Editor’s note: As news trickled in late last week and over the weekend regarding the latest discovery beneath the patches on the John White ‘Virgenia Pars’ map, I immediately knew I wanted to speak to Scott Dawson, the most knowledgeable expert on the so-called ‘Lost Colony’ that I know. And let me be very clear — to say Mr. Dawson is the most knowledgeable person I know on the subject is not a claim I make lightly. I have been involved in researching early coastal Carolina history for nearly two decades. I have done research with, and for, more than one ‘group’ promoting itself as focused on the ‘Lost Colony’, and have become disenchanted with the recurrent theme in such groups of having agenda-driven theories that are weakly supported by cobbled-together, cherry-picked pieces of data, attempting to prove a desired historical interpretation, rather than allowing the data to all come in and then forming hypotheses from said data.
In my observations over these last many years, it appears much of the historical hullabaloo relating to the Lost Colony is more about drumming up publicity and headlines, followed by more ‘research dollars.’ [Read more…] about The ‘Lost’ Colony and John White’s ‘Virgenia Pars’ Map: An Outer Banks historian provides some much-needed historical context