Original subtitles

The history that we were all taught growing up is wrong.

My name is Scott Wolter, and I'm a forensic geologist.

There's a hidden history in this country that nobody knows about.

There are pyramids here, chambers, tombs, inscriptions.

They're all over this country.

We're going to investigate these artifacts and sites, and we're going to

the truth.

Sometimes history isn't what we've been told.

Many people think they know the story of the lost colony of Rona.

But chances are they don't know this.

48 clues to the case that have been sitting untouched for half a century.

48 stones inscribed with messages that could tell us exactly what happened to

the lost colony of Rona.

They're called the Dare Stones.

allegedly carved by colonist Eleanor Dare.

They were scattered throughout the South, a trail of clues to the settlers'

fate.

All of the stones were found during the Great Depression over a period of just

four years.

The short time frame of discovery for so many artifacts led scholars to declare

them fakes.

But academics have been wrong before, and that's why I'm going to study them

myself.

This is the original dare stone found in 1937.

Jim, this is an amazing stone. Can you tell me, what does it say? It talks

the difficult times they had for a couple of years or so.

There was misery, and they were attacked by Indians.

There were a number of people killed.

Wow.

The front of the throne has a cross at the top, and underneath it says, Ananias

Dare in Virginia went hence unto heaven, 1591.

I can read that pretty easily here. Once you tell it, it's right there. And then

on the bottom, any Englishman show John White, Governor Virginia.

John White is Eleanor Dare's father, and when the colonists had hard times, he

goes back to England to ask his boss.

Sir Walter Raleigh for more supplies.

When White finally returns, everyone had disappeared.

So tell me, what is the consensus of opinion?

Is this real or not?

The general consensus is that this stone is fraudulent. If this stone were

considered to be authentic, then all the American history textbooks would

include this story of what happened to the lost colony.

But they do not.

Well, maybe they should.

That's what I intend to find out.

If forensic geology shows significant weathering, then there's a chance this

stone is authentic and that Eleanor Dare really did carve this clue.

My cursory look at this rock, it looks like a quartzite.

So quartzite's very hard, very durable.

It really doesn't chemically weather. It will physically weather, but it's

really not going to give us a nice linear weathering profile that we might

other rocks.

What I want to do is generate a three -dimensional image so we can actually

at the profile of this groove.

Okay, so it's a nice rounded groove.

And we can add some color. And the blue is the lower depths, of course, and the

red is the topographic highs.

So we can get a nice image here.

We can get some indication of age by looking at what we call coatings or

secondary deposits that get laid down both on the surface and down into the

cracks and in between the crystals.

If you look, you see these red rust areas? Yes. Sometimes you'll generate a

mineral called pyrite. And when it weathers, you get rust.

Yes. Okay. And this is the original exterior surface of the rock.

But if we look in the grooves, it gets lighter, more white. So you're getting

now into the fresh, unweathered rock. It doesn't have that rust.

Yes. So that, to me, would be consistent with having been in the ground for a

while. Sure.

I have to say, Jim, right now, I like stone number one.

I'm leaning towards authenticity.

Very good. I said in 1979 in an interview that I thought there was a 50

chance that this stone was authentic.

But maybe you've given me a different perspective here.

Even though this stair stone, the first one found, looks authentic to me, I need

to see all the others.

If I see the same level of weathering on the other 47 stones as I

did on the first, then they might be legitimate clues to the lost colony.

And those clues paint a grisly picture of colonial life.

Sickness.

Misery.

And finally, murder.

Well, I tell you what, one of the things that jumps out at me right away, this

geology here, here, here, and here is different than the other stone we've

already looked at.

The fact that I'm seeing these different rock types could mean they're more

likely to be genuine.

It makes me think they were carved in the areas where they were found.

This one here has what looks like some organic material and mud that might have

collected over time, and it's in the grooves.

This one also does, and I suppose if we looked at the others, we might see

evidence that these things were underwater, maybe during flood time.

And you know what?

I mean, that looks weathered. I mean, just my gut feel, it just looks

weathered, as does this one. I mean, my God, that's weathered like crazy.

Interesting. I'll tell you what, after looking at these stones in here, I'm

liking what I'm seeing.

Do we have a map that shows where these artifacts were found? Yes.

Here's a map showing the locations.

