A team of researchers believes they may have cracked one of America’s most enduring legends: Where did the settlers of the Roanoke Colony go?

The Roanoke Colony, also known as the Lost Colony, was the first permanent English settlement in the United States.

A group of over 100 colonists settled on North Carolina’s Roanoke Island in 1587, led by Sir Walter Raleigh.

John White, the governor of the colony, returned to England for supplies in 1587.

When he came back to Roanoke Island in August 1590, he found the settlement mysteriously abandoned – and all the colonists, including his daughter Eleanor Dare and his granddaughter Virginia Dare, gone.

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 no

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