Final Report

Analyzing the data, our team argues that the Lost Colony left and moved in land to one of five ridges. Traditionally, Native-Americans of this area have built their villages on high mineral ridges, which are not extremely common near the northeast North Carolina coastline. The land in this area tends to be sandy and the soil usually has a low level of nutrient resources and mainly sustains pine trees and other evergreen trees rather than deciduous trees. On these ridges fruit bearing trees, oak trees, and other types of deciduous trees grow. This suggests that the land there may have been suitable for farming, unlike the land surrounding these ridges.

During our research project we have concentrated our efforts on two locations: Ralph Lane’s Fort and Buck Ridge. Ralph Lane’s Fort, which is located at the northern end of Roanoke Island, was surrounded by a ditch and a human-made mound. There is also evidence an old Native-American trail about four miles long that runs through Buck Ridge. This further supports our hypothesis that Buck Ridge was a Native-American village near the Lost Colony’s final settlement. Based on our findings, we believe that the colonists followed the Croatans on the Native American trail to the Croatans’ village, on Buck Ridge, to receive aid.

Complete Final Report in PDF format here.

Project Presentation Outline

“Science, Settlement, and Remote Sensing: Locating the Remnants of the “Lost Colony"

I.                    Statement of Problem: What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke?

A.     Briefly outline the history of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

B.     Briefly discuss the scholarly debate about the colony’s fate.

II.                 Hypothesis

A.     How did the team arrive at the hypothesis that that the final fate of the Lost Colony ends in North Carolina and not Virginia?

B.     What evidence can the team offer to support your thesis?

III.               Discussion of Method

A.     How was the team’s data collected?

B.     How did the team use cartography, GIS, and Remote-Sensing data?

IV.              Interpretation of Data

A.     What does the team’s analysis of the data suggests about the remnants of the “Lost Colony”?

B.   What markers or signifiers did the team use to locate Buck Ridge and the Indian trail?

V.                 Conclusion

A.     What are the team’s preliminary findings

B.     What are team’s recommendation's  for future research on this topic?