Vintage Fort Raleigh Brochure 1969  U S Dept of the Interior.  Roanoke Island, NC., Manteo, NC. The Lost Colony. Fort Raleigh National Historic Site preserves the location of Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the present-day United States. The site was preserved for its national significance in relation to the founding of the first English settlement in North America, resettled in 1587 after it was initially in 1585.