The recent discovery of copious amounts of iron trash on North Carolina's Hatteras Island may reveal the fate of a 16th-century "Lost Colony." ...

Captain John Smith, the leader of the Jamestown colony, heard from the Indians that men wearing European clothes were living on the Carolina mainland west of Roanoke and Croatoan Islands.

The settlement was abandoned, and the only clue about what happened was a single word carved into a tree: “CROATOAN.” In the more than 400 years since everyone seemingly vanished, numerous ...

Archaeologists recently uncovered evidence pointing toward the fate of the Roanoke Colony, whose residents disappeared between 1587 and 1590 in North Carolina.

The tribe received its name from the nearby island, Croatoan, which is now Hatteras Island. Like many of the natives living in America when settlers arrived, they fell victim to infectious disease ...

Today, that place is called Buxton and the villages that border it to the south on Hatteras. Home to the Croatoan tribe for more than a thousand years, it’s a place Dawson knows well.

The word itself is not that spooky, but here’s what we know for sure: The Croatoan were a small Native American tribe located in Dare County, North Carolina, in the 16th century.

One of the only clues remaining at the site was the word “CROATOAN” carved into a palisade. It either referred to Croatoan Island, which is now called Hatteras Island, or the Croatoan Indians.

In “The Lost Colony and Hatteras Island,” author Scott Dawson surmises the colonial settlers were assimilated into the Croatan tribe on Hatteras Island. Later, the tribe was wiped out by smallpox.

It's a mystery that has intrigued Americans for centuries: What happened to the lost colonists of North Carolina's Roanoke Island? (See "America's Lost Colony.". The settlers, who arrived in 1587 ...