Friday, May 21, 2010
The Roanoke Colony Mystery: Still Unsolved After Four Centuries
The island of Roanoke in North Carolina holds the secret to the baffling disappearance of a band of English settlers in the late sixteenth century. The early colony simply vanished without trace, and their fate has intrigued and baffled historians ever since.
The story starts in 1587, with the second attempt to establish a British colony on Roanoke Island. Two years earlier, English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh made an unsuccessful bid to establish a settlement on the Island, sponsoring an all-male colony which initially integrated well with the Native Americans already living there. However, the harmony didn’t last as the brusque manner of colony commander Sir Ralph Lane soon angered the local tribe. To compound the colony’s problems, supply ships failed to show leaving them hungry and disillusioned, so when Raleigh dropped in on the colonists in 1586 after a trip to the West Indies, they elected to join him on the voyage home to Britain. But, because the New World offered such potential profits, the English tried again in August 1587, and it is the settlement that was established by 115 men, women and children that is the subject of the Roanoke colony mystery.
Very soon after setting up the colony its governor - artist John White - returned to England with the intention of immediately returning with much needed supplies. However, due to the war with Spain he was prevented from setting sail for three years. When he finally arrived back at Roanoke in August 1590 he came across a totally deserted colony, with only one clue as to where the inhabitants had gone; the word “Croatoan” - the name of the friendly tribe that lived on the south of the island - was carved in a tree. However, despite White spending the rest of his life searching, no trace of the colonists was ever found.
Theories by historians include that they may have been killed by the local Croatoan tribe, or that, tired of waiting for supplies and feeling abandoned, they moved inland and married into other Native American tribes. Another supposition is that they were murdered by Spanish troops on a northern sojourn from Florida. Their fate may never be known and any evidence that may have supplied clues is now long gone. The site of their inhabitation was soon overgrown by vegetation and has now been lost even to the point where historians still debate the original location.
Some argue that the doomed settlement is now under water some half a mile out to sea, as the coastline has shifted significantly since the sixteenth century. With the location of the settlement unknown, it is impossible to dig for clues. Many people have travelled to the region hoping to find some trace of the colony, and if you fancy joining their ranks, make sure that you locate a hotel in Roanoke near the north of the Island, where the settlement allegedly stood. Who knows? You might be the one who finally unlocks the secret to the ill-fated Roanoke colony.
(ArticlesBase SC #198340)
Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/exotic-locations-articles/the-roanoke-colony-mystery-still-unsolved-after-four-centuries-198340.html#ixzz0oahmMKGH
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
The story starts in 1587, with the second attempt to establish a British colony on Roanoke Island. Two years earlier, English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh made an unsuccessful bid to establish a settlement on the Island, sponsoring an all-male colony which initially integrated well with the Native Americans already living there. However, the harmony didn’t last as the brusque manner of colony commander Sir Ralph Lane soon angered the local tribe. To compound the colony’s problems, supply ships failed to show leaving them hungry and disillusioned, so when Raleigh dropped in on the colonists in 1586 after a trip to the West Indies, they elected to join him on the voyage home to Britain. But, because the New World offered such potential profits, the English tried again in August 1587, and it is the settlement that was established by 115 men, women and children that is the subject of the Roanoke colony mystery.
Very soon after setting up the colony its governor - artist John White - returned to England with the intention of immediately returning with much needed supplies. However, due to the war with Spain he was prevented from setting sail for three years. When he finally arrived back at Roanoke in August 1590 he came across a totally deserted colony, with only one clue as to where the inhabitants had gone; the word “Croatoan” - the name of the friendly tribe that lived on the south of the island - was carved in a tree. However, despite White spending the rest of his life searching, no trace of the colonists was ever found.
Theories by historians include that they may have been killed by the local Croatoan tribe, or that, tired of waiting for supplies and feeling abandoned, they moved inland and married into other Native American tribes. Another supposition is that they were murdered by Spanish troops on a northern sojourn from Florida. Their fate may never be known and any evidence that may have supplied clues is now long gone. The site of their inhabitation was soon overgrown by vegetation and has now been lost even to the point where historians still debate the original location.
Some argue that the doomed settlement is now under water some half a mile out to sea, as the coastline has shifted significantly since the sixteenth century. With the location of the settlement unknown, it is impossible to dig for clues. Many people have travelled to the region hoping to find some trace of the colony, and if you fancy joining their ranks, make sure that you locate a hotel in Roanoke near the north of the Island, where the settlement allegedly stood. Who knows? You might be the one who finally unlocks the secret to the ill-fated Roanoke colony.
(ArticlesBase SC #198340)
Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/exotic-locations-articles/the-roanoke-colony-mystery-still-unsolved-after-four-centuries-198340.html#ixzz0oahmMKGH
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Real Ghost Story -- Ghost Fries Camera!
Watch as a ghost fries ghost hunter Allan Pacheco's camera in Santa Fe, New Mexico's Lost Graveyard.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Black Aggie
Retold by : S. E. Schlosser
When Felix Agnus put up the life-sized shrouded bronze statue of a grieving angel, seated on a pedestal, in the Agnus family plot in the Druid Ridge Cemetery, he had no idea what he had started. The statue was a rather eerie figure by day, frozen in a moment of grief and terrible pain. At night, the figure was almost unbelievably creepy; the shroud over its head obscuring the face until you were up close to it. There was a living air about the grieving angel, as if its arms could really reach out and grab you if you weren't careful.
