Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: How big is Roanoke Island?
About 8mi (13km) long and 2mi (3.2km) wide, the island lies between the mainland and the barrier islands near Nags Head. Albemarle Sound lies on its north, Roanoke Sound on the eastern, Croatan Sound on the west, and Wanchese CDP lies at the southern end. The town of Manteo is located on the northern portion of the island, and is the county seat of Dare County. Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is on the north end of the island. The island has a land area of 17.95 square miles (46.5km2) and a population of 6,724 as of the 2000 census.
Archaeological discoveries at the Tillett site of Wanchese, North Carolina have dated the human occupation of Roanoke Island's land at 8,000 B.C. At the time Native Americans across North America were developing in the Archaic Period. Archaeologists discovered that the land of Roanoke Island was part of the Mainland when it was first inhabited by the first Native Americans. For thousands of years the development of Native Cultures on Roanoke Island corresponded with cultures occurring in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina.
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site National Wildlife Refuges Visitor Center North Carolina Maritime Museum on Roanoke Island Roanoke Island Aquarium Roanoke Island Festival Park Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse
The town first called Big Lick was established in 1852 and chartered in 1874. It was named for a large outcropping of salt which drew the wildlife to the site near the Roanoke River. In 1882 it became the town of Roanoke, and in 1884 it was chartered as the independent city of Roanoke. The name "Roanoke" is said to have originated from an Algonquian word for shell "money". The name for the river was that used by the Algonquian speakers who lived 300 miles away where the river emptied into the sea near Roanoke Island. The native people who lived near where the city was founded did not speak Algonquian. They spoke Siouan languages, Tutelo and Catawban. There were also Cherokee speakers in that general area who fought with the Catawba people. The city grew frequently through annexation through the middle of the twentieth century. The last annexation was in 1976. The state legislature has since prohibited cities from annexing land from adjacent counties. Roanoke's location in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the middle of the Roanoke Valley between Maryland and Tennessee, made it the transportation hub of western Virginia and contributed to its rapid growth.
Thirty years later during the War of 1812 the British Royal Navy planned for an Invasion of North Carolina's Outer Banks, the invasion was aborted on Hattaras Island because there was nothing worthwhile for the British to occupy or pillage. The Invasion force then moved northward to attack Chesapeake Bay communities in Virginia.[27] Roanoke Island continued its isolation until authorities of the Confederate States of America hastily prepared Roanoke Island to defend Coastal North Carolina from the invading Unionist Navy and Army. After passing by Cape Hatteras Union forces attacked Roanoke Island in 1862.
The communities of Roanoke were transformed by the construction of the first bridge connecting the island eastwards to Nags Head in 1924. For the first time automobiles were introduced where travel by water, or horse had been more common previously. The Baum bridge marked the first time that higher level infrastructure had been brought to the island. The 1924 Bridge would be the only road connection to Roanoke Island for over thirty years. Around the same time NC 345, Roanoke Island's first paved road for automobiles that covered the entire extent of the land from the marshes of Wanchese to the Northend. The north edge of 345 corresponded with a ferry that went to Manns Harbor on the mainland. The North Carolina department of transportation subsidized the Roanoke Island ferry in 1934 to lower ticket costs, this was origin of the modern N.C ferry system.[32]
Colington Island is an island located to the west of Kill Devil Hills in Dare County, North Carolina. The island is located at the converging point of Albemarle Sound, Currituck Sound, Croatan Sound, and Roanoke Sound. While it is commonly referred to as one island, there are actually two separate islands, Big Colington Island and Little Colington Island. Colington Harbour is a gated community located on Big Colington Island.
During the Revolutionary War there were eight recorded encounters fought in nearby Hatteras, Ocracoke and the High Seas. These battles were between local privateers from Edenton against the British Royal Navy. Patrolling Royal Navy often had little to place to rest during their coastal patrol duty. On August 15, 1776 a British patrol sent foragers to the now extinct Roanoke Inlet in modern-day Nags Head to steal cattle. The Outer Banks Independent Company who was guarding Roanoke Island killed or captured the entire party. This battle while not on Roanoke Island itself was less than three miles away.[25] Skirmishes involving ships continued until 1780 but no large land battles occurred in the area, Roanoke Island itself was largely spared from war violence. Independence for the United States had little effect on local residents.[26]
In the context of the quote, Rawranoke refers to the items being traded, not people. Roanoke People, were therefore known for the trade of shells that are part of Roanoke Island and the other barrier islands of the Outer Banks. The Roanoke People may have created and exported the white beads and shells abroad.
Roanoke Island (/ˈroʊəˌnoʊk/) is an island in Dare County on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, United States. It was named after the historical Roanoke Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the area in the 16th century at the time of English exploration.
The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony was a safe haven for slaves seeking refuge with the Union Army during the Civil War. Most freedmen on Roanoke Island assisted the Union Army: others joined the army as soldiers when the United States Colored Troops were founded, and some men worked as spies, scouts and guides, since they knew the area and its waterways well. They completed dangerous and crucial missions for the Union cause. Freedmen recruited from Roanoke Island formed the "first company of the North Carolina Colored Volunteers".
