Roanoke Island Historical Association (RIHA)

The fatal crash of the Jazz Age and the debilitating depression which followed did not have the same catastrophic impact on Roanoke Island as it did in the rest of the country. During the 1930s, Federal Relief programs brought jobs, people, and improvements to the isolated island and the Outer Banks. The Lost Colony and the Roanoke Island Historical Association played a substantial role in these improvements as they brought entrepreneurs, artists, journalists and politicians together to celebrate Roanoke Island’s unique Algonquian and Elizabethan heritage.

RIHA’s birth is the story of visionaries and artists whose paths converged during this time. Principally among them was Roanoke Island’s D. Bradford Fearing, a skilled and highly respected politician who had served the area as President of the Dare County Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of the County Commissioners and Senator in the NC General Assembly. His dream for history-rich Roanoke Island and Dare County was to develop history-oriented tourism as a pathway to economic boom.

In 1931, Bradford, and his supporters, accomplished the near impossible—they succeeded in making Roanoke Island easily accessible—for the first time since the 16^th century. The ferry from Kitty Hawk to Point Harbor, which connected the Island and the Outer Banks to the mainland, was replaced by the Wright Memorial Toll Bridge connecting Roanoke Island to Nags Head. The beach road through Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk was paved as was the highway on Roanoke Island.

Having solved Roanoke Island’s isolation problem, later in the year Fearing launched a Dare County Homecoming to coincide with the usual Virginia Dare Birthday celebration at Old Fort Raleigh. The event featured band and choral concerts, picnic lunches, and history-oriented speeches presented by prominent national and state politicians and influential leaders. 3,000 people attended but if Fearing and the people of Dare County were satisfied with the event, they had little time to rest on their laurels, as subsequent events would make clear.

W.O. Saunders, the owner/editor of the Elizabeth City newspaper, The Independent, was an eccentric visionary deeply committed to the development of heritage tourism in northeastern North Carolina. In the 28 August 1931 issue of his newspaper, he reviewed Fearing’s Dare County Homecoming event in an editorial, entitled, ‘A Real Idea.” It was far from a rave review. Saunders told Bradford straight out he had to change the content of his program. Political speeches no longer draw crowds. Saunders advised, “If you want to succeed, what you need to do is put on a passion play about the Roanoke Island colonies and run it every summer—like Oberammergau.” Saunders, clearly on a roll, then listed the steps in his full plan:

1. Restore Old Fort Raleigh
2. Re-create Sir Walter Raleigh’s ships
3. Establish an Indian Village and populate it with real Indians schooled in ancient crafts
4. Build an amphitheatre on the waterfront near Old Fort Raleigh
5. Employ a celebrated author and director to train local people in re-enactments of local history; and fabricate the fate of the lost colony and make that the subject of a pageant as heart-wringing as the passion of the crucified Christ—and run the play every summer.

   

The same issue of The Independent included a Letter-to-the-Editor from Col. J. W. Harrelson, Director of the NC Department of Conservation and Development. Harrelson noted: “It seems to me that here is something on which Paul Green could well give some attention.  May I suggest that you call Green’s attention to this matter?”

Bradford and his close political associates in Manteo met to mull over Saunders’ editorial, and quickly sent their response—which Saunders printed in The Independent:

“We are ready and anxious,” Fearing wrote, “under your leadership, to do all we can to help in your truly, superlatively interesting editorial, “A Real Idea.”

Saunders contacted Paul Green, and on 8 January1932, chartered the Roanoke Island Historical Association, with a board composed of 25 powerful and influential individuals, mostly North Carolinians—2 were from Norfolk; 6 from Dare County; the remainder from Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Wilmington, Warsaw, Durham, Moyock, Elizabeth City, Hertford, Edenton, and Washington. W.O. Saunders was President & Board Chair. The immediate purpose of the organization was to fund the implementation of Saunders’ original idea. But Saunders made it clear from the outset, that seeking funding from any source, other than Congress, the State General Assembly and local governments was unacceptable.  He clearly envisioned both a state and congressional Roanoke Island Commission as primary funding sources.

As the depression worsened, the RIHA moved forward implementing the 5-point plan—scheduling a major celebration in 1934—the 350^th Anniversary of the arrival of Sir Walter Raleigh’s Reconnaissance Voyage on the coast and their first contact with the Indigenous People. As the date approached, it became clear that funding could not be obtained in time. The RIHA dropped the 1934 celebration and decided to develop a major event in 1937—the 350^th Anniversary of the birth of Virginia Dare.

In January 1937, at the RIHA meeting in Manteo, the Board voted to cancel the celebration—because appropriate funding could not be obtained. Fearing and several others wanted to move forward under the aegis of the Roanoke Colony Memorial Association of Manteo—and there was no objection from the RIHA.  Paul Green’s The Lost Colony opened at the Waterside Theatre on 4 July 1937. Later responsibility for the production would revert to RIHA where it resides today.