Here's the original settlement, Roanoke, and about 60, 80 miles away, the

original stone was found.

And then southwest down Greenville, South Carolina, 15 more stones were

Remaining 33 stones were found north of Atlanta, primarily.

Have people questioned why these are spread out over such a large distance?

People are concerned about the likelihood of this many stones found

long distance.

The counter to that would be, here's where they were found.

Something must have compelled them to travel that great distance.

You know, at that time and place, a stranded colony, and you can imagine all

kinds of things. But what's interesting is it seems, starting at Roanoke, it's

almost like we have a breadcrumb trail of these stones leading to wherever they

ended up.

God, this is amazing.

So far, I don't see any evidence that the Dare films are fake.

I think it might be another case where history has it wrong.

These stones could spell out where the colonists went and how they died.

But why would they travel so far inland?

Before I can understand the end of the story, I need to travel back to the

beginning. The place where the colonists were last seen alive.

There have got to be clues here, but I have no idea what they are.

What I do know is that right now I have a puzzle where none of the pieces seem

to fit.

So Rob, I just got back from looking at the Dare stones, and geologically I

really liked what I saw.

My understanding is most of these stones were carved by Eleanor Dare, and on one

of the stones she chronicles the death of her husband.

and her child, Virginia.

Now, was it true that Virginia was born at this site?

That is the case, that she was born on Roanoke Island.

Okay. So when the colonists first got there, what would they have had for

research? A lot of timbers for making ships, making houses and furniture.

And there's also medicinal plants.

such as that sassafras we see over there at the base of that pine tree.

Okay, I thought they used that for root beer, but actually you're telling me

medicinal purposes. Okay.

So there's the big question, Rob.

What happened to the colonels?

I know there's a lot of theories out there, but what do you think?

If they left here in an organized way, eventually they're going to fall prey to

an attack by native people.

To bad weather, like a hurricane, if they're traveling across the water,

are survivors would have assimilated into local Native tribes.

So this brings up the whole notion of the Native Americans and the

that they had with them.

Was it contentious? Was it good?

What do we know about that?

Not a very good relationship.

They're finding that they're not welcome here.

In fact, if you stray too far away from your group, you're going to likely get

killed.

And there was one colonist we know of who did stray away two miles along the

shore crabbing, and he's found later, and he's not alive.

They would learn the hard way, really.

Clearly, things didn't go as planned. I mean, we could all agree on that.

I keep looking down the axis of this thing here, which when I look at the

enclosing walls, I think it looks like defensive posture and maybe a lookout,

what do we think this was? Yes, that protrusion that goes out from the rest

the earthworks is going to be a good place to post someone and keep note of

anything that might be worth getting concerned about.

You know, when I look at this structure and these walls, this has an

interesting, almost geometric shape to it.

There's an intelligence, obviously, but a strategy behind the way that they

built this fort.

Here's that protrusion that we just talked about. There's the gate. And you

what? There definitely is the geometry here. It kind of looks like a diamond.

Wow.

All right. What do we know so far? We know that John White went back to

and three years later, he came back.

And they were gone. What other clues do we have that tell us anything about the

colony that was found here?

We've got the clues left behind by those colonists, evidently.

Large letters C -R -O -A -T -O -A -N along the north shoreline. On a palisade

post that surrounded the location of the houses.

So the word Croatoan was carved into a post here at Roanoke.

I know Croatoan was the name of a Native American tribe who was friendly to the

colonists, and it was also a physical place somewhere in North Carolina.

Maybe this is where the colonists went after they left Roanoke.

One thing is for sure, I need to check it out and get some answers.

My investigation into the lost colony of Roanoke began with the dare stones.

48 stones with messages that could be clues telling us what happened to

America's first European settlers.

Some people think the stones were part of an elaborate hope.

But the weathering of the inscriptions suggests to me they're genuine.

Another clue to the case cropped up in the opposite direction of where the

stones were found.

The word Croatoan carved in a post.

I'm on my way to what was once Croatoan Island, today known as Hatteras Island.

I need to know if the colonists actually came here.

And if they did, how this clue connects with the darestone.

How you doing? Scott Dawson. I put all this together.

Okay. I don't know if you have any questions about it. This is a great

here. I'm a forensic geologist, and I've been investigating the Deerstones and

the Lost Colony.

