Roanoke: The Colony That Vanished Without a Trace
The Darkives: Serious history. Told not so seriously

Roanoke: The Colony That Vanished Without a Trace

May 8, 2026
36:29
E42
-(0)

About this episode

support the show https://patreon.com Words carved into a tree. A colony gone. And a mystery that still hasn’t been solved. This week, Jamie and Leo head back to early colonial America to unpack the disappearance of the Roanoke colony, one of the most enduring mysteries in U.S. history. Backed by Sir Walter Raleigh, remember him from The lost city of Z/ Eldorado? In the late 1500s the English attempted to establish a permanent settlement on the coast of present day North Carolina. Things didn’t go as planned... Later John White would return from a supply trip to England only to find the colony completely abandoned. No bodies. No signs of a struggle. Just a single clue left behind. From there, the questions only multiply. Did the settlers integrate with nearby Indigenous groups? Were they driven off, murdered, relocated, or lost to something else entirely? We'll walk through the history, the theories, and the evidence in this unsolved moment in history brought to you by The Darkives. Serious history. Told not so seriously. Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com Follow us on- instagram Enjoy the show? Consider leaving a rating and a comment or share us to a fellow history lover. Sources: firstcolonyfoundation.org nps.gov history.com Theme music: Ways of the Wizard- geoffharvey Used with permission, Thank you Geoff! licensed through : Pixabay Other music used: licensed through Pixabay- used under the Pixabay Content License

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full
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audio/mpeg

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