in supportof the Dutch rebellion against
the Spanish Hamburg rule,english merchant ships were
(08:54):
captured in Spanish harbors.
In 1587, the English navy had avery large victory at Gordiz,
which they attacked Spanishships and ports.
In 1588, the Spanish Armada,which was a large fleet sent to
invade England, was defeated bythe English Navy.
(09:17):
In 1589, england sent an Armadawhich was led by Sir Francis
Drake to counter-attack againstSpain, but unfortunately it
failed and was defeated.
Now, now that we have caught upto what led John White to go
(09:38):
back to Roanoke three yearslater, in 1590,.
He returns to the settlementexpecting to find his daughter
and a bunch of other people 115people to be exact but the
settlement was deserted and noone was around.
The only clue White had werethe words Croatoan and Crow,
(10:01):
which were carved in a post anda tree respectively.
So here are the theories.
Croatoan was the name of theNative American tribe that was
south of Roanoke.
So it is possible that theisland, that well, I guess the
people on the island, instead ofstarving or anything bad
(10:22):
happening to the colonists, theyintegrated with the tribe.
There are lots of books andtheories that say that this
theory might be the most logical, and I agree.
I mean, if you're going tostarve, I would rather much
likely go with hey, there's thistown over there, let's go hang
out with them instead of,unfortunately, you know, passing
(10:44):
.
So another theory is that theywere red-rummed spell that
backwards, please and you willunderstand by other Native
Americans.
It is also very possible thatthey were taken over, since they
didn't have as much food orwater and supplies were
dwindling.
This one is also possible, butI didn't find anything that says
(11:08):
that hey, they found a bunch of, you know, human remains or
anything along those lines,while looking this topic up.
The next theory disease andstarvation.
It is possible that thecolonists got a disease and they
couldn't get over it and thatcaused them all to perish.
(11:29):
Again, there's no bodies orskeletons, anything like that.
They could have all starved todeath and then the local
wildlife could have done whatthey do you know ravage the
bodies.
But again, I didn't findanything.
A lot of you know didn't findanything.
A lot of you know didn't findanything about skulls or body
(11:52):
parts or anything like that,although I feel both of these
theories are plausible.
But what would happen to thehundred and fifteen plus bones
of the colonists?
Another theory they were neverlost.
A new book suggests thecolonists went on to live with
(12:16):
other native tribes and theCroatoans, which were the
Croatoans and the Heterons.
Scott Dawson, who has dug up alot and I mean a lot of
artifacts, research and researchrecords where the colonists
lived, says that the mystery wasnever really a mystery and that
(12:39):
it was all pretty much made up,which I mean I understand,
because who doesn't love a goodmystery?
Dawson, who wrote a book on thetopic, said that the colonists
were surrounded by Indianvillages.
He said that the Croatoans andanother tribe, the Sekitoans,
(13:01):
hated one another and theSekitoans enslaved the Croatoans
before the English colonizersarrived.
In 1585, the English burned aSekitoan village and then became
friends with the Croatoans.
Obviously, the Secotoans didnot like any of this.
Dawson says that the Croatoanssaved the English from the
(13:24):
Secotoans and brought them tothe to Heatran's island village.
There are also artifacts thatshow a mix of English and Indian
life together.
So, like swords, guns, we'reapparently on the same layer of
soil as other Indian pottery,arrowheads, things along that
line.
Now we add a touch of horrorinto the mix.
(13:47):
This is pure fiction, but itshould be mentioned because I
find it entertaining and somepeople, some viewers, probably
do as well, or listeners.
Either way, you're probablyviewing this somewhere like on
YouTube.
Season six of American HorrorStory starts off with the
telling of a haunted house inNorth Carolina.
It's loosely based off of thelost colony of Roanoke, if
(14:11):
anything by title it's calledRoanoke.
It involves a couple, shelbyand Matt Miller, and they
experience paranormal activity.
The show kind of turns into areality show called the Roanoke
Nightmare, which documentseveryone's experiences.
Then a second part of the showis called Return to Roanoke,
(14:33):
where the actors from part oneand Matt and Shelby return to
the house and it gets kind ofweird from there.
So the actors, they meet thereal-life counterparts of the
people that they are playing.
