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The Inspiration By the late nineteenth century, the residents of the Outer Banks and the rest of North Carolina had grown tired of the popular public perception that the first English colonies established in the New World were at Jamestown and Plymouth. A number of artistic endeavors attempted to correct this misperception. Poetry, sculpture, and local pageants related the story of Sir Walter Raleighs colonists on Roanoke Island and their contact with the native peoples. These early expressions about the true first colony laid the groundwork for what evolved into The Lost Colony outdoor drama.  Sculpture of Virginia Dare by Louise Lander done in 1859, after she read an account of the colony in the British Museum  The Lost Colony, a silent movie was filmed at Fort Raleigh by the Atlas Film Corporation in 1921. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction produced the film in an effort to provide rural and urban children the same education standards. The subject of the Roanoke Voyages was chosen through the urging of Mabel Evans Jones, Superintendent of Schools in Dare County. |
Mrs. Salie Southall Cotten wrote The White Doe: The Fate of Virginia Dare, An Indian Legend, printed in 1901. A story mixed with fact and fiction and written in verse, the poem popularized The Lost Colony and was read by Paul Green as a boy. Paul Green and the Roanoke Island Historical Committee survey the future site of the Waterside Theatre in 1931. |
 Dare County Homecoming on Roanoke Island - Virginia Dare's birthday, August 18, 1931. | |
Lost Colony Outdoor Drama
History & Background
BLACKBEARD !!
