Roanoke Island Research Paper

Have you ever left a particular place but return only for everything to have disappeared? In 1578, Sir Walter Raleigh sailed overseas to America with his explorius half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert. The exploring that took place sparked an interest in Raleigh to one day colonize in America. Shortly after his return, he was granted permission by Queen Elizabeth I to do such a thing. In the summer of 1585, Raleigh sent off a group of motivated English settlers to settle in the New World. They arrived at the coast of what is present day North Carolina. Their colony on the island was named “Virginia” as a tribute to the virgin Queen Elizabeth. However, the Native Americans that were living there referred to this island as Roanoke Island. In the

Researchers Dennis Blanton from the College of William and Mary and a climatologist David Stahle conducted an experiment on tree rings from centuries old bald cypress trees. This can help lighten the circumstances of the colonists disappearance. The tree rings they examined were trees from the Virginia and North Carolina border. Every year in the tree’s growth season, they grow by adding a layer of wood cells. The width of the tree ring shows how much the tree has grown in a particular growth season. The wider the ring appears to be, the better the overall conditions were for growth. By measuring the width of the rings from the trunks of the trees, the researchers learned that the rings appeared smaller than average during the years 1587-1589. This shows that during the years the settlement took place, Roanoke Island was suffering a horrible drought. This experiment may not give ideas on where they went, but it does inform people that they were suffering from their resources as stated before. Once the settlers realized it was taking White longer than expected to come back with supplies, they could have left to find an area with more pleasing