It has twists and turns and, intrue American horror story
fashion, everyone goes mad andunfortunately passes Well, I
(14:57):
should say, almost everyone,that is.
There is just one survivor ofthat season.
Spoilers, I apologize.
This Roanoke season's theme alsodeals with dangers of seeking
out the supernatural, just likemost of our stories.
So when seeking out thesupernatural, just like most of
our stories, so when seeking outthe supernatural beings, please
be careful and safe when and ifdoing it.
(15:18):
I hope this episode of the LostColony of Roanoke was enjoyable
, as always.
Thank you for making theSanctum of Strange your home for
the strange and spooky.
This episode was written by me,nikki.
For more strange and spookycontent, please follow me on
TikTok X, youtube, and soon I'llbe doing a Discord.
(15:40):
You guys have a fantastic week.
I know this episode is a littleshorter than the other few, but
I figured I'd give us a littlebit of a leeway, since the
others were really long.
But have a fantastic week and Iwill see you guys in two weeks.
What the topic in two weeks isMaybe geoglyphs, maybe pyramids
(16:01):
I haven't decided yet, but we'llfind out together, won't we
have a fantastic weekend, thankyou.
Land, you say, as you raise your hand and point in the
direction of a tiny outskirt ofland.
Well, from far away it is tiny,but up close it's massive.
As you get closer to land, yourshipmates begin to get ready to
disembark.
Your crewmates tie the ship tothe dock and put a wooden plank
(00:22):
to connect the ship and the dock, so it is much easier to get
off the ship.
You put your right foot on topof the plank and put a little
pressure onto the plank to makesure it is steady Steady enough,
you think.
Then you take your left footand put it on the plank and
start to walk along it.
You make your way to the otherside and take a step off the
(00:46):
ship's wooden plank.
You look around at the familiarplace.
It's been a while since thelast time you have visited, but
with good reason.
War, a war with Spain, and theSpanish Armada had delayed your
return back to the island.
You tell your men to startunloading the ship and they all
nod and begin moving cargoaround.
(01:08):
You begin to walk straight,because last time you were here
they weren't too far away.
You make your way into thewoods.
You put your hand on yourweapon because you don't know
what to find or what might findyou out in these woods, which
you aren't very keen about.
(01:28):
After a few moments of walking,you exit the woods and come
upon a settlement.
A confused look comes acrossyour face and you stop.
You look around the settlementand there's no sign of life.
But that's impossible, youthink to yourself.
You walk towards the middle ofthe settlement where last time,
(01:51):
three years ago, it was full oflife, people, animals, and now
there's nothing.
You decide to look in some ofthe houses that are still up,
but again you find nothing.
You hear footsteps and look inthe direction that they are
coming from, hoping that it'sone of your colonists.
(02:13):
But it is one of your shipmates, unfortunately.
He stops next to you and scansthe area.
Is this where they were?
He questions you and you nod.
I don't understand where theycould be.
Your voice reaches an octavehigher and you get angry.
You grab your weapon and throwit in a nearby tree.
(02:35):
The shipmate sighs and goes toretrieve your weapon that is now
stuck in the tree.
John White, the shipmate callsout in an alarming tone and you
run over to where he's at.
You can't believe your eyes.
Right above your blue-handledweapon are the words C-R-O that
(03:01):
were carved in the tree.
The shipmate runs to a nearbypost and reads Croatoan.
He yells at you.
You grab your weapon from thetree and run over to the man and
then obviously your shipmate,where he is.
How could you have missed this?
(03:22):
You look at the post and brushyour fingers against it.
It reads Croatoan.
You take a second look at yourshipmate.
What on earth befell thesepeople?
You say that is one of thegreatest mysteries of the lost
colony of Roanoke, where 115inhabitants just disappeared and
(03:46):
no one knows why or how.
But today we're going to goover some very interesting
theories.
(04:09):
Hello and welcome back to theSanctum of Strange podcast.
I'm Nikki, your host, and thisweek we are going to be focusing
on the lost colony of Roanoke.
I figured every week or so wedo a different podcast episode.
So we do a different podcastepisode some weeks it's going to
(04:30):
be on actual friends andviewers who've had paranormal
activities in their lives, orit's going to be on a famous I'm
just going to call it a famouscase, kind of like Roanoke
mysteries that are unexplainedand maybe people that are
unexplained, just unexplainedand strange things.
