The Dare Stones give accounts of what happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke. They are mainly supposed to have been written by Eleanor White Dare (EWD), who was the daughter of John White and the mother of Virginia Dare, the first child of English descent to be born in North America. Dare Stones have been a part of Brenau University lore since the late 1930s. It is a collection of a large number of engraved rocks that emerged at the height of the Great Depression purporting to solve the mystery of The Lost Colony of Roanoke, a group of settlers on an island off the coast of North Carolina that disappeared without a trace in the late 16th century.
In 1602, another expedition was sent to Roanoke to investigate the disappearance of the settlers. Sir Walter Raleigh appointed Samuel Mace to lead the expedition and, as in the 1590 expedition, weather would drive the searches out of the area before any discoveries could be made. The fate of the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke would remain a mystery until 1937.
In September of that year Louis Hammond, a produce dealer, was hunting hickory nuts near Edenton, North Carolina. He stumbled upon a stone with a strange inscription that he could not identify. He took the stone to Emory University where it was examined by history professor, Dr. Haywood Pearce. Dr. Pearce identified the inscription as being Elizabethan English and determined that the stone was a written record of what had happened to the “Lost Colony”. The stone reads:
In 1602, another expedition was sent to Roanoke to investigate the disappearance of the settlers. Sir Walter Raleigh appointed Samuel Mace to lead the expedition and, as in the 1590 expedition, weather would drive the searches out of the area before any discoveries could be made. The fate of the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke would remain a mystery until 1937.
In September of that year Louis Hammond, a produce dealer, was hunting hickory nuts near Edenton, North Carolina. He stumbled upon a stone with a strange inscription that he could not identify. He took the stone to Emory University where it was examined by history professor, Dr. Haywood Pearce. Dr. Pearce identified the inscription as being Elizabethan English and determined that the stone was a written record of what had happened to the “Lost Colony”. The stone reads:
“Ananias Dare & Virginia went hence vnto heaven 1591.”
“Anye Englishman Shew John White Govr Via.”
“Father soone After yov goe for Englande we cam hither/ onlie misarie & warretow yeare “Above halfe DeaDe ere tow yeere moore from sickenes beine fovre & twentie/ salvage with mesage of shipp vnto vs/ smal space of time they affrite of revenge rann al awaye/ wee bleeve yt nott you/ soone after ye salvages faine spirts angrie/ suddiane mvrther al save seaven/ mine childe ananias to slaine wth mvch misarie/bvrie al neere fovre myles easte this river vppon smal hil/ names writ al ther on rocke/ pvtt this ther alsoe/ salvage shew this vnto yov & hither wee promise yov to give greate plentie presents E W D”
Debate over the legitimacy of the stones began almost immediately after the appearance of the first stone. Dr. Haywood Pearce, the custodian of the stones, believed that the stones were very real and through research and testing he would prove their authenticity. Dr. Pearce interviewed every person who came forward with the stones and would do comparison testing of the stones and their inscriptions. He would travel to the location of a stone’s discovery and do as much forensic testing as was technologically available to him and he spent a large portion of his time in the Edenton area searching for additional stones and clues.
In 2015, a team of archaeologists, including Fred Willard, and experts in early modern (Shakespearean era) writing from Emory University determined that the first stone was authentic and distinct from the remaining stones which remained questionable.
Sources:
https://www.brenau.edu/darestones/
http://www.strangehistory.org/cms/index.php/popular/80-dare-stones-1587-1938-feature
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dare_Stones
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