Dare Stone revisited: Not a hoax after all?

“In 1937 a stone with several lines of inscription carved into it was found by Louis Hammond, who said he was just a tourist from California. While looking for hickory nuts off U.S. 17, he had found the stone in the woods near Edenton, not far from the Chowan River, about 65 miles west of Roanoke Island. Seemingly carved at the behest of Eleanor White Dare, daughter of Governor White, it told of a horrific Indian attack in 1591 that wiped out most of the Lost Colony, including Virginia Dare, first English child born in North America.

“Scholars have dismissed the stone as a forgery, but a closer look shows it might well be what it purports to be: a last message from Eleanor Dare and the Lost Colony…. It tells a credible story that coincides with the sources left about the Lost Colony.”

— Condensed from “The 1937 Chowan River ‘Dare Stone’: A Re-evaluation” by David La Vere, professor of history at UNC Wilmington, in the North Carolina Historical Review (July 2009).

18 thoughts on “Dare Stone revisited: Not a hoax after all?”

  1. Brief bio of Lewis Hammond, discoverer of the Dare Stone



  2. What I’ve not seen offered or questioned is what Mr. Hammond would have been doing in eastern North Carolina, especially given that he’d been barely eking out a living on the west coast?
    Even if he had interest and could afford the extravagance of a cross country sojourn (remember this was in the 1930’s), why would he end up off road along the Chowan River. The site where the stone was supposedly discovered is/was no where near tourist related points of interest.

  3. Regarding what Bob Foster above gives as the bio of Lewis Hammond….how would you know that these different instances are all the same man? Lewis Hammond is a common name. You could be siting several different men of the same name.

    Would Lewis Hammond have been capable of imitating Early Modern English and know the Ye used for “The” in Early Modern English? Scholars in the 30’s didn’t even know that usage. The recent expert who looked at the stone said that this appeared genuine. I think it unlikely that someone who was not an expert in Early Modern English and also not a Historian could have faked this stone.

  4. Again regarding the Bio of Lewis Hammond that Bob has presented….. There was a Lewis Hammond born around 1893 in Michigan, living in CA with a wife Hilda in 1920. This man had 5 Hammond children all born in the early 1900’s. Was this same man in the service and prison too all while fathering these children?

    According to official literature: “In mid-September, 1937, L. E. Hammond, a small produce dealer of Alameda, California, was touring in North Carolina. He wanted hickory nuts. On a causeway by a swamp about three miles from Edenton, North Carolina, he stopped his car. This swamp, until the causeway was built shortly before, had been as inaccessible as any jungle. About a quarter of a mile in the woods, on the east bank of the Chowan, the tourist stumbled over a rock slab. It bore an inscription. ….. In November, 1937, he came into Atlanta, in search of a translator. Chance brought him to Emory University. ”

    So this explains why Hammond was in the area. AND his middle initial was “E” since there exists signed documents by him showing that.

    Why would a man of that time fake a stone with such intricate small letters, knowing the particulars of Early Modern English? I would think not that many people then knew the story Roanoke like we do today. After the first stone was mentioned in the press is when the copy cat stones appeared.


  5. Pam V, Alcatraz wasn’t a prison until 1934, before that, it was a Military installation. the Bio indicates that’s where he was discharged from the Army, not that he was imprisoned there.

  6. I want to believe the First Stone is authentic. My problem is that this belief bumps up unavoidably against the little we know about Louis Hammond who found it. Kudos to Bob Foster for finding as much info as he did. Nearly all of it seems credibly to point to the same guy until he ends up in Memphis, TN. Not impossible but it doesn’t feel right to me.
    Hammond’s story about vacationing in NC and going into a swamp due to a sudden yen for hickory nuts just doesn’t sound right. There’s still a Depression going on and this laborer in his late 40s goes cross-country all the way to NC for a vacation? If he was visiting relatives or looking for work, then maybe I’d buy it.
    I suggest someone else found the rock and brought it to CA where Hammond stole it from this person and then contrived a narrative that required him to travel 3000 miles, but he figured it’d be worth it.
    Who originally found it, I couldn’t say. I might speculate it was someone well enough off that they saw the stone as purely a collector’s item. How did Louis get wind of it? Again, I can only speculate, but maybe it was someone highly placed in the construction co he worked for.
    And there’s all kinds of reasons why this hypothetical person wouldn’t want to step forward once all the controversy hit the papers —–smuggling historical artifacts across state lines, etc.