Which leads us to today'spodcast episode of Roanoke.
(04:52):
I know I've mentioned thatbefore, but I'm so excited to
tell you this story.
Originally, this idea came frommy co-worker and she's always
found a fascination in Roanoke.
So I was like you might as welljust do Roanoke as the very
first episode of the spookyseries.
So our story so far takes placein present-day North Carolina.
(05:14):
Back in 1587, there was anEnglish colony of about 115
people.
In 18, ooh, in 1585, there werea group before the Lost Colony
who were led by Ralph Lane, whotried to make a settlement on
Roanoke Island but due to foodshortages and fights with the
(05:37):
local Native American tribes,they had to leave and go back to
England in 18, excuse me, in1586, go back to England in 18,
excuse me, in 1586, which I meanstinks, because they tried so
hard to start a new settlementbut they were met with so much
pushback that they had to goback and you know, for
(05:57):
everyone's safety, that stillsucks trying to make something
work and then just ultimately itnot working out.
So then a year passes and in1587, haha, I got it right that
time in 1587, a new group wentto Roanoke Island.
This group included women andchildren and was led by none
(06:20):
other than John White, our maincharacter from the beginning of
the podcast.
So imagine setting up and then,a few weeks later, john, our
person from the beginning of thepodcast, has to leave for
England to get more supplies forthem, ie the colonists.
Imagine just getting up andleaving because you have to go.
(06:43):
It's not something you want todo, but everyone's running out
of food, water supplies, youknow, ammunition, etc.
Etc.
What have you?
So John White leaves hisdaughter, eleanor Dare, and his
granddaughter who was just born,whose name is Virginia, and he
returns to England.
Well, he couldn't go to thecolony for three years because
(07:05):
the war with Spain and theSpanish Armada, religious
tension built.
Spain was Catholic and Englandwas Protestant.
The war, although it wasn'tofficially declared, was bought
about by religious beliefs.
Political rivalry, rivalry trysaying that 18 times fast
political rivalry and traderivalry why can't I say that
(07:28):
word today?
I apologize Lots of conflict ona number of different fronts.
So it was almost impossible notto go to war.
Imagine having a friend andbeing like nah, we don't get
along at all whatsoever, youjust wouldn't be friends with
them.
Imagine that situation.
The English also wereinterfering in Spain's affairs.
(07:49):
So King Philip of Spain decidedto invade England and tried to
overthrow the queen, who wasElizabeth at the time.
And Elizabeth didn't reallylike it and she had to fight
back.
If an invasion is happening inyour town and or city, wouldn't
you want to fight back andprotect the people and the
(08:10):
things you love?
You wouldn't just sit aroundwhile some stranger takes
everything you worked hard toget right.
Right.
So, war main events.
In 1585, the war started withthe Habsburg Kingdom of Spain
and the Kingdom of England.
England's military hadexpedition to today's Spanish
(08:34):
Netherlands under Robert Dudley,who is the Earl of Lakeshire
Excuse my pronunciation, I mightsay this name's wrong, I
apologize.
So this guy who was in supportof the Dutch rebellion against
the Spanish Hamburg rule,english merchant ships were
(08:54):
captured in Spanish harbors.
In 1587, the English navy had avery large victory at Gordiz,
which they attacked Spanishships and ports.
In 1588, the Spanish Armada,which was a large fleet sent to
invade England, was defeated bythe English Navy.
(09:17):
In 1589, england sent an Armadawhich was led by Sir Francis
Drake to counter-attack againstSpain, but unfortunately it
failed and was defeated.
Now, now that we have caught upto what led John White to go
(09:38):
back to Roanoke three yearslater, in 1590,.
He returns to the settlementexpecting to find his daughter
and a bunch of other people 115people to be exact but the
settlement was deserted and noone was around.
The only clue White had werethe words Croatoan and Crow,
(10:01):
which were carved in a post anda tree respectively.
So here are the theories.
Croatoan was the name of theNative American tribe that was
south of Roanoke.
So it is possible that theisland, that well, I guess the
people on the island, instead ofstarving or anything bad
(10:22):
happening to the colonists, theyintegrated with the tribe.
