Ruralite Cafe: Published 08/15/02

By Lisa Majors-Duff - News Editor

America's first, but not last, 'missing child'

I found in a pile of mail a press release touting Marjorie Hudson's new book, " Searching for Virginia Dare: A Fool's Errand," attached to a request that this newspaper and others across the state remind their readers about " America's first missing person." With recent headlines spotlighting today's missing children in mind, I was intrigued, though on a different level than I had been when Mr. Queen relayed to us the mystery of the Lost Colony.

That story, as any North Carolina history scholar should be able to tell you, goes like this: Virginia Dare, the first English child born on American soil came into the world Aug. 18, 1587, some 415 years ago this Sunday. Shortly after presiding over her baptism, Virginia's grandfather John White returned to England to secure provisions for the colonists he had led to a new life in America. By the time he returned three years later, the colonists, including his infant granddaughter, had vanished, leaving behind only the word " CROATOAN" carved in a tree.

Seeing Virginia Dare's name again after all these years brought back a few of the feelings I experienced some 20 years ago sitting in a steamy classroom, consumed by my own great mysteries of life. I remember I pushed aside thoughts of who might ask me to dance at the upcoming social event of the season - a seventh- and eighth-grade shindig in the school cafeteria - as Mr. Queen explained in that eloquent way he had with words about the long months a very pregnant Eleanor Dare endured the hardship of life on a sailing ship, all the while praying she and her young family would be rewarded in the New World.

As the barely-beyond-puberty boys around me snickered at the word " pregnant," my 13-year-old mind began to wonder what Virginia's birth must have been like. And after living through that experience, which was certainly not a given 400 years ago, what could have happened to the new mother and her fellow colonists? I remember pondering these questions for some time, though probably not long after we were tested on the material and definitely not during Friday night's dance.

Years later, with a daughter of my own, I still don't know the answers to these questions. Nor do I know what today's mothers of missing and murdered children must be experiencing. While reports of stolen children have consumed the national media, the shock and horror of such a crime - one that is not at all rare - cannot be imagined by those of us reading the stories, those of us still tucking our little ones in at night.

While the Virginia Dare story has become the stuff of legend - one of which is the ethereal notion that she was transformed by an Indian lover with magical powers into a white doe that is seen on rare occasions wandering along the misty North Carolina coast - a missing child today can only be seen as a nightmare too frightening for words.

Elkmont Update

A second round of public meetings has been scheduled by Great Smoky Mountain National Park managers as they continue to develop a plan for the future of 74 buildings in the Elkmont Historic District, which is adjacent to Elkmont Campground on the Tennessee side of the park.

The first meeting will be held Monday, Aug. 19, at the American Legion Hall in Gatlinburg, Tenn.; a second session is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 22, in Hollingsworth Auditorium on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Both begin at 6:30 p.m.

Since the initial public meetings in May, which I wrote about July 7, the Elkmont planning team has completed a baseline study on available cultural, natural, recreational and infrastructure resources, according to park spokesperson Nancy Gray. A brief overview of the results of this study and a discussion of public comments received to date will be presented during the upcoming meetings, which will also focus on potential and appropriate uses of the Elkmont structures.

Back to Archive: 08/15/02.