Roanoke Colonies Research Newsletter
Volume 1.1 (November 1993)

From the editor. . .

Bebe B. Woody reports from the National Park Service office at Fort Raleigh, "It is with much relief that we can report all is safe and sound here on Roanoke Island. Though Hurricane Emily passed close offshore, its effects were minimal. However, just south of us at Cape Hatteras the storm vented much of its force, and there was considerable damage both to homes and businesses. The good news is that no one was hurt, and all are working together to overcome their losses." While it is a relief that Roanoke Island suffered minimal damage during late August's brush with Hurricane Emily, the tropical storm also served as a reminder of how susceptible coastal islands-especially those with historical and archaeological importance?can be to the whims of nature.
 
 

According to the Associated Press on October 3, 1993, it appears that Currituck County's Banker horses will lose some ground but gain security. The AP writes that "federal, state and local officials and the Corolla Wild Horse Fund have endorsed a proposal to move most of the horses to undeveloped land north of [the town of] Corolla?and to extend a fence from the Atlantic into Currituck Sound to keep them there." Presently, a fence stretches almost from the sound to the ocean, but until now the state would not issue permits to build fences across sand dunes. This left an area where the horses would simply run around the end of the fence.

Thirteen of the Corolla area horses have been killed in automobile accidents since 1989. The development of the Outer Banks' northernmost town and the opening of its main road to public traffic in 1984 have been the cause of many problems for the horses. Attracted by the new developments' landscape grasses, the horses have been coming into town where they are vulnerable.

A few will be corralled on county land near the Corolla Lighthouse. Horses from the newly fenced-in range will be rotated in and out from the corral.
 
 

One important part of scholarly work that we should not forget is that there is an audience beyond the scholarly community for our research. The lay audience is made up of friends who support and enjoy learning by our work. One such person is Betty Cumming, the widow of the historical cartographer William P. Cumming; she attended the Roanoke Decoded symposium as a special guest. Mrs. Cumming published an article about the symposium in her retirement community's newsletter, excerpts of which follow:

East and forever east, my son, Bob, and I rolled across green North Carolina toward the sea. Piedmont gave way to coastal plain; Metrolina and red soil, to villages and sandy fields; the air cleared, and we began to smell the salt. Then out, across a series of bridges so long and curved that it seemed as if we had put to sea in our car; a larger island, Roanoke; a stretch of forest; and we were driving down the main street of a modest town, the easternmost of the state, to a collection of low, weathered inns and houses, bright with flowers, signed "Manteo Historic Waterfront….”

This was our entrance to the Symposium called "Roanoke Decoded," sponsored by the National Park Service and the Eastern National Park and Monument Association, and funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and other generous donors.

And who was there? The people of Roanoke, old descendants and modem converts ... the historical scholars, who dig in Spanish and English archives to find these colonists; the archaeologists, still digging in Roanoke ground for traces of their life; the cartographers, like my husband, who dig in old maps for reasons for their actions. The National Park keepers were there, keeping watch; the dramatists and singers who have kept alive for years the waterside drama of The Lost Colony; the educators, and crowds of their young teachers, rapt with eagerness to enliven their classes in North Carolina history. There was a local actress who presented a most effective mono-drama of Queen Elizabeth I in the Raleigh years; a great chorus; and even a geneticist of the wild Banko horses! ...

A half dozen very distinguished English scholars had been brought over. Professor D. B. Quinn, probably the leading authority in the world on the Roanoke voyages, had brought his frail little wife in a wheelchair; we renewed an intimate friendship. On the American side, we had scholars from Chapel Hill, William and Mary, the University of Georgia, the great Newberry Library in Chicago. On the last morning, David Stick, long-time Banko resident and author, monitored a discussion of what further research should be done; our friend Helen Wallis of the British Library smuggled Bob and me in for that. It was a rich time. And did they settle the fate of the Lost Colony? You will be glad to hear that North Carolina still has its mystery; but we are alive with suggestions.

("Roanoke Island," The Pinepost, The Pines at Davidson)

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