Northeastern North Carolina is dominated by its sounds; large but shallow bodies of brackish-to-salt water that lie between the mainland and the Outer Banks. Although they are all one body, intimately connected and having a common water level, they are conceptually divided into several distinct regions. The largest of these is Pamlico Sound, immediately behind Hatteras Island; to its north is the second largest, Albemarle Sound, which extends almost to the southern border of Virginia. The linkage between these two, somewhat narrow, is further constricted by Roanoke Island. The portion of the waterway between Roanoke Island and the mainland is known as Croatan Sound. Both the island and the sound are about long. The sound at its widest point is a little more than across, the island about half that. On the eastern side of the island is Roanoke Sound, much narrower, shallower, and less important.
US 64 overlaps with four state scenic byways: the Waterfall Byway, between Murphy and Rosman, Black Mountain Rag, centered at Bat Cave, Alligator River Route, between Columbia and Roanoke Island, and Roanoke Voyages Corridor, located on Roanoke Island.
In June 2015, the "Homer News" reported that a sister ship of "Sapelo", "Roanoke Island", stationed in Homer, Alaska, was being retired.
They reported that, since the "Sapelo" had been replaced by a new Sentinel class cutter, she would be brought to Homer to replace "Roanoke Island". The previous crew of "Roanoke Island" would then cross-deck to "Sapelo" in a crew swap.
From the time of the disappearance of the Lost Colony in 1587 to the Battle of Roanoke Island in 1862, Roanoke was characterized by isolation due to its weather and geography. Sand shoals on the Outer Banks and the North American continental shelf made navigation dangerous and a lack of deep water harbor prevented Roanoke Island from becoming a major colonial port.
Roanoke Island Festival Park is a North Carolina state historic site located at the end of NC 400 in Manteo, North Carolina on Roanoke Island. The park includes a recreated 16th-century sailing ship, living history demonstrators, a museum, and a variety of performing and visual arts. Admission includes the main attractions and is valid for two days.
With Roanoke Island open for settlement, English Virginians moved from Tidewater Virginia to settle in Northeast North Carolina's Albremarle Region. In 1665 The Carolina Charter established the colony of Carolina under rule of landowners called the Lord Proprietors. Carolina under its original name Carolana included the territory of modern North and South Carolina.[20] Early organized English towns in North Carolina include Elizabeth City and Edenton. Pioneers crossed southwards across the Albremarle Sound to settle in Roanoke Island. They came primarily to establish fishing communities but also practiced forms of subsistence agriculture on the Northern parts of Roanoke Island. Most of the Pioneers had originally immigrated to the American Colonies from Southern English Paraishes such as Kent, Middlesex and Westcountry.Upon the creation of the Royal British Province of North Carolina in 1729 Roanoke Island became part of Currituck County. During the rule of the Lord Proprietors Roanoke Island had been a part of the earlier Currituck Parish.[21] It was during this time that historical families arrived including the Basnights, Daniels, Ehteridge, Owens Tillets,and others.
In 1883, the small town of Big Lick on the river was selected as a major shops and terminal point for the new Norfolk and Western Railway to meet the Shenandoah Valley Railroad. Big Lick was renamed Roanoke for the river that bisected it, as the surrounding Roanoke County had been in 1838.
English colonial empire Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island History of North Carolina Barrier Islands
The Roanoke Sound is a sound that separates Roanoke Island from Bodie Island of the Outer Banks. To the north of the Roanoke Sound lies the Albemarle Sound and to the south lies the Pamlico Sound. One bridge, which carries U.S. Highway 64, crosses the sound.
Main Articles: Battle of Roanoke Island and Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island
The Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island, also known as the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony, or "Freedman's Colony", was founded in 1863 during the Civil War after Union Major General John G. Foster, Commander of the 18th Army Corps, captured the Confederate fortifications on Roanoke Island off North Carolina in 1862. He classified the slaves living there as "contraband", following the precedent of General Benjamin Butler at Fort Monroe in 1861, and did not return them to Confederate slaveholders. In 1863, by the Emancipation Proclamation, all slaves in Union-occupied territories were freed.
The name of Roanoke Island comes from the Roanoke who originally resided on the island for at least 800 years prior to the coming of the English in the New World. The meaning of the word Roanoke itself is derived from the Powhowten language which was geographically close to the Roanoke. Roanoke means "white beads made from shells" or more literally ("things rubbed smooth by hand"). White beads were used as ornaments and currency for the Coastal Algonquin peoples of Virginia and North Carolina. The first Governor of Jamestown, Virginia, John Smith records the usage of the word Rawrenock in the Algonquin Powhowaten language.
The North Carolinian Coast began to shape into its present form as the Outer Banks Barrier Islands. Previously the North Carolina Coast had extended 50 miles eastward to the edge of the continental shelf. The melting of Northern Hemisphere Glaciers at least 14,000 years ago caused sea levels to rise. The Outer Banks and by extension the land of Roanoke Island began to stabilize around 6,000 B.C.[6] Roanoke Island was originally a large dune ridge facing the Atlantic coastline.[7]
On August 17, 1585, Ralph Lane, along with 107 men, built a fort on Roanoke Island as Grenville sailed back to England for supplies. By April 1586 conditions on Roanoke Island had decayed; the expedition had destroyed a nearby village occupied by indigenous people resulting in retribution against the fortifications on Roanoke Island. As luck would have it, Sir Francis Drake visited the Roanoke Colony on his way back to England in April 1586. Recognizing the dire conditions of the expedition he rescued the remaining members of the Roanoke Island expedition. One of the men in this expedition was named Joachim Gans, a Jew from Prague who was the best metallurgist in all of Europe at that time and the first Jew to set foot in the New World under the British Flag.