Before Jamestown and Plymouth Rock

“. . . had there been no Roanoke Island, and Fort Raleigh, it is doubtful if there would have been a Jamestown (in 1607) or a Plymouth Rock (in 1620).”

— Lindsay C. Warren, United States Representative from North Carolina, in a speech before the first performance of The Lost Colony on July 4, 1937

 The obvious question that follows is would there have been an English settlement at all in the New World. It is highly doubtful given the powerful hold that Spain, Portugal and France had in the Americas.

 For these brave souls who gave England a fragile grasp to cling to we should all be thankful in this the 425th year since they sailed from the known to to the unknown and vanished.




 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Colony





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The Lost Colony’ to Hold Baby Virginia Dare Auditions July 21

Born on August 18, 1587, Virginia Dare is the most celebrated child in the history of the Outer Banks, if not America, and local parents are invited to audition their newborns this weekend for a starring role as the country’s first English born child in The Lost Colony‘s annual Virginia Dare birthday performance next month!

Virginia Dare Baby auditions will be held this Saturday, July 21 at 10am inside the conference room at the Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island, adjacent to the The Lost Colony building and the Waterside Theatre.

You can read the official press release below.

Three-month-old Ozzie Artz of Kill Devil Hills starred as “Baby Virginia Dare” in the christening scene in ‘The Lost Colony’ on August 18, 2007. (photo: Artz Music & Photography)

Each year on the anniversary of her birth, a whirlwind of festivities take place in her honor. But the one event that locals look forward to the most is The Lost Colony‘s performance where the usual theater prop swaddled in blankets is replaced by a living, breathing, infant!

Baby auditions will be held on Saturday, July 21 at 10:00 am in the conference room of The Elizabethan Gardens located next to The Lost Colony Building in the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on Roanoke Island. The casting is open to good-natured boys or girls that weigh no more than 15 pounds.

From its earliest days, The Lost Colony featured community members in the cast and the tradition of the “Virginia Dare Baby” honors that essential connection between our community and the show. The babies may not remember it, but their parents will certainly show them pictures and tell them about it for years to come.

In addition to the special Virginia Dare Night performance August 18, The Lost Colony, in conjunction with National Park Service and The Elizabethan Gardens, will host Virginia Faire Day–a fun filled family event. For more information about the talent search, call 252.473.2127.

Ozzie Artz of Kill Devil Hills starred as “Baby Virginia Dare” in the christening scene in ‘The Lost Colony’ on August 18, 2007. (photo: Artz Music & Photography)

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Oldest Painted Object in North America

  Nothing like it had ever been seen. The design, known as a lightning bolt, was unmistakeably man-made. 

"When you find something like that, you're very careful in cleaning it up," Lee said. "We took a gazillion photos of it." 

Nearby, the crew found the animal's skeleton, suggesting the skull had not been taken to or away from the site. The implications were profound. Lee and his crew wanted other archaeologists to witness the skull where it lay, but this was the pre-cell phone era. They carefully draped a cloth over the skull, covered that with a dustpan and some more soil, and headed back to town to make phone calls.

"It had been absolutely dry for the past month," Lee said. "That night, we got two inches of rain."

Lee and the others feared the worst: that after being buried for 10,000 years, the sudden deluge would wash away the paint.

"When we went back to the site, everything was mud. So we let it all dry out, then slowly peeled off the cloth, and there it was, the red lightning bolt intact."

The skull was taken to a lab, where the red hematite paint radiocarbon dated to roughly 10,500 years ago. That makes the Cooper skull the oldest painted object ever discovered in North America. The image below represents where a Folsom hunter or perhaps a shaman painted several designs. Only the lightning bolt was visible to the naked eye. The story doesn't end there, however.



 Cont. here:

http://www.pbs.org/opb/timeteam/blog/2012/07/the-cooper-skull.html






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Family History and Genealogy Fair “Looking for Our People”

 Family History and Genealogy Fair “Looking for Our People” 

 Friday, July 27 and Saturday, 28, 2012

 Roanoke Chowan Heritage Center

 Hope House Road

 Windsor North Carolina

 Click here for more details and a registration form:


 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~craingen/familygeneologyfair


This blog is © History Chasers
Click here to view all recent Lost Colony Research Group Blog posts