Manteo in Dare County, North Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic)
The Lost Colony
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
| | National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior | |
The year was 1587, twenty years before Jamestown. Here on Roanoke Island a great moment in history occurred when 116 men, women, and children planted the roots of English society on the shore at Fort Raleigh. The colonists' hopes for a better life in the New World, however, clashed with the neighboring Indians. The settlement soon disappeared but the colonists' dreams lived on.
Since the early 1900s, the residents of Roanoke Island have paid tribute to these early English beginnings by staging events each summer. Success of a 1921 movie about the ill-fated settlement led to the creation of an outdoor drama, The Lost Colony. Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Green created the semi-fictional script from firsthand accounts.
[Caption:]
The Lost Colony is presented each summer in the outdoor Waterside Theatre (left) by the Roanoke Island Historical Association. To the millions of people who have witnessed the play since 1937, The Lost Colony remains a tribute to those who struggled and died colonizing the New World.
Erected by National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.
Topics. This historical marker
this page online
Location. 35° 56.297′ N, 75° 42.473′ W. Marker is in Manteo, North Carolina, in Dare County. It can be reached from Fort Raleigh Road north of National Park Drive, on the left when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1409 National Park Dr, Manteo NC 27954, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain and on the Outer Banks. It is also in the American South, specifically in the Upper South, in the Tidewater, and on the Eastern Seaboard. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region, North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture, one of the original Thirteen Colonies, one of the Confederate States of America, and the Antebellum South.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker:
By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), June 13, 2025
2. The Lost Colony, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and Elizabethan Gardens Markers
Credits. This page was last revised on June 22, 2025. It was originally submitted on June 22, 2025, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 219 times since then and 45 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on June 22, 2025, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia.
