According to the author, Beta Colony was one of the first two colonies founded by Earth, both