They mentioned that some clues might be found here. I guess there was a carving

left by the colonists. Sure. The colonists in 1587 carved out the word

on a palisade. And a palisade is a circle of what looks like telephone

trees that went around where the settlement was to protect it. And so the

obvious place to leave a message would be on the palisade. And that's why they

put it there.

And Croatoan is the name of the island we're on now, which is actually where

English. had lived and traded.

Now they call it Hatteras, right? They call it Hatteras now.

And we've been digging on the Croatoan village for four years now. But I have

some things I'd probably be interested in. I would love to see them. That'd be

awesome.

These are glass trade beads, and they started making them around 1550.

And we know that the English brought lots and lots of these things over to

to get deer skins and pearls.

So these are dateable items, right? These have a dateable range, so they're

prior to 1650, but we don't know exactly how old they are. Sure.

This glass, however, they quit making this glass in 1600, and you can tell

been worked and nipped with iron tools.

Oh, napped, kind of like an arrowhead? Right, exactly.

Now, this type of glass would be in a window. It's window glass.

Wow. Cool.

So we have here artifacts that are found in the time period, but we don't have

anything that is a deadlock, if you will, connection to the lost colony.

correct. We have not found Virginia Dare's pinky ring or anything of that

nature. But for me, the proof is not in the archaeology. It's common sense. They

went to Croatoan, as they indicated.

You've got a situation that these colonists are walking into where the

on the mainland want to kill them and have attacked and killed them twice.

And they actually came to this island to get help.

You don't really think they were lost, do you?

No, I think they were never lost. They came to Crowley Town. The problem with

your thesis, from my perspective, is that we have the darestone standing

squarely in the way of that. So what that means to me is that you've got a

pretty compelling story. You've got documents, you've got artifacts, and yet

have the darestones that stand in conflict with that. So to me, what seems

a logical explanation for that is that perhaps...

To me,

that's the logical explanation, because that's the one thing that doesn't fit,

is the stone. So all of this is wrong and the stone is correct, or all of this

is correct and the stone is fake. No, there's another explanation.

They split up.

We have a strong evidentiary trail that leads to this party splitting up, one

going west, the other coming south.

That's where I'm at right now.

Don't know much about the stones. I don't put a lot of weight into things

come after the fact. You can argue that they split up and these different

things, and all of that is just speculation.

But as far as what is written down and what makes logical sense, going west

not make sense.

The only thing that I can do is testify to factual evidence. The whole thing

about, well, you know, at that time in 1937 when that stone was found, there

were all these stories, romanticism, all that stuff.

is irrelevant.

Facts are the things that carry it. No, they are irrelevant.

In a court of law, they're irrelevant.

And so if the facts stand in the way of speculation, the facts win.

The dare stones suggest that somebody, including Eleanor Dare, went west from

the Roanoke colony.

So until we can clear that up, we have to investigate.

Hi, honey. Hi, Scotty.

How's North Carolina?

Well, it's a little overcast right now, but you should be heading out of here

coming your way soon. Good, good.

What did you find out about the last colony?

I'll tell you what, I had a chance to look at the dare stones, and they are

amazing. I didn't have high expectations going into it, but the geology was

varied, the weathering of the inscriptions was varied, and...

I have to tell you, if I had to make a call today, I would say they look

to me.

Really? Wow.

That's amazing. The downside is I was a little pissed off with one of the guys

that I ran into who wouldn't listen to anything I had to say about the

Deerstones or the geology.

He was totally convinced that the colonists came down south of Roanoke to

area and absolutely was closed -minded to any of the geologic work. So that was

disappointing. Oh, I bet. That would be.

Yeah. Well, I might have another clue for you. Oh, yeah? What's that?

Did you get my email?

No, I didn't. Let me just pull up my computer here.

I just read this in the morning paper. It's hot off the press.

I need to open up Stevenist.

Ancient map could solve colony cold case.

What's this all about?

This map was drawn by the colony's governor, John White.

Oh, yeah.

A patch?

Yeah. It might be hiding something underneath there.

It says right here, this map may hold the answer to one of the most famous

mysteries in American history.

Well, I tell you what, if that's true, I need to see it.

I mean, this could be the next clue that I need.

I guess I'm not coming home right now after all.

I'm going to England.

