First things first
About the First Colony Foundation
The First Colony Foundation, a North Carolina 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed in April 2003, is dedicated to conducting archaeological and historical research, combined with public education and interpretation, relating to the story of America’s beginnings with the attempts by Sir Walter Raleigh to establish English colonies at Roanoke Island in the 1580s under his charter from Queen Elizabeth I.
The story is not only one of the most important in American history, but also a compelling saga of vision, struggle, and sacrifice as portrayed in the outdoor drama “The Lost Colony.” But the physical locations of where they lived, worked, worshipped, and perhaps died are unknown and may soon be lost forever.
The First Colony Foundation is working to protect this important legacy. The First Colony Foundation (FCF) has assembled an expert team of archaeologists and historians of great experience with sites of early colonization to develop a strategy to identify and reveal the sites relating to Raleigh’s colonies.
What we’ve Discovered
Learn More About The History of the First Colony
“Elenora, daughter of the Governor and wife to Ananias Dare, one of the Assistants, was delivered of a daughter in Roanoke, and the same was christened there the Sunday following, and because the child was the first Christian borne in Virginia, she was named Virginia.”
– John White
August 1587
