Dare Stones
[1][2]: back cover The colonists were last seen on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina, in August 1587, and the mystery of their disappearance has since become a part of American folklore.
[1][3]: 243 Taken together, the messages compose a narrative describing the fate of the missing colonists between 1591[2]: 14 and 1603,[2]: 107 in which they are said to have migrated from Roanoke to the Chattahoochee River Valley near present-day Atlanta, Georgia, in September 1587.
[2]: 46, 49–50 The other 47 stones at Brenau, presented in response to a reward offer, were of a markedly different style; all of these were eventually connected to Georgia stonecutter Bill Eberhardt and discredited.
[3]: 90–92 According to White, the settlers had already discussed plans to relocate "50 miles further up into the maine," referring to Albemarle Sound, which would place the new location near the mouth of the Chowan River.
[3]: 93, 163 When the fleet prepared to leave in August, the colonists persuaded White to accompany it back to England, to arrange a resupply mission in 1588.
[3]: 94, 97 White discovered the word "CROATOAN" carved into a post of the village palisade, but was unable to follow this lead, as poor weather forced a search of the island to be hastily abandoned.
[2]: 136 According to this account, the Powhatan leader Wahunsenacawh was warned by his priests about a nation that would one day arise from the Chesapeake Bay to threaten his tribe, and therefore the massacre was carried out to avert the prophecy.
[2]: 137 Strachey reported that seven surviving colonists – four men, two boys, and a young woman – fled up the Chowan River, where they were captured by another tribe and kept in a place called "Ritanoe" to beat copper.
[3]: 141, 347 On November 8, 1937, Louis E. Hammond visited Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, with a 21-pound (9.5 kg) stone, asking for help to interpret the markings on it.
[2]: 50 At least two North Carolina men – T. E. Chappell of Tyner, and Tom Shallington of Tyrell County – came forward purporting to have found the stone the Pearces were looking for.
[2]: 53–59 In May 1939, Bill Eberhardt made several visits to Brenau to deliver stones he claimed to have found at a hill near Greenville County, South Carolina,[2]: 85 near the town of Pelzer.
[2]: 65–68 Eberhardt, a Fulton County, Georgia[2]: 61 backwoodsman, claimed to be a stonecutter by trade, and he was later found to have a history of selling counterfeit Native American relics.
Turner claimed to have found his stone in Hall County, Georgia back in March, prior to the Pearces' dealings with Eberhardt.
[2]: 101–103 Eberhardt also showed the Pearces an inscription similar to that of the Dare Stones on a ledge inside a cave near the Chattahoochee River.
Dare Stone Number 48, again purportedly located near the aforementioned cave, reads "John White manye prisoner fourtie mylles nw.
[2]: 122–123 The Pearces intended to host a scientific conference at Brenau in September 1939, which would allow scholars to examine the Dare Stones and weigh in on their authenticity.
The delay was explained by the need for more time to review new evidence, presumably referring to the stones that suggested the Lost Colonists reached present-day Georgia.
The participation of Samuel Eliot Morison, chair of the Department of American History at Harvard University, lent considerable credibility to the proceedings.
[2]: 123 Although skeptical, the Post editors accepted the manuscript, but the fact-checking department was at a loss to handle an unverified discovery that directly contradicted the historical record.
Hammond claimed to have cleaned Dare Stone Number 1 using a wire brush, eliminating an important means of authenticating the artifact.
[4]: 124, 126 [2]: 147–150 He noted the suspicious coincidence that Eberhardt had found most of the Dare Stones, always alone or with his associate Turner, and along a path leading towards his own home.
White's defense of the premise that the Lost Colony migrated to the Chattahoochee Valley received limited support, and had negligible effect on the prevailing view that Eberhardt's stones are fraudulent.
Pearce returned to the site later with Georgia Tech geologist Count Gibson, who discovered a bottle of sulfuric acid that he surmised had been used to artificially age the writing.
[2]: 162 During a tense confrontation on May 13, 1941, Eberhardt kept his distance while holding a rifle, while Pearce Jr., (with Gibson as a witness) tried to manipulate him into signing a contract that would serve as a confession.
[2]: 173 Boyden Sparkes continued to investigate Louis E. Hammond, with little success, hoping to find some connection to Eberhardt or any other evidence that would discredit the original Dare Stone.
[3]: 255 In sharp contrast, Tudor historian Diarmaid MacCulloch dismissed the language on the stone as "risible forgery," emphatically stating "It has all the plausibility of Dick Van Dyke's Cockney accent in Mary Poppins.
Hammond was not a bona fide tourist but a New Mexico academic who was in league with Haywood Pearce Jr., together with Herbert E. Bolton, the perpetrator of the Plate of Brass hoax.
Following increased attention from a 2015 TV documentary,[11] the school's president, Ed Schrader, moved the stone to his office, citing security concerns.
[2]: 254 The rest of the stones were placed, over time, under the school's auditorium, in a boiler room beneath the amphitheater, and ultimately the attic of one of the campus houses.
[11][14][15] The school website provides an official policy for requests to view and examine the stones, although it reserves all rights to photography and video recording of the pieces.
