Roanoke

City in Virginia, USA, on the Roanoke River, in Great Valley, 65 km/41 mi west of Lynchburg; population (2000) 94,900. It is the marketing and distribution point for a rich agricultural area. Manufactured products include chemicals, steel goods, furniture, and textiles.

Settled in 1740, and chartered as Big Lick in 1834, the community developed rapidly after 1881 as a repair centre for the Virginia Railway. The town was renamed in 1882 when it became a junction of the Norfolk and Western Railway and the Shenandoah Valley Railroad.

An illuminated star on a hill within Roanoke proclaims it the ‘star city’ of Virginia.

Roanoke

River of Virginia and North Carolina, formed by the Dan and Staunton rivers; length over 700 km/435 mi. It rises west of Roanoke in the Appalachian Mountains and flows across the Appalachian valley southeastwards into North Carolina, reaching the sea at the western end of Albemarle Sound, a large inlet on the coast of North Carolina.

The river is extensively dammed for flood control and hydroelectricity; this has produced a number of reservoir lakes, of which the largest are Smith Mountain Lake, Kerr Reservoir, and Lake Gaston.

Roanoke

Island of North Carolina, USA, 20 km/12 mi long and 5 km/3 mi wide. Situated in the mouth of Albermarle Sound, behind the coastal sandbar of Cape Hatteras, it is linked by bridge to the mainland and bar. The principal town is Manteo; population (1996 est) 1,300. Tourism is among the chief industries on the island. First explored in 1584, Roanoke was the site of the first English colony in North America, established at Fort Raleigh in 1585 by the English adventurer Walter Raleigh.

John White brought a further 100 settlers in 1587, but a follow-up expedition of 1590 found no trace of the colonists, and their fate has remained a mystery.

A reconstruction of the fort, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, was erected in 1941. Since 1937 a symphonic drama entitled The Lost Colony has been performed each summer at the outdoors Waterside Theatre.