Thomas Hariot Nature Trail - Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

Our October 2015 visit to Fort Raleigh National Historic Site concluded with an easy one-third mile hike along the Thomas Hariot Nature Trail loop. The trail begins and ends near the reconstructed Fort Raleigh. An intersecting trail near the start connects the Waterside Theatre and the Administration Building. Continue straight on the nature trail. At the end of the loop, the nature trail terminates at the intersecting trail. A left turn and then a quick right will bring you back to the fort and the paved path back to the visitor center.

Thomas Hariot was the only Englishman on the 1585 expedition able to speak the Carolina Algonquian language of the Pamlico tribes. By necessity, he became the translator for Sir Ralph Lane. In addition, he was a mathematician, developing the "English school" of algebra, and an astronomer, mapping the moon a few months before Galileo. He published his account of the voyage, A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, in 1588.

Nature Trail near intersection with the Administration - Waterside Theatre trail

Albemarle Sound

Typical trail conditions

Another view of Albemarle Sound

An ancient live oak tree

More of the trail as it climbs back over the one "hill" along the route

Entrance to site is the free. Within the park, two non-federal park partners charge fees:

• The Lost Colony drama presented by The Roanoke Island Historical Association
• The Elizabethan Gardens

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/fora/index.htm.

Fort Raleigh - Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

Our October 2015 visit to Fort Raleigh National Historic Site continued with a quarter-mile round-trip walk along a mostly paved trail to the 1950 reconstruction of the fort.

The trail begins on a wide sidewalk

An 1896 monument marks the approximate site of the fort

The inscription on the 1896 marker reads:

ON THIS SITE, IN JULY – AUGUST, 1585 (O.S.), COLONISTS, SENT OUT FROM ENGLAND BY SIR WALTER RALEIGH, BUILT A FORT, CALLED BY THEM “THE NEW FORT IN VIRGINIA” THESE COLONISTS WERE THE FIRST SETTLERS OF THE ENGLISH RACE IN AMERICA. THEY RETURNED TO ENGLAND IN JULY, 1586, WITH SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. NEAR THIS PLACE WAS BORN, ON THE 18TH OF AUGUST, 1587, VIRGINIA DARE. THE FIRST CHILD OF ENGLISH PARENTS BORN IN AMERICA – DAUGHTER OF ANANIAS DARE AND ELEANOR WHITE, HIS WIFE, MEMBERS OF ANOTHER BAND OF COLONISTS SENT OUT BY SIR WALTER RALEIGH IN 1587. ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, 1587, VIRGINIA DARE WAS BAPTIZED. MANTEO, THE FRIENDLY CHIEF OF THE HATTERAS INDIANS HAD BEEN BAPTIZED ON THE SUNDAY PRECEDING. THESE BAPTISMS ARE THE FIRST KNOWN CELEBRATIONS OF A CHRISTIAN SACRAMENT IN THE TERRITORY OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL UNITED STATES.

Archeologists determined the actual site of the earthwork fort

A wayside exhibit explains how the fortification was built:

English Explorers' Earthwork

European expeditions in the late 1500s commonly constructed small defensive structures. Soldiers built these earthworks by digging ditches and then forming wlls from the removed soil. Ralph Lane, a fortifications expert, led the 1585 English expedition. At this spot, Lane busied his men with constructing such an earthwork. You can see the reconstruction of his structure in front of you.

The purpose of the earthwork is unknown. You can see that its small ssize would not have provided nearly enough space for the numbers of 1585 explorers, let alone the mor than one hundred settlers that arrived two years later. Documentation shows the settlers lived in a palisaded fort, which has not yet been found.

Visitors can enter the fort along this path

Reconstructed ditch and berm

Another view of the earthworks

A palisade gate like this would have blocked the entrance

Four posts signify a single rectangular structure was located in the fort

A final look at the trenches and walls

Entrance to site is the free. Within the park, two non-federal park partners charge fees:

• The Lost Colony drama presented by The Roanoke Island Historical Association
• The Elizabethan Gardens

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/fora/index.htm.

Lindsay Warren Visitor Center - Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

Fort Raleigh was an earthen fortification built by the English colonists of the 1585 expedition to Roanoke Island. Sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh, the group left England on April 9 utilizing a fleet of five ships. After being scattered by a storm, most of the ships reached the Outer Banks by early July. Sir Richard Grenville left the colonists on August 17 with a promise to return the next spring. Under the leadership of Ralph Lane, the colonists built the small fort and spent the winter on the island. Supply ships did not arrive in the spring as promised, but Sir Francis Drake did arrive in June 1586 and offered to take the colonists back to England. Lane quickly agreed due to limited food supplies and increasing tension with the local tribes, leaving on June 19. Grenville arrived later in the summer to find the colony abandoned. He left behind a small garrison to maintain the English claim to the land, but there was no sign of them when the "Lost Colony" arrived in 1587.

The visitor center houses the usual information desk, museum, bookstore and offices. A theater shows the 17 minute video entitiled Roanoke: The Lost Colony. Restrooms are located in a separate building across the entrance plaza. The site includes 14 acres north of Manteo. We visited in October 2015.

Entrance

Information desk

Exhibit area

The museum area contains numerous artifacts

Bricks for the opening of a small furnace

Crucible shards and charcoal

Glass beads

Iron sickle, axe and nails

Exhibits on the Civil War Battle of Roanoke Island and the Underground Railroad

Exhibit on local work of Reginald Fessenden, the inventor of AM radio

Reproduction of Sir Walter Raleigh's drawing room

Monument to the "safe haven" of Roanoke Island for slaves

Entrance to site is the free. Within the park, two non-federal park partners charge fees:

• The Lost Colony drama presented by The Roanoke Island Historical Association
• The Elizabethan Gardens

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/fora/index.htm.