I've always had a bit of a pet peeve with "The Lost Colony" though. Most of us were taught that it was the first European colony in the New World, but it was established in 1587. The French had established a fort and colony on the St. Johns River in 1564 followed by the Spanish establishing St. Augustine in 1565. By the time the first "English" settlers were mysteriously disappearing, St. Augustine was a thriving town; 42 years before Jamestown and 55 years before the pilgrims landed.
I never heard "first European Colony" and I lived in southeast Virginia and went to school and history classes there. I always heard that it was the first English permanent settlement. The same history books had Spaniards in Georgia already.
No, most of us were taught that it was the first English colony in the New World and that is correct along with Virginia Dare being the first English baby born in North America.
The lesson was that the Roanoke Island colony was the first English attempt.
My favorite book growing up was "the Flamingo Feather" by Kirk Munroe describing the interaction of the French, Sapnish and indian struggle over the terrority.
I'll jump in here to comment on the people.
Recently there has been a major effort by the folks known as Mullengons who live in East Tennessee and southwest virginia to explore in detail their heritage. There is near certainty that they spring from these very early abandoned colonies.
The mix of European and Indian plus other genes resulted in a population that was ostracized by both Indian and Europeans who came later. The Mullengons who can be readily identified by a knot on their head, were pushed westward to the mountains and ridgetops of East Tennessee and Southwest Va.
"Most of us were taught that it was the first European colony in the New World,"
You must have gone to some Yankee school. We were taught that it was the first English colony.