I'm investigating the disappearance of the lost colony of Rona. And so far,

followed up on two leads.

First, the dare stones.

48 stones carved with clues that suggest the colonists abandoned their

settlement and moved west.

The second, the word Croatoan carved on a post, which could mean they went east,

the opposite direction of the dare stones.

Now, I'm following a new lead.

My wife Janet told me about a map drawn by the colonist governor, John White,

that could turn this whole investigation on its head.

Apparently, there's a mysterious patch on a map drawn by John White here in

England, and I want to know what's underneath it.

Maybe for the last 400 years, everyone has been looking for the lost colonists

in the wrong place.

So, Dr. Pratt, I've been investigating the lost Roanoke colony, and I spent

time looking at the Dare stones.

There are a bunch of stones that have been found beginning in 1937 up through

1940, up to 48 stones that most of them were carved by Eleanor Dare that

tell the story of the lost colony of Roanoke. I've heard about them. Okay.

I was looking to see if there was evidence of forgeries many people have

claimed. And I didn't see that. I think you can tell fakes pretty quickly.

Oh, yeah. You know, you can see where things have been added or weathered

artificially. I really believe it's pretty easy to tell. Well, I know it's

to tell because I have looked at fakes. And the fakes reveal themselves quickly.

It's the ones that are real that seem to hang around.

People never quite get it right.

But what I want to know today and talk about your area of expertise is about

this map that John White made.

And can you tell me a little bit about that map?

Well, it's called the Virginia PARS map, and I believe that means Virginia

Country in translation.

And it is probably one of the earliest and most accurate for that period.

They've actually laid a modern -day map over the top of it, and it's very, very

similar, even with all the shifting of the sand.

It's really accurate.

That makes the person who made it quite an extraordinary character, and that's

John White. And it's probably dated sometime between 1585 and 1590 when it

engraved.

Here we have a copy of the map for us to look at.

So we can see the whole coastline starting up here in the Virginia area

coming down into North Carolina.

This is Albemarle Sound and the Chowan River.

And then also indicating Roanoke Island, Croatoan. In red. In red to show that

these might be friendly areas where the Indians were more friendly.

Right at the junction of these two rivers. What's that? Yes, that's the

which has recently come to light. We've looked at that at the British Museum.

And we also have some details here where you can see through x -ray analysis

that there's actually something underneath that patch. There is. And you

what? If I look close on here...

I can see something. It looks like a pattern.

That's right. See, the X -ray analysis will reveal the drawing underneath,

looks like a sort of a shape of a star shape. With four corners. You know what?

I've seen that before. I've seen something very similar. It was on

Island.

Now, this is my first initial sketch.

Oh, that's interesting.

That's very similar. That kind of looks familiar, doesn't it?

This was the entrance back then, and there was a push out here they thought

for defense purposes and a lookout type of thing.

Could that have been a fort?

Well, that's certainly a possibility.

Certainly looking from an aerial perspective, that would follow the shape

fort.

But wait a minute here. Okay, so could this map?

indicate that the colonists moved inland and did not go down to Croatoan or

maybe planned to go there at some point. Yeah, I think that's a reasonable

supposition that it's more protected inland.

It makes a lot of sense from a strategic point as well.

Right now, there are a lot of locations with clues about the lost colony.

There are the 48 deerstones found scattered throughout the southeast in

Carolina, South Carolina,

And Georgia.

Then, there's the original fort site on the coast of North Carolina.

There's Croatoan, the island that corresponds with the clue John White

carved on a post.

And finally, further inland is the spot where the Virginia Pars map shows a

hidden fort.

Why would it have been covered up?

Because there was huge competition between England and Spain at this time,

Spanish ships were in the area looking for English.

So the idea that the English were getting ahead of the Spanish by making

colonies here would have been very dangerous. So I think covering up

like a fort would make sense.

You know, Stephanie...

Both the Deerstones and this map suggest, in my mind, that the colonists

have gone inland.

If so, why did they do that?

Could it have been because of the natives? They were in danger from them?

Or could it have been some well -laid -out plan? Could it have been John White

involved? Or was it his boss, Sir Walter Raleigh?

Well, I think that that's plausible, and I'm sure he would have plans about how

to establish a colony and how to protect it and how to keep it safe.

