the roanoke colony was in what present day state
Roanoke Island Roanoke Island was the site of the 16th-century Roanoke Colony, the first English colony in the New World. It was located in what was then called Virginia, named in honor of England's ruling monarch and "Virgin Queen", Elizabeth I. From 1584 to 1590 there were six expeditions to the area and two groups of colonists who attempted to establish a colony there, both groups failed.