Roanoke Voyages Corridor

Roanoke Voyages Corridor crosses Roanoke Island in North Carolina's Dare County, site of England's first, mysteriously vanished American colony. The byway follows US 64 for 6.8 miles across the island, from the Croatan Sound Bridge to the Roanoke Sound Bridge, connecting the mainland to the Outer Banks. Sir Walter Raleigh's colonists settled here in the 1580s and then disappeared without a clear explanation, a mystery still commemorated nightly in summer at 'The Lost Colony,' the nation's longest-running outdoor drama, staged at the Waterside Theater within Fort Raleigh National Historic Site alongside the Elizabethan Gardens. The island's two main towns, Manteo and Wanchese, are named for two Native people who sailed to England and back with Raleigh's expeditions, and Manteo's waterfront now holds shops, restaurants, and the Roanoke Island Festival Park, home to a full-scale replica of the Elizabeth II, one of the ships that carried the original colonists across the Atlantic. Few short byways anywhere pack in this much founding-era American history.

• Roanoke Island, Dare County
• 6.8 miles on US 64
• The Lost Colony (1580s)
• Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
• Manteo and Wanchese
• Elizabeth II replica ship