We've learned a little bit about John White, but the person I need to find out

about now is this Sir Walter Raleigh. I need to know more about him.

I can't help but wonder if Sir Walter Raleigh figures into this mystery

He was the man behind Rono, the man handpicked by Queen Elizabeth to

the first colony in the New World.

I wonder if he had anything to do with the hidden symbol on the map.

Maybe there were strategic motives in play for moving the colony, or even

its true location.

investigating the lost colony of Roanoke.

And, of course, the story starts over on this side of the Atlantic in England.

What I really want to know is more about Sir Walter Raleigh. Sir Walter is not a

lazy man.

Everywhere you look, Sir Walter's hand is in the action.

And that, I think, is what makes him so interesting, so attractive. He's a true

Renaissance character.

He's in there at the beginning, the first... phases of European involvement

what's now North Carolina.

My understanding is that Sir Walter Raleigh financed this colony. Is that

correct? Yes. He put a lot of money into the venture.

During this period of the latter half of the 16th century, there were other...

people trying to establish colonies in the New World, not just Sir Walter

Raleigh. Is that correct?

Yes. In fact, one of them was from this very college, a man called John Dee, Dr.

John Dee. He wrote advocating the establishment of an English or British

and advocating colonization.

There were many like him. It was in the air at the time.

So John Dee was a British expansionist. Would this have been a forerunner to the

colony? One of Dee's arguments was that the English, the British, had

been in North America long before Columbus's voyages. And so the British

have a prior claim. His argument of the case, of course, makes it easier for Sir

Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth I, to claim the New World.

What were Raleigh's motives for sending the colony over, do you think?

Well, for his own personal motives, of course, it's land and property.

Well, the land grab is important for Sir Walter.

He's a younger son, and in the way of things, the estates have all gone to

brothers, and he doesn't get anything. So now he's a favourite of the Queen, he

wants to make something for himself and for his family.

From the point of view of the state, what he's looking for is a military

The other thing, of course, they're looking for is something that the land

produces that is worth exploiting back home.

Silver and gold would be ideal, but if you can't find those, then useful crops,

useful plants, for example, faster brass, comes up in the early accounts as

useful plant.

You know, I was just over at the colony site at Roanoke and in the area, and we

saw lots of sassafras.

So if they're looking for sassafras, why?

Well, sassafras is a versatile plant. It can be used as a food flavoring.

At the time, it is also given a lot of curative properties for diseases,

particularly for syphilis.

I know that syphilis was running rampant in England at that time.

What a lot of people don't know is that some scientists believe it was a disease

introduced to the continent by none other than Christopher Columbus after

voyage to the New World.

At that time, sassafras was considered the only treatment for this New World

disease.

One of the rumors...

was that the queen had syphilis. If that's true, obviously this is one way

can please the queen by treating a condition that she may have had or may

have had. Yes, this rumor comes, of course, from the idea that Henry VIII,

father, had it and so passed it on to Elizabeth. There is no evidence that the

queen suffered from syphilis.

So do you think that sassafras might have been a motivation for them to move

inland? It might have been.

If you are...

If it's on the list of commodities to go and look for, then you have to go where

the Sassafras is.

I recently looked at a map that John White made, and there's an area that's

covered up with a patch. And looking carefully underneath that patch, it

to be a symbol of what looks like a fort.

Any thoughts about that? Those tantalizing, mysterious clues, which

we need to work further on.

You know, when I look at that symbol on the map, what I think is that this was

where John White wanted to build, or Sir Walter Raleigh wanted to build a fort.

We have a lot of clues here that the colony went inland.

And if there's a place where the secret symbol on the map, the sassafras, and

the deerstone clues all come together, we just might find the lost colony.

I'm headed to the place where I think the clues to the lost colony all

It's a golf course called the Scotch Hall Preserve, and it's a place that

corresponds with the secret symbol on John White's map.

I want to know if there's any evidence the colonists ended up building a fort

here, and if there's a connection to the dare stone.

Scott Wolfer. Jim Hughes, Scott. Nice to see you. Say, I'm looking into the lost

colony of Roanoke. Does that ring a bell at all? Yes, sir. That's big news

around here. The reason I'm here today is I recently looked at a map over in

England that led me to here.

And I'm looking into the possibility that maybe the lost colony came here.

