In the series premiere, TIME TEAM AMERICA goes in search of the nation's mysterious roots at Roanoke Island. In 1586, the English sent the first group of hardy, hopeful colonists to the New World. When English ships returned with supplies just three years later, they found the settlement empty and the colonists gone. The colonists had left behind only one clue: the word Croatan carved in the gatepost of their fort. It took 20 years for the stunned English to establish another settlement in America. The fate of the Roanoke colonists remains one of the most chilling and maddening questions of American history. TIME TEAM AMERICA spends three days at Fort Raleigh in hot pursuit of archaeological evidence that will put the ghost of Roanoke to rest and establish where the first colony in America was actually located.
