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Roanoke Island Festival Park is a North Carolina state historic site located at the end of NC 400 in Manteo, North Carolina on Roanoke Island. The park includes a recreated 16th-century sailing ship, living history demonstrators, a museum, and a variety of performing and visual arts. Admission includes the main attractions and is valid for two days.
The Roanoke Adventure Museum is an interactive museum about the history of Roanoke Island and the Outer Banks. [1] Exhibits include the colonial-era English settlers and Native Americans, ships and maritime history, Civil War history, including the local Freedmen's Colony, and a 1900s era general store display. Multiple displays include hands-on activities for children.
The Elizabeth II is a full-size representative 16th-century sailing ship that was designed and named after one of the seven ships used by Sir Walter Raleigh's fleet when he first brought colonists to Roanoke Island in 1587. The ship is a square-rigged barque with three masts, and 69 feet long, 17 feet wide and draws 8 feet of water. [2] Guides dressed in period clothing portray the seamen and colonists who traveled to Roanoke with the fleet.
The ship was commissioned to be part of the 400th anniversary celebration of the founding of Roanoke and America. Launched in 1983, she was presented to the state as a State Historic Site on July 13, 1984 during ceremonies to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first English ships to the North Carolina Outer Banks. [3]
Costumed interpreters at the Settlement Site portray the colonists living and working as they did when the island was settled. Visitors can try blacksmithing, woodworking and colonial games, and see how the colonists lived, farmed and cooked. Soldiers display the weapons and armor they used to protect themselves. Other trade crafts include shoemaking, carpentry, leatherworking and canvas works.
The "Legend of Two Path" is a 50-minute drama documentary film that portrays the views of the Algonquians about the arrival of the English colonists. The film was produced by the School of Film Making at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and is shown several times a day in the 242-seat Film Theater.
Also on the grounds of the Roanoke Island Festival Park is a recreation of an American Indian settlement that would have been typical of the time period, such as that of the Croatan people, who were native to the area when Roanoke Colony was founded.
The Outer Banks History Center, located in Manteo, across from Roanoke Island, is a public research facility focused on the history of the Outer Banks. The Center features permanent and changing exhibits of local history, and is open on weekdays. The Center is operated by the North Carolina Division of Archives & History as a regional component of the North Carolina State Archives, and houses many archival historic materials including books, magazines, journals, microforms, personal and organizational papers, manuscripts, photographs, maps, oral history tapes and ephemera. [4]
The Outdoor Pavilion at Roanoke Island Festival Park has modern technology and entertainment. Roanoke Sound’s water surrounds the 3,800 square foot stage and provides a consistently charming backdrop for concerts, weddings and performances. The expansive lawn (2 acres) provides seating for up to 3,500 people.
John White was an English colonial governor, explorer, artist, and cartographer. White was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville in the first attempt to colonize Roanoke Island in 1585, acting as artist and mapmaker to the expedition. He would most famously briefly serve as the governor of the second attempt to found Roanoke Colony on the same island in 1587 and discover the colonists had mysteriously vanished.
Roanoke Island is an island in Dare County, bordered by the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was named after the historical Roanoke, a Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the area in the 16th century at the time of English colonization.
The establishment of the Roanoke Colony was an attempt by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The colony was first founded in 1585, but when the colony was visited again by a ship in 1590, the crew found that the colonists had disappeared under unknown circumstances. The colony has since been known as the Lost Colony, and the fate of the 112 to 121 colonists remains unknown to this day.
Dare County is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 36,915. Its county seat is Manteo.
Manteo is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States, located on Roanoke Island. The population was 1,602 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Dare County.
Wanchese is a census-designated place (CDP) on Roanoke Island in Dare County, North Carolina, United States. It was named after Wanchese, the last known ruler of the Roanoke Native American tribe encountered by English colonists in the sixteenth century. The population was 1,642 at the 2010 census. Today, Wanchese is the center of commercial fishing and boatbuilding on the Outer Banks.
Hatteras Island is a barrier island located off the North Carolina coast. Dividing the Atlantic Ocean and the Pamlico Sound, it runs parallel to the coast, forming a bend at Cape Hatteras. It is part of North Carolina's Outer Banks and includes the communities of Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras. It contains the largest part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Prior to European settlement the island was inhabited by Croatoan Native Americans.
The Outer Banks are a 200 mi (320 km) string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, on the east coast of the United States. They line most of the North Carolina coastline, separating Currituck Sound, Albemarle Sound, and Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean. A major tourist destination, the Outer Banks are known for their wide expanse of open beachfront and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The seashore and surrounding ecosystem are important biodiversity zones, including beach grasses and shrubland that help maintain the form of the land.