And I was wondering if I could take a look around or if it would be possible,

maybe you could show me? Absolutely.

So when was this golf course built?

Golf course opened in 2009 and was recognized as one of the top ten best

courses in the country.

So that was just three years ago. A lot of earthwork was done here. Did they

ever find any evidence of colonial settlement or maybe the remnants of a

You know, I think they moved over a million cubic yards of dirt. They dug

12 or 13 ponds and all that.

No evidence was ever found of a fort or any colonial settlement.

Nothing at all. Nothing at all. You know, I'm not surprised. But it doesn't

that some of the colony didn't make it out here.

Beautiful spot.

This is the Chowan River.

And back there is Salmon Creek.

Okay, and this leads out to the ocean. Right, this is the Albemarle Sound. If

you follow it on out, you'll hit the Outer Banks. Okay, so this area where

map was repaired and John White drew what appears to be a symbol representing

fort is covered up. That would be here.

So what do you think? Was there a fort here?

There's no evidence of a fort being here, Scott.

I think we would have found some evidence of that or some other colonial

activity, but it just hasn't appeared.

A lot of people have speculated on what this covered -up fort -like symbol was

or is. And to be quite honest with you, I think what happened here is that this

spot is where John White wanted to put a fort and wanted the colony to be, but

it never happened.

However, that doesn't mean that some of them didn't get here. Which brings me to

the next map.

And that's a modern -day map. And what we have plotted on here is where the

deerstones were found.

There were a total of 48 stones found over a 300 -mile stretch beginning in

up to about 1940.

Now, here's where the first stone was found, and the only reference that we

says it was found near a town called Edenton.

Right across there. Right across the river on the north side.

Oh, you've got to be kidding me. So we're right in the same area. My theory

right. Because I believe Eleanor Dare must have known that there was going to

a colony here or a fort here. And so maybe she tried to get back to the one

place that she knew her father might look for her.

Wow.

There's one other thing that came to mind here.

Sassafras. Do you have any sassafras around here? We have a lot of sassafras.

You do? That's another piece to this puzzle. The reason that sassafras would

have been important to the colonists and to John White specifically is

because...

Sassafras was thought to be used for medicinal purposes, specifically in

treating syphilis.

I'm sure that had something to do with this whole desire to eventually

and bring back sassafras to England.

That's a hell of a story, Scott.

After discovering the place where the map, the stones, and the sassafras all

come together, my search for the lost colony is coming to a close.

But geology is key to putting this case to bed.

Something I learned in my forensic study of the Dare film was that the original

stone found in Eden was carved on a piece of quartzite.

And now I need to find out if quartzite is native to the area.

If Eleanor Dare really carved these messages, she would have used whatever

stones were nearby.

Hey, how are you doing? Hi, I'm Scott Walter. How are you doing? Paul Walker.

Nice to meet you.

I'm sorry to bother you here this morning, but this may seem like a

request, but I'm interested in your rock garden, the rocks specifically.

What is the origin of these? Did they come from Edenton here?

Yes. They did?

Yeah, along the banks of the Join River.

Okay. Is there any place nearby where I could take a look where they're actually

coming out of the ground?

Sure. Right out on the river there. Okay. Along the bank.

If Paul can show me some indigenous quartzite, it would bring me one step

to solving this mystery.

Got it.

Yeah.

Glacial quartzite.

Finding quartzite along the riverbank in Eden is like finding the last piece of

an elaborate puzzle.

Forensic geology told me that the message on the first darestone is likely

old. The discovery of quartzite is also consistent with the message being carved

on stone local to the area.

And both those discoveries suggest to me that the first darestone found, and

maybe the others, are genuine.

I'm convinced that the colonists moved throughout the region and left the

behind as a breadcrumb trail marking where they'd been.

Maybe they did go to Croatoan for a time, but the stones suggest they

moved inland.

I believe the dare stones should have been taken seriously a long time ago.

History ignored them because they didn't fit into the story we've been told.

But now, my science.

Tells a new story.

Next time on America Unearthed. I'm dying to take a look at this chamber.

landowner does not want you on their property.

What the hell is that?

Holy shit. Look at that.

More than one way to skin a cat and we're going to skin him.

If you have a mysterious artifact or site I need to see, I want to know about

it. Go to history .com slash unearthed.