| Roanoke Inlet | former inlet from the Atlantic Ocean into Roanoke Sound through Bodie Island S of the present location of Nags Head, NE Dare County. Inlet was the original N boundary of Bodie Island. Opened prior to 1657 and closed in 1795, according to a note on the Kerr map, 1882. Appears on the Ogilby map, 1671. |
| Roanoke Island | approx. 11 mi. long and 2¼ mi. wide, E Dare County; it is separated by Roanoke Sound from Bodie Island (Outer Banks) on the E and from the mainland by Croatan Sound on the w. Site of Fort Raleigh, center of English exploration and settlement, 1584-87. Name believed to be of Algonquian Indian origin signifying "northern people" or "northerners," referring to the fact that the Indians lived on the N end of the island or that they had earlier migrated from an ancestral home in the n. The name Roanoke also came to be applied to shell beads. Site of freedman's colony, 1865. Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is on the N end of the island. See also Manteo; Carteret. |
| Roanoke Marshes | extensive string of low marsh islands in Croatan Sound, E central Dare County stretching from SW end of Roanoke Island to a large marshy area on the mainland. Site of a beacon est. approx. 1875; last of manually operated lights along the coast replaced by automatic beacon in 1955. The islands for the most part have washed away. Shown on the Collet map, 1770, as Daniels Marshes. Unnamed but shown prominently on the Moseley map, 1733. |
| Roanoke Rapids | city in N Halifax County on the Roanoke River. Founded in 1893 by John Armstrong Chaloner (1862-1935) as a cottonmill site and named for the rapids in the river. Inc. 1897. Originally known as Great Falls. Produces paper and textiles. Alt. 169. |
| Roanoke Rapids Dam | See Lake Gaston. |
| Roanoke Rapids Lake | is formed by a dam near the city of Roanoke Rapids in NE Halifax County on Roanoke River. The lake extends NW along the Halifax-Northampton county line to Gaston Dam. The dam there was completed in 1955, and the lake covers 4,900 acres, with a shoreline of 47 mi. and a max. depth of 90 ft. Built by Virginia Electric and Power Company to generate hydroelectric power, the lake is also used for recreation. See also Lake Gaston. |
| Roanoke Rapids Township | N Halifax County. |
| Roanoke River | is formed in Montgomery County, Va., by the junction of North Fork and South Fork and flows SE into North Carolina in NE Warren County. It flows across a corner of Warren and along the Halifax-Northampton, Halifax-Bertie, Bertie-Martin, and Bertie-Washington county lines into Batchelor Bay of Albemarle Sound. The John H. Kerr Dam on Roanoke River in Virginia creates Kerr Lake, a part of which is in Granville, Vance, and Warren Counties. Appears as Morattico River on the Comberford map, 1657, and as Noratake River on the Ogilby map, 1671. The Moseley map, 1733, specifies Roanoke River. |
| Roanoke Sea | See Albemarle Sound. |
| Roanoke Sound | between Roanoke Island and the Outer Banks in E Dare County. Known in the eighteenth century as Sanderson's Channel for Richard Sanderson, local landowner. The name Walter Rawleigh appears there on the Collet map, 1770, though it is uncertain whether it was intended to represent the name of the sound. See also Albemarle Sound. |