The History Press

For over 400 years, the mystery of Roanoke's "Lost Colony" has puzzled historians and spawned conspiracies--until now.

New discoveries link the lost colony of Roanoke to Hatteras Island.

The legend of the Lost Colony has been captivating imaginations for nearly a century. When they left Roanoke Island, where did they go? What is the meaning of the mysterious word Croatoan? In the sixteenth century, Croatoan was the name of an island to the south now known as Hatteras. Scholars have long considered the island as one of the colonists' possible destinations, but only recently has anyone set out to prove it. Archaeologists from the University of Bristol, working with local residents through the Croatoan Archaeological Society, have uncovered tantalizing clues to the fate of the colony.

Hatteras native and amateur archaeologist Scott Dawson compiles what scholars know about the Lost Colony along with what scholars have found beneath the soil of Hatteras.

Did the phrase "That's what I was wondering…" solve a murder?

In the morning hours of July 16, 1936, Helen Clevenger's uncle discovered her bloodied body crumpled on the floor of her small room in Asheville's grand Battery Park Hotel. She had been shot through the chest. Buncombe County Sheriff Laurence Brown, up for reelection, desperately searched for the teenager's killer as the public clamored for answers. Though witnesses reported seeing a white man leave the scene, Brown's focus turned instead to the hotel's Black employees and on August 9 he arrested bell hop Martin Moore. After a frenzied four-day trial that captured the nation's attention, Moore was convicted of Helen's murder on August 22. Though Moore confessed to Sherriff Brown, doubt of his guilt lingers and many Southerners feared that justice had not, in fact, been served.

Author Anne Chesky Smith weaves together varying accounts of the murder and investigation to expose a complex and disturbing chapter in Asheville's history.

The history of the Western North Carolina Railroad is a tale like no other, filled with tragedy, heroism, brains, blood, sweat, tears, nitroglycerin and humor.

Now a tourist mecca, the Great Smoky Mountains were a remote and inaccessible place until well after the Civil War. Using first enslaved and later convict labor the Western North Carolina Railroad and Murphy Branch connected the mountains with the remainder of the state by rail for the first time in 1891. The railroad brought commerce and tourism. Though its vital role was eventually eclipsed by the automobile, tourists and rail buffs continue to come to Bryson City to experience travel by steam train on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.

Local authors Jacob Morgan Plott and Bob Plott tell the story of a line that refused to die.

At the turn of the twentieth century, railroads meant progress, growth and development.

In the 1890s Southport, North Carolina became the target destination for a major coaling terminal for ships sailing the Atlantic coast. A new terminal would require a railroad to bring in coal and other supplies. More than twenty companies were formed to pursue this idea over the years, with a few actual accomplishments, but most were purely speculative. Wearying the expectant town for more than twenty-five years, the vision for a great port was whittled down until local entrepreneurs finally built a 30-mile rail line to connect the town to Wilmington.

Local author and railroad historian Mark Koenig chronicles the short life of a short line and the long process of making it a reality.

Explore the international headlines and the little-known crimes, the solved and the wrongly solved, in these tales of the North Carolina mountains.

Western North Carolina is known for mountain vistas and wild, rocky rivers, but remote wilderness and quaint small towns can have a dark side. Learn the truth behind the famous murder ballad Tom Dooley. Delve into the criminal history of moonshine, and the tales of two unexpected bombers in idyllic Mayberry.

Crime writer Cathy Pickens brings a novelist's eye to Western North Carolina's crime stories that define the sinister--and quirky--side of the mountains.

In the summer of 1967, 19 year old Brenda Joyce Holland disappeared.

A mountain girl who had come to Manteo to work on The Lost Colony, Brenda's body was found three days later, floating in the Sound. This riveting narrative, built on unique access to state investigative files and multiple interviews with insiders, searches for the truth of the unsolved murder. This island odyssey of discovery includes séances, a suicide, and a supposed shallow grave.

Journalist John Railey cuts through the myths and misdirections to finally arrive at the long-hidden truth of what happened to Brenda Holland that summer on Roanoke Island.

Learn about the real life of beloved actor Andy Griffith.

The world loves Sheriff Andy Taylor. Yet the actor who played him was intensely private. Here, for the first time, is the real Andy Griffith, his career and life defined by the island that made him in the years soon after World War II. He achieved his artistic breakthrough while acting in The Lost Colony drama on Roanoke Island, then spent the rest of his life repaying the island for giving him that start. Here, in unique closeup, is Andy of Manteo, reveling in wild, watery and loving ways with his fellow islanders.