  7. Even though the second and subsequent Dare Stones are known fakes (different linguistic patterns, tool marks, etc.), the first stone does appear to be genuine from all accounts. Given that,
    has anyone ever attempted to find the “small hill four myles east” upon which the 17 victims are supposedly buried with
    the “names writ al ther on rocke”? Is there a small hill near
    Edenton? From the maps and photos, Chowan County looks like a swampland . . . maybe “The Creature from the Black Lagoon”
    would be a better bet as a point of interest. Hmmmm?

  8. And no one bothered to consult a geologist to examine the first stone and attempt to find the area where it came from?

    Anyone done a mitochondrial DNA check on some of the indigenous residents compared with other materinal DNA from Mrs. Dare?

    Lot of questions left unanswered . . .

    By the way, why would the colonists have had a 3mm chisel which would have been required to carve the original stone? 3mm does not sound really practical for survival or construction in that era.

  9. Why does one find it odd that a fruit farmer from California would be in the southeast? A number of fruits such as peaches and nuts such as hickory are grown in both places. SE peaches taste much better than cAlifornia

  10. Ted Hammond He may have been visiting relatives do to we have family in that area. or so I am of the understanding. that my family may have been in the area in the late 1600’s.

  11. This man Hammond “discovered” this stone at a time when there was a huge amount of interest in the story. How convenient, just weeks after President Roosevelt had visited Roanoke Island.

  12. I watched the story of the Dare stone on the History Channel today. It was the first time I’d ever heard of the Roanoke Island story; L.(A?)E. Hammond sure found something of interest to those trying to find the lost colonists. The copper mining pits of the area where E. Dare might have found the stone she carved with the information about her circumstance were exciting to learn about. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan’s Copper Country/First Mining Rush of America began on the ancient PreColumbian mining pits there; the copper so pure (mass) there none compares around the world. It has been found far away from the Copper Country. Amygdoloid required heating and stamping after it was taken from the mine, so if the Indians of those early days wanted the copper from those mine rocks they needed laborers to pound it out of the rock. I can totally believe those lost colonists were enslaved to free the copper in order to increase trading advantages. Ancient miners, I’ve read, left the Upper Peninsula pits during the winter months. The copper was so pure up there it was not necessary to heat and stamp what was taken out. Virginia would have allowed the copper mine activities to continue all year-long, and taking the colonists to work the rocks must have seemed a good idea. The English had a lot of copper mining know how, but did the Indians know that? Doubt it, but what a coincidence of “meeting.”

  13. The question has been asked why Lewis Hammond is buried in Tennessee. This question was actually answered in the original comment made by Bob Foster in his brief bio of Lewis Hammond made on October 28, 2015, stating that Memphis,Tennessee is where Lewis A. Hammond is buried, in the The Memphis National Cemetery, a cemetery for military veterans. Hammond was 72 when he died on 17 Jan 1956.
    Also located in Memphis is the Memphis VA Medical Center where he may have received veteran’s care.

  14. I am anxious to speak with Bob Foster (author of above comments). I am Joseph McDonald. I can be reached at 910/281-5272, 910/315-1233, or joemc@mindspring.com. Thanks to anyone who can help me get in touch with him.

  15. My wife was just watching a show about the original “Dare stone”. They sampled the stone & it was shown NOT to be from that area. They conjectured (reaching in my opinion) that it was a “ballast stone” from a ship. Well first off, these were the first English to colonize on the coast 65 miles away. Where/how would a “ballast stone” from a ship come from in unexplored territory? I have a real problem believing these colonists. Trying to survive & carrying what they could as far as provisions & needed possessions. Would lug an about 20 pound rock 65 miles & several days. “Oh gee we might need a big rock”? LOL Also if they had been attacked recently. I’d be hot footing it out of the area. Not taking the time to sit down & carve the story into a rock. Why would there have been “ballast stones” at Roanoak in the first place or up this river anyway? A ship “in ballast” is an empty ship. The stone’s weight is needed to balance the ship when empty. Only removing those stones weight to be replaced by some type of cargo. The colonists & their provisions & possessions would have been the “cargo”. They would have needed to put ballast ON the ship to return to England not unload it. I just find the story full of holes in logic. Like Swiss Cheese LOL But all these guys keep saying “why would he create such a hoax?” They completely miss the power of ego. Getting his 15 min. of fame. That maybe he could parlay somehow into money. It was at the height of the depression you know. the the question above about “Ye” being used? Well all you have to do is read the King James version of the Bible. That was the predominant Bible at that time. It’s full of ye & thine & thou etc. & thought to be “old timey” ways of saying things. Like “Ye Old Tavern” “ye” being both you & the in usage.

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