The Dare Stones: The Story and What Is True

Home › North Carolina Legends › The Dare Stones

The Dare Stones is a North Carolina story with a documented core at Chowan River near Edenton (where the first stone was said to be found), Chowan County. The sources are named below.

HistoryKind of story
2Named sources
Eastern Plain & Inner BanksRegion
Oct 27Checked, 2026

The Story
Its Home
Looked For
FAQ

Collected 0 of 16Next legend

A story with a documented core.

No. 6 of 16

The Dare Stones

People say that in 1937 a stone turned up with a message scratched into it, signed by Eleanor Dare, mother of Virginia Dare, telling what happened to the Lost Colony. More stones followed, each adding to the story, until the whole thing came apart.

What The Record Shows

NCpedia's "The Dare Stones" by Kelly Agan and T. Mike Childs (revised by the Government & Heritage Library, 2019) says a California tourist, Louis Hammond, brought a 21-pound stone to Emory University in November 1937 and said he found it near Edenton while hunting hickory nuts. Dr. Haywood J. Pearce, Sr., bought it and the stones went to Brenau College (now Brenau University) in Gainesville, Georgia. The article says a series of 48 stones turned up between 1937 and 1940, that Pearce's son, Emory history professor Haywood Pearce, Jr., came to believe in the first stone, and that after being sold forged stones by Bill Eberhardt he admitted he had been duped. NCpedia says most of the stones are considered hoaxes. The NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources post "Mystery of the Dare Stones" (November 14, 2016) says all stones but the original are universally considered forgeries, that Hammond disappeared soon after handing over the stone and was never found, and that the first stone's authenticity is still debated; it notes a recent study by David LaVere at UNC Wilmington leaned toward confirming it. So the documented record is that the later stones are forged and the first stone is unresolved. Nothing we read proves it came from a Lost Colony survivor.

Sources: The Dare Stones, by Kelly Agan and T. Mike Childs, revised 2019 (NCpedia, State Library of North Carolina); Mystery of the Dare Stones (NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources blog, November 14, 2016).

A Note

The first stone is unresolved and the later stones are documented forgeries, according to the sources. The stones are held out of state, and we found no public display in North Carolina, so no place to see them is named. No directions to any land are given.

Its home: Fort Raleigh National Historic Site (the Lost Colony story the stones claim to continue). Official page.

On this site: Outer Banks.

Looked for and Not Found

A named public place in North Carolina where the stones can be seen: none found. The home place listed is the Lost Colony's park, not a display of the stones.
A page we read that names the 1941 Saturday Evening Post exposé or Life magazine: the NCpedia and DNCR pages we read do not mention them.

More Legends

Plan The Trip

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the story of The Dare Stones true?

NCpedia's "The Dare Stones" by Kelly Agan and T.

Is this a legend?

It is a story with a documented core. The facts are listed on this page with their sources.

Where do these facts come from?

From the named sources listed on this page: The Dare Stones, by Kelly Agan and T. Mike Childs, revised 2019 (NCpedia, State Library of North Carolina); Mystery of the Dare Stones (NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources blog, November 14, 2016).

Sources

Read on October 27, 2026. Stories are for fun; the facts come from these sources. How we check: editorial standards; spot a mistake? tell us.

Cite this page: It's North Carolina, “The Dare Stones”, itsnorthcarolina.com/legends/dare-stones/ (updated 2026-10-27). By the It's North Carolina editorial team. Free to quote with attribution and a link to this page; data and tables are licensed CC BY 4.0.