1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:11,160 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here an unsolved mystery can drive people crazy 3 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:13,680 Speaker 1: and the fate of the first English settlers ever to 4 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:16,480 Speaker 1: establish a colony in the New World. Roanoke is a 5 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:19,600 Speaker 1: puzzle that will probably never be entirely solved, but it 6 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:24,160 Speaker 1: doesn't keep people from trying. In July seven, a ship 7 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:27,600 Speaker 1: carrying ninety men, seventeen women, and eleven children landed on 8 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:30,840 Speaker 1: Roanoke Island on the outer banks of modern day North Carolina. 9 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:34,159 Speaker 1: A year before, when the site was discovered, fifteen men 10 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:36,880 Speaker 1: had volunteered to stay and hold down the proverbial fort, 11 00:00:37,159 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 1: but they were nowhere to be found, so the a 12 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:42,400 Speaker 1: hundred and eighteen colonists disembarked and set about carving a 13 00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:46,080 Speaker 1: colony out of the wilderness. There's much excitement when Eleanor Dare, 14 00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:48,560 Speaker 1: the daughter of leader John White, gave birth to the 15 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:51,040 Speaker 1: first English baby born in the New World, and named 16 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: her Virginia. After a time, John White left the settlers 17 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 1: to return to England, telling them he'd be back within 18 00:00:57,160 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: the year with fresh supplies. However, England war with Spain's 19 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:03,680 Speaker 1: load the process considerably and nobody was able to check 20 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: on the settlement again until fifteen nine, when White returned 21 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:11,160 Speaker 1: his daughter, granddaughter, and everyone else was gone. They had 22 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: dismantled the buildings, carved the word Croatoan into a tree, 23 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,160 Speaker 1: the name of the friendly Native American tribe on a 24 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:20,679 Speaker 1: nearby island, and vanished. There was no sign of the 25 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 1: cross White had told them to carve on a tree 26 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: if they had left under duress. Frankly, White didn't look 27 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:29,240 Speaker 1: very hard for his daughter and granddaughter before heading back 28 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:32,319 Speaker 1: to England. For centuries, the story of the lost Colony 29 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:35,039 Speaker 1: of Roanoke seemed pretty cut and dried to most historians. 30 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:38,040 Speaker 1: The settlers went to live with a Crowatoan tribe. Whether 31 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:41,119 Speaker 1: they stayed there or not, nobody could say. The thing 32 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: they could say is that no definitive sign of any 33 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 1: of the one and eighteen colonists was ever found, despite 34 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:50,800 Speaker 1: rumors in the later established Jamestown colony of massacres and 35 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: men wearing European clothes deep in the wilderness. No definitive sign, 36 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,040 Speaker 1: that is until more than three centuries later, when in 37 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:02,600 Speaker 1: nine then a produced dealer from California named L. E. 38 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:05,560 Speaker 1: Hammond showed up at Emory University in Atlanta with a 39 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: stone he found while hunting hickory nuts in a recently 40 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,400 Speaker 1: cleared North Carolina swamp some fifty miles or eight kilometers 41 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:15,840 Speaker 1: inland of Roanoke Island. It was inscribed with a message 42 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:18,799 Speaker 1: he wanted the experts at Emory to decipher. It turns 43 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:22,200 Speaker 1: out the carved stone told a story allegedly written by 44 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:26,519 Speaker 1: White's daughter Eleanor. The colonists endured two years of only 45 00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: misery and war after her father left for England, ending 46 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:32,920 Speaker 1: with half the settlers killed in armed combat and many 47 00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:36,079 Speaker 1: of the others, including Eleanor's husband and daughter, slaughtered when 48 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: a spiritual leader of the tribe they lived with warned 49 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:41,359 Speaker 1: that the presence of the English settlers was angering the spirits. 50 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 1: According to the stone, only six men and one woman escaped. 51 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:48,160 Speaker 1: The stone was found to be authentic by the Emory 52 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:51,400 Speaker 1: experts at the time, it seemed legitimate, and better still, 53 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 1: it satisfied everyone's thirst foreclosure around this dusty old riddle. 54 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: The story captured the imagination of the entire country, and 55 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:02,520 Speaker 1: Emery Professor Heywood J. Pierce Jr. Published a paper describing 56 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:04,959 Speaker 1: the stone in the Reputable Journal of Southern History in 57 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: eight but soon the plausibility of the stone came into question. 58 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 1: We spoke with John Bentz, archivists at the Rose Library 59 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:17,800 Speaker 1: at Emory University. He said Emery became suspicious of Hammond 60 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: after some professors and administrators traveled with him to Edenton, 61 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:24,120 Speaker 1: North Carolina, where he found the stone. The search for 62 00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:27,560 Speaker 1: the original location of the stone was fruitless. This added 63 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:30,240 Speaker 1: to the growing list of details about Hammond's discovery that 64 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: we're hard to corroborate. Emery had someone in California look 65 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:36,040 Speaker 1: into Hammond, but couldn't find much more than an address. 66 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:40,240 Speaker 1: After Pierce and his father, another academic paid Hammond for 67 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 1: the first stone and offered a five hundred dollar reward 68 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:45,920 Speaker 1: for any additional stones people might find. You can imagine 69 00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 1: how many dare stones came out of the woodwork. The 70 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:51,840 Speaker 1: pierces paid a man named Bill Eberhart, a stone cutter 71 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:55,040 Speaker 1: from Fulton County, Georgia, two thousand dollars for forty two 72 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:58,440 Speaker 1: forgeries he brought them. These stones had Eleanor marrying a 73 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: Cherokee chief, giving birth to another daughter named Agnes, and 74 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:05,120 Speaker 1: eventually dying in a cave in Georgia in April of 75 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 1: nineteen forty one. The Saturday Evening Post ran an expos 76 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:10,840 Speaker 1: a on the Dare stones, dismissing them all as forgeries, 77 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:14,160 Speaker 1: citing anachronistic language and a consistency of spelling that was 78 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:17,440 Speaker 1: unheard of at the time. The Pierce's career suffered, and 79 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:19,640 Speaker 1: the Dare stones were stuffed in a basement at the 80 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:24,120 Speaker 1: father's university, an embarrassment to everyone involved. But every so 81 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: often academic interest turns again to the Chowan River Stone, 82 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:30,320 Speaker 1: the original Dare stone found by Hammond in that North 83 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: Carolina swamp. It's made of different rock than the others, 84 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:37,120 Speaker 1: a bright white quartzite interior and dark exterior that would 85 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:39,279 Speaker 1: have made a good choice for Eleanor Dare's missive to 86 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:42,320 Speaker 1: her father, and in the nineteen thirties, the patina on 87 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:45,960 Speaker 1: the stone would have been difficult to chemically replicate. In addition, 88 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:49,160 Speaker 1: it doesn't contain the anachronistic language of the other stones. 89 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 1: Some experts have determined the only problem might be in 90 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:56,000 Speaker 1: Eleanor Dare's sign off the initials E W D, which 91 00:04:56,040 --> 00:05:00,080 Speaker 1: would not have been a typical signature in the sixteenth century. 92 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:03,240 Speaker 1: Many experts still dismissed the Tawan River stone as an 93 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 1: obvious phony but it's possible that new research into Elizabethan epigraphy, 94 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:11,040 Speaker 1: chemical analysis, and other rock inscriptions of the time period 95 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:19,640 Speaker 1: will yet shed light on this still unsolved mystery. Today's 96 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:22,479 Speaker 1: episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. 97 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:25,000 Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other mysterious topics, 98 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:38,720 Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com.