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National Park Service Proposing Ways To Stabilize Shoreline At Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

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Compiled from NPS releases

Published Date

January 9, 2025
Photo of shoreline erosion at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. NPS photo NPS

Shoreline erosion at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site/NPS

Erosion along the shoreline at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site in North Carolina is posing a threat to archaeological sites and park facilities, prompting the National Park Service to consider ways to halt the erosion along roughly 1 mile of shoreline.

One of the most confounding and enduring mysteries in American history is what happened at this site to a colony of English settlers under Sir Walter Raleigh who were trying to establish a permanent English settlement in America more than 435 years ago.

Archaeologists have been working to uncover artifacts and evidence that shed light on the colonists’ lives on Roanoke Island. Although solving the mystery of the Lost Colony is a perennial goal, the work has been primarily focused on uncovering details about the colony that will help shape how the National Park Service interprets this complex cultural site.

Now Park Service staff is working to decide how best to stablize the shoreline, and has developed three alternatives as part of an environmental assessment of the problem. Public comment on the preliminary alternatives is being taken through February 7.

Without action, the Park Service says, the erosion will most likely continue, potentially jeopardizing the Waterside Theatre’s costume shop and parking lot, park roadways and park housing along Pear Pad Road. Already the erosion has undercut some cliffs 25 feet high.

Three preliminary alternatives are available for public comment in the Shoreline Stabilization for Erosion Control public scoping newsletter at parkplanning.nps.gov/FORA_shoreline. Comments received through this public scoping period may be used by Fort Raleigh as it develops an environmental assessment.

The alternatives range from a small rock revetment installed along the shore and a larger rock berm to a combination of the two.

You can find details of the alternatives, and leave your comments, at this site.

A public meeting to discuss Fort Raleigh’s shoreline erosion and the preliminary alternatives is scheduled for 6-7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, at Fort Raleigh's Visitor Center, 1500 Fort Raleigh Road, Manteo, North Carolina.

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