It didn't take long for rumors to sweep through the town and surrounding countryside. They said that the statue - nicknamed Black Aggie - was haunted by the spirit of a mistreated wife who lay beneath her feet. The statue's eyes would glow red at the stroke of midnight, and any living person who returned the statues gaze would instantly be struck blind. Any pregnant woman who passed through her shadow would miscarry. If you sat on her lap at night, the statue would come to life and crush you to death in her dark embrace. If you spoke Black Aggie's name three times at midnight in front of a dark mirror, the evil angel would appear and pull you down to hell. They also said that spirits of the dead would rise from their graves on dark nights to gather around the statue at night.
People began visiting the cemetery just to see the statue, and it was then that the local fraternity decided to make the statue of Grief part of their initiation rites. "Black Aggie" sitting, where candidates for membership had to spend the night crouched beneath the statue with their backs to the grave of General Agnus, became popular.
One dark night, two fraternity members accompanied new hopeful to the cemetery and watched while he took his place underneath the creepy statue. The clouds had obscured the moon that night, and the whole area surrounding the dark statue was filled with a sense of anger and malice. It felt as if a storm were brewing in that part of the cemetery, and to their chagrin, the two fraternity members noticed that gray shadows seemed to be clustering around the body of the frightened fraternity candidate crouching in front of the statue.
What had been a funny initiation rite suddenly took on an air of danger. One of the fraternity brothers stepped forward in alarm to call out to the initiate. As he did, the statue above the boy stirred ominously. The two fraternity brothers froze in shock as the shrouded head turned toward the new candidate. They saw the gleam of glowing red eyes beneath the concealing hood as the statue's arms reached out toward the cowering boy.
With shouts of alarm, the fraternity brothers leapt forward to rescue the new initiate. But it was too late. The initiate gave one horrified yell, and then his body disappeared into the embrace of the dark angel. The fraternity brothers skidded to a halt as the statue thoughtfully rested its glowing eyes upon them. With gasps of terror, the boys fled from the cemetery before the statue could grab them too.
Hearing the screams, a night watchman hurried to the Agnus plot. To his chagrin, he discovered the body of a young man lying at the foot of the statue. The young man had apparently died of fright.
The disruption caused by the statue grew so acute that the Agnus family finally donated it to the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.. The grieving angel sat for many years in storage there, never again to plague the citizens visiting the Druid Hill Park Cemetery.
From : http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/md4.html
When Felix Agnus put up the life-sized shrouded bronze statue of a grieving angel, seated on a pedestal, in the Agnus family plot in the Druid Ridge Cemetery, he had no idea what he had started. The statue was a rather eerie figure by day, frozen in a moment of grief and terrible pain. At night, the figure was almost unbelievably creepy; the shroud over its head obscuring the face until you were up close to it. There was a living air about the grieving angel, as if its arms could really reach out and grab you if you weren't careful.
It didn't take long for rumors to sweep through the town and surrounding countryside. They said that the statue - nicknamed Black Aggie - was haunted by the spirit of a mistreated wife who lay beneath her feet. The statue's eyes would glow red at the stroke of midnight, and any living person who returned the statues gaze would instantly be struck blind. Any pregnant woman who passed through her shadow would miscarry. If you sat on her lap at night, the statue would come to life and crush you to death in her dark embrace. If you spoke Black Aggie's name three times at midnight in front of a dark mirror, the evil angel would appear and pull you down to hell. They also said that spirits of the dead would rise from their graves on dark nights to gather around the statue at night.
People began visiting the cemetery just to see the statue, and it was then that the local fraternity decided to make the statue of Grief part of their initiation rites. "Black Aggie" sitting, where candidates for membership had to spend the night crouched beneath the statue with their backs to the grave of General Agnus, became popular.
One dark night, two fraternity members accompanied new hopeful to the cemetery and watched while he took his place underneath the creepy statue. The clouds had obscured the moon that night, and the whole area surrounding the dark statue was filled with a sense of anger and malice. It felt as if a storm were brewing in that part of the cemetery, and to their chagrin, the two fraternity members noticed that gray shadows seemed to be clustering around the body of the frightened fraternity candidate crouching in front of the statue.
What had been a funny initiation rite suddenly took on an air of danger. One of the fraternity brothers stepped forward in alarm to call out to the initiate. As he did, the statue above the boy stirred ominously. The two fraternity brothers froze in shock as the shrouded head turned toward the new candidate. They saw the gleam of glowing red eyes beneath the concealing hood as the statue's arms reached out toward the cowering boy.
With shouts of alarm, the fraternity brothers leapt forward to rescue the new initiate. But it was too late. The initiate gave one horrified yell, and then his body disappeared into the embrace of the dark angel. The fraternity brothers skidded to a halt as the statue thoughtfully rested its glowing eyes upon them. With gasps of terror, the boys fled from the cemetery before the statue could grab them too.
Hearing the screams, a night watchman hurried to the Agnus plot. To his chagrin, he discovered the body of a young man lying at the foot of the statue. The young man had apparently died of fright.
The disruption caused by the statue grew so acute that the Agnus family finally donated it to the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.. The grieving angel sat for many years in storage there, never again to plague the citizens visiting the Druid Hill Park Cemetery.
From : http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/md4.html
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