Fort Raleigh National Historic Site Visitor Center

OPERATING HOURS

The Visitor Center at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is open daily from 9 AM to 5 PM, with extended hours until 6:30 PM during The Lost Colony theater season (typically  June through August). The Visitor Center is only closed on Christmas Day.

AMENITIES

• Ranger-staffed information desk where you can pick up a park brochure and ask questions
• Fort Raleigh Museum
• Park Film
• Book and souvenir store

PARK FILM

A 17-minute film about Fort Raleigh shows every half hour in the Visitor Center’s movie theater. This is a live action (real actors) docu-drama that depicts the events that took place on each of the three voyages to the settlement. The film does contain a few scenes of mild violence (a guy gets two arrows shot in him, for example) and would be rated a light PG, suitable for kids 8-years-old and up (or for those who have been watching such violence at an earlier age). I wouldn’t have a problem with my 8-year-old daughter watching the film, and she’s pretty much been sheltered from the world.

Movie theater

FORT RALEIGH MUSEUM

The Visitor Center also houses the Fort Raleigh Museum. Information panels tell the story of the three voyages to Fort Raleigh, but there are also many artifacts on display that were found at the site. It was through these artifacts that modern day archaeologists can hypothesize as to what the remains of the Earthen Fort were: probably the work area of scientists Thomas Hariot and Joachim Gans, who were analyzing rocks and soil for hints of precious metals. There is also one section, complete with a video, on the different theories about what could have happened to the “Lost Colony.”

Fort Raleigh museum

Artifacts found at the settlement site

Information panels tell the story of England’s first American settlement

The museum also has a reconstruction of a room from a typical English estate. The paneling actually came from such an estate—Heronden Hall in Kent—and was produced around 1585. The paneling came to America in 1926, imported by William Randolph Hearst for his castle in San Simeon, California. The National Park Service purchased the paneling in the 1960s. The idea behind the room is to give visitors the experience of being in the type of place that Sir Walter Raleigh might have been when he met with possible investors for his proposed voyages to America.

Reproduction of a room in an English estate, complete with paneling from a 1580s estate in Kent

The room has a number of interactive exhibits, including a series of five short movies. Topics include how Raleigh had to persuade the Queen of England to allow him to form a colony in America, how the first exploration went, how to deal with the Indians, persuading colonists to travel to America, and how John White tried to finance a return trip to rescue the stranded colonists from the 1587 voyage. Each film is about five minutes long. Push a button on the table top panel to select a film and then watch silhouetted actors on a movie screen that looks like you are looking in through a window on the conversation. There are also two interactive map exhibits.

Estate room video presentation

Roanoke Island also saw fighting during the American Civil War. Originally held by a very sparse number of Confederate soldiers, the Union army easily took control of the island in February 1862. The island soon became a refuge for runaway slaves. The museum has an exhibit on the Civil War history of the island and the slave settlement that resulted.

Exhibit on the Civil War and the slave settlement that formed on Roanoke Island during the war

SCHEDULING YOUR TIME

I always recommend watching any park film and visiting the museum prior to venturing out to the park grounds so that you understand what you are looking at. It takes about an hour to give the museum a thorough examination. Add in the film and time to speak with a Ranger about what there is to do in the park and you could spend up to 1.5 hours at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site Visitor Center.

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