Author and journalist John Railey paints an intimate portrait of Andy, based on interviews with many of those who knew him best on the sand where he lived and died.

In the Southern Appalachian Mountains, no character was more loved or despised than George W. Kirk.

This inured Union officer led a group of deserters on numerous raids between Tennessee and North Carolina in 1863, terrorizing Confederate soldiers and civilians alike. At Camp Vance in Morganton, Kirk's mounted raiders showcased guerrilla warfare penetrating deep within Confederate territory. As Home Guards struggled to keep Western North Carolina communities safe, Kirk's men brought fear and violence throughout the region for their ability to strike and create havoc without warning. Civil War historian Michael C. Hardy examines the infamous history of George W. Kirk and the Civil War along the Blue Ridge.

Over 80,000 of woodland acres became the home of America's first forestry school and the heart of the East's first national forest formed under the Weeks Act.

When George Vanderbilt constructed the Biltmore House, he hired forester Gifford Pinchot and, later, Dr. Carl A. Schenck to manage his forests. Now comprising more than 500,000 acres, Pisgah National Forest holds a vast history and breathtaking natural scenery. The forest sits in the heart of the southern Appalachians and includes Linville Gorge, Catawba Falls, Wilson Creek Wild and Scenic River, Roan Mountain, Max Patch, Shining Rock Wilderness and Mount Pisgah. Author and naturalist Marci Spencer treks through the human, political and natural history that has formed Pisgah National Forest.

The Mountains-to-Sea Trail shows off the most spectacular, historic and quirky elements of the North Carolina landscape.

Stretching one thousand miles from Clingmans Dome in the Smokies to Jockey's Ridge State Park in the Outer Banks, the route takes in Fraser fir trees and pelicans, old grist and textile mills, working cotton and tobacco farms, Revolutionary War sites and two British cemeteries complete with Union Jacks. The trail is half on footpaths and half on back roads, offering experiences not only in nature but also in small towns, at historic monuments, in family cemeteries and in local shops. Author Danny Bernstein has taken it all in and shares her knowledge for those who might follow in her footsteps.

North Carolina holds a special place in the history of moonshine. For more than three centuries, the illicit home-brew was a way of life.

NASCAR emerged from the illegal moonshine tradeas drivers such as Junior Johnson, accustomed to running from the law, moved to the racetrack. A host of colorful characters populated the state's bootlegging arena, like Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton, known as the Paul Bunyan of moonshine, and Alvin Sawyer, considered the moonshine king of the Great Dismal Swamp. Some law enforcement played a constant cat-and-mouse game to shut down illegal stills, while some just looked the other way. Authors Frank Stephenson and Barbara Mulder reveal the gritty history of moonshine in the Tar Heel State.

Residents of Kernersville have spent lifetimes looking after each other--and sometimes they continue after death.

Nestled between Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point, Kernersville transformed from a sleepy little village stop on the Great Wagon Road into a thriving community in the nineteenth century--one with its share of ghost tales. Does a young soldier haunt the Kernersville Museum, flirting with the women who work there? Learn the truth of the ghost of the old McCuiston House. Local institutions like the P&N Store and Snow's Diner also claim their share of spooky stories.

Kernersville Museum director Kelly Hargett and local theater founder Scott Icenhower tell ghost tales that are sometimes comical, sometimes heartwarming, and sometimes a little hair raising.

Tour the Old North State's famous--and not-so-famous--historic sites.

"First in Freedom," "First in Flight," and "First, Farthest and Last" are all honorifics that have been used to describe North Carolina's well-known history. Learn the truth behind each of these epithets and other tales from the sands of the Outer Banks to the bustling cities of the Piedmont and the western mountains. Tour the state's famous historic homes, gardens and cemeteries. Dive deep into its military conflicts, from the golden age of piracy to the Second World War.

"Join North Carolina's veteran historian, Michael C. Hardy, for an exploration of the many sites, monuments, museums, and public spaces that tell story of North Carolina's history.

From January to July 1942, more than seventy-five ships sank to North Carolina's "Graveyard of the Atlantic" off the coast of the Outer Banks. A Standard oil tanker sank just sixty miles from Cape Hatteras.

German U-boats sank ships in some of the most harrowing sea fighting close to America's shore. Germany's Operation Drumbeat, led by Admiral Karl Donitz, brought fear to the local communities. The U-85 was the first U-boat sunk by American surface forces, and local divers later discovered a rare Enigma machine aboard. Author Jim Bunch traces the destructive history of world war on the shores of the Outer Banks.