Lost Colony settlers ended up here. Now it's becoming a state natural area.

BERTIE COUNTY, N.C.

Lee Leidy stood under towering old cypress trees next to Salmon Creek in Bertie County, where members of the lost colony of Roanoke Island sought refuge with the natives.

Deer tracks were all around. Canada geese swam in the deep, tea-colored creek. Nearby were hundreds of acres of bottomland hardwood offering shelter for bears, rabbits, hawks and bald eagles. Cleared high ground is in cultivation, perhaps similar to the way it was when the Chowanoc tribe lived here and later when it was the plantation of Thomas Pollock, a governor and one of North Carolina’s wealthiest residents.

“You have the Albemarle Sound here, the Chowan River there and Salmon Creek there,” said Leidy, an attorney and northeast regional director for the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust. “You can see why throughout history this place was such a vantage point. It’s really pretty remarkable.”

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