If you ignore all of the actual historical evidence, the disappearance of the Roanoke Colony is one of the greatest mysteries of America’s early years. A struggling group of colonists all mysteriously vanished, leaving their homes abandoned, and the only clue left in their wake was a single word carved into a tree: Croatoan. That word was either a warning about some supernatural threat or an explanation that the Roanokans had simply gone to live with a nearby tribe of Native Americans that seemed to have their shit together, but either way, the mystery has baffled experts for centuries—assuming they choose to ignore all of the very convincing evidence.
Now, it looks like another spooky chapter is going to be added to the history of Roanoke, because some set photos taken by TMZ suggest that the next season of American Horror Story is going make a stop at the doomed colony. The photos feature a colonial-era house surrounded by a lot of old-fashioned farming equipment, and there happens to be a tree nearby with a single, mysterious word carved into it. We’ll let you guess what it is.
Interestingly, a pilgrim-y setting doesn’t match up at all with the many ominous teasers FX has released for the upcoming sixth season of American Horror Story, but FX president John Landgraf has said that the season will take place across two different time periods. That means it’ll probably some modern mystery that is tied into whatever bizarre explanation American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy can come up with for why the Roanoke Colony disappeared. Maybe time-traveling robots? Have they done that yet?