There are lots of books andtheories that say that this
theory might be the most logical, and I agree.
I mean, if you're going tostarve, I would rather much
likely go with hey, there's thistown over there, let's go hang
out with them instead of,unfortunately, you know, passing
(10:44):
.
So another theory is that theywere red-rummed spell that
backwards, please and you willunderstand by other Native
Americans.
It is also very possible thatthey were taken over, since they
didn't have as much food orwater and supplies were
dwindling.
This one is also possible, butI didn't find anything that says
(11:08):
that hey, they found a bunch of, you know, human remains or
anything along those lines,while looking this topic up.
The next theory disease andstarvation.
It is possible that thecolonists got a disease and they
couldn't get over it and thatcaused them all to perish.
(11:29):
Again, there's no bodies orskeletons, anything like that.
They could have all starved todeath and then the local
wildlife could have done whatthey do you know ravage the
bodies.
But again, I didn't findanything.
A lot of you know didn't findanything.
A lot of you know didn't findanything about skulls or body
(11:52):
parts or anything like that,although I feel both of these
theories are plausible.
But what would happen to thehundred and fifteen plus bones
of the colonists?
Another theory they were neverlost.
A new book suggests thecolonists went on to live with
(12:16):
other native tribes and theCroatoans, which were the
Croatoans and the Heterons.
Scott Dawson, who has dug up alot and I mean a lot of
artifacts, research and researchrecords where the colonists
lived, says that the mystery wasnever really a mystery and that
(12:39):
it was all pretty much made up,which I mean I understand,
because who doesn't love a goodmystery?
Dawson, who wrote a book on thetopic, said that the colonists
were surrounded by Indianvillages.
He said that the Croatoans andanother tribe, the Sekitoans,
(13:01):
hated one another and theSekitoans enslaved the Croatoans
before the English colonizersarrived.
In 1585, the English burned aSekitoan village and then became
friends with the Croatoans.
Obviously, the Secotoans didnot like any of this.
Dawson says that the Croatoanssaved the English from the
(13:24):
Secotoans and brought them tothe to Heatran's island village.
There are also artifacts thatshow a mix of English and Indian
life together.
So, like swords, guns, we'reapparently on the same layer of
soil as other Indian pottery,arrowheads, things along that
line.
Now we add a touch of horrorinto the mix.
(13:47):
This is pure fiction, but itshould be mentioned because I
find it entertaining and somepeople, some viewers, probably
do as well, or listeners.
Either way, you're probablyviewing this somewhere like on
YouTube.
Season six of American HorrorStory starts off with the
telling of a haunted house inNorth Carolina.
It's loosely based off of thelost colony of Roanoke, if
(14:11):
anything by title it's calledRoanoke.
It involves a couple, shelbyand Matt Miller, and they
experience paranormal activity.
The show kind of turns into areality show called the Roanoke
Nightmare, which documentseveryone's experiences.
Then a second part of the showis called Return to Roanoke,
(14:33):
where the actors from part oneand Matt and Shelby return to
the house and it gets kind ofweird from there.
So the actors, they meet thereal-life counterparts of the
people that they are playing.
It has twists and turns and, intrue American horror story
fashion, everyone goes mad andunfortunately passes Well, I
(14:57):
should say, almost everyone,that is.
There is just one survivor ofthat season.
Spoilers, I apologize.
This Roanoke season's theme alsodeals with dangers of seeking
out the supernatural, just likemost of our stories.
So when seeking out thesupernatural, just like most of
our stories, so when seeking outthe supernatural beings, please
be careful and safe when and ifdoing it.
(15:18):
I hope this episode of the LostColony of Roanoke was enjoyable
, as always.
Thank you for making theSanctum of Strange your home for
the strange and spooky.
This episode was written by me,nikki.
For more strange and spookycontent, please follow me on
TikTok X, youtube, and soon I'llbe doing a Discord.
(15:40):
You guys have a fantastic week.
I know this episode is a littleshorter than the other few, but
I figured I'd give us a littlebit of a leeway, since the
others were really long.
But have a fantastic week and Iwill see you guys in two weeks.
What the topic in two weeks isMaybe geoglyphs, maybe pyramids
(16:01):
I haven't decided yet, but we'llfind out together, won't we
have a fantastic weekend, thankyou.
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