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site preserves the location of Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the present-day United States. The site was preserved for its national significance in relation to the founding of the first English settlement in North America in 1587. The colony, which was promoted and backed by entrepreneurs led by Englishman Sir Walter Raleigh, failed sometime between 1587 and 1590 when supply ships failed to arrive on time. When next visited, the settlement was abandoned with no survivors found. The fate of the "Lost Colony" was a celebrated mystery, although most modern academic sources agree that the settlers likely assimilated into local indigenous tribes.
Manns Harbor is a census-designated place (CDP) in Dare County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 821.
North Carolina Highway 400 (NC 400) is the shortest primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is 0.63 miles (1.01 km) long and is entirely in Dare County and the town of Manteo on Roanoke Island. The route traverses from its western terminus at US 64 to the Elizabeth II vessel docked on Ice Plant Island, located in Shallowbag Bay. Unlike other state routes, all of the NC 400 markers have brown recreational backgrounds. The route is split among two one-way streets: eastbound and westbound.
In North Carolina, the Crystal Coast is an 85-mile stretch of coastline that extends from the Cape Lookout National Seashore, which includes 56 miles of protected beaches, southwestward to the New River. The Crystal Coast is a popular area with tourists and second-home owners in the summer.
The Croatan were a small Native American ethnic group living in the coastal areas of what is now North Carolina. They might have been a branch of the larger Roanoke people or allied with them.
Dare County Regional Airport is a public airport located one mile (2 km) northwest of the central business district (CBD) of Manteo, a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States. This general aviation airport covers 340 acres (138 ha) and has two runways.
The Lost Colony is an historical outdoor drama, written by American Paul Green and produced since 1937 in Manteo, North Carolina. It is based on accounts of Sir Walter Raleigh's attempts in the 16th century to establish a permanent settlement on Roanoke Island, then part of the Colony of Virginia. The play has been performed in an outdoor amphitheater located on the site of the original Roanoke Colony in the Outer Banks. More than four million people have seen it since 1937. It received a special Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre award in 2013.
Manteo was a Croatan Native American, and was a member of the local tribe that befriended the English explorers who landed at Roanoke Island in 1584. Though many stories claim he was a chief, it is understood that his mother was actually the principal leader of the tribe. This leadership would not have automatically passed down to her children as many English at the time may have assumed.
Presenting over sixty free shows annually on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Performance Festival, funded by the State of North Carolina, is produced, performed and directed by students, alumni, faculty and staff of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). The family-friendly festival offers drama, music, dance and film performances for six consecutive weeks, late June to early August, at Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo, North Carolina. Since its inception in 1997, the summer festival has become an important cultural resource to residents and visitors of North Carolina and an enriching educational and training experience for emerging and professional artists of UNCSA. In 2007, the festival audience grew to a record attendance of over 11,000.
The Secotans were one of several groups of American Indians dominant in the Carolina sound region, between 1584 and 1590, with which English colonists had varying degrees of contact. Secotan villages included the Secotan, Aquascogoc, Dasamongueponke, Pomeiock (Pamlico) and Roanoac. Other local groups included the Chowanoke, Weapemeoc, Chesapeake, Ponouike, Neusiok, and Mangoak (Tuscarora), and all resided along the banks of the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds. They spoke Carolina Algonquian language, an Eastern Algonquian language.
Wanchese was the last known ruler of the Roanoke Native American tribe encountered by English colonists of the Roanoke Colony in the late sixteenth century. Along with Chief Manteo, he travelled to London in 1584, where the two men created a sensation in the royal court. Hosted at Durham House by the explorer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh, he and Manteo assisted the scientist Thomas Harriot with the job of deciphering and learning the Carolina Algonquian language. Unlike Manteo, Wanchese evinced little interest in learning English, and did not befriend his hosts, remaining suspicious of English motives in the New World. In April 1586, having returned to Roanoke, he finally ended his good relations with the English, leaving Manteo as the colonists' sole Indian ally.
The State Archives of North Carolina, officially the North Carolina Division of Archives and Records, is a division of North Carolina state government responsible for collecting, preserving, and providing public access to historically significant archival materials relating to North Carolina, and responsible for providing guidance on the preservation and management of public government records to state, county, city and state university officials. First founded as the North Carolina Historical Commission in 1903, the State Archives has undergone multiple changes in organization, title, and relation to other state agencies. Since May 2012, it has been known as the Division of Archives and Records within the North Carolina Department of Natural & Cultural Resources' Office of Archives and History.
http://roanokeisland.com/default.aspx - Roanoke Island Festival Park Official Web Site
http://roanokeisland.com/AmericanIndianTown.aspx - American Indian Town
