Amateurs pick up search for 'Lost Colony'

'Greatest unsolved mystery in the Americas'
Fred Willard, the director of the Lost Colony Center for Science and Research, called the colony “the greatest unsolved mystery in the Americas.”

“And the things we’re finding could rewrite history books,” he said.

It took six months for The Lost Colony Center researchers to win permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to explore the Great Dismal Swamp. When they arrived, guided by GPS equipment and escorted by a pair of refuge officers, they found no conclusive answers.

In a mucky marsh, there was some partially buried wood that faintly — with the benefit of an active imagination — resembled the outline of an 80-foot-long boat. There were no other clues, such as the copper-sheathed hull common on seafaring vessels of Lost Colony’s time, and none of the three searchers had a scientific background or expertise to conclude much of anything.

Ray was convinced they’d found something. His son, Frank, wasn’t as certain.

“There’s no boarding ladder here, that’s for sure,” Frank Ray said. “You start with theory. This is a starting point. You’re not convinced until you get proof.”

Proof will have to wait for another venture into the swamp. The wildlife service refused to let the group probe the ground, dig for clues, or even take a wood sample for carbon dating. That will require a different permit.

“Anything seems plausible, but we can’t be sure until we can do more than just walk in and look,” Frank Ray said.

A Fort Raleigh archaeological dig led by veteran researcher Ivor Noel Hume in the early 1990s turned up the remnants of a scientific workshop — dating to the abandoned attempt at colonizing Roanoke two years prior to the Lost Colony — but didn’t uncover the colonists’ living area. In 1998, an archaeological dig led by East Carolina University on Hatteras Island turned up a signet ring that may have ties to English colonists.

The First Colony Foundation plans to use ground-penetrating radar to search for artifacts or structures at Roanoke Island. The group also plans to survey the shoreline to determine how it has eroded. Divers have already checked offshore areas, and researchers believe Fort Raleigh’s original site may be buried under water or eroded away altogether. If that’s the case, little would have been left behind to prove any theories about the colony’s fate.

“Every theory is probably partially true. Every theory is, however, significantly wrong,” said Phil Evans, president of the First Colony Foundation. “Everybody wants one answer, but the reality is that you’re looking to determine the fate of 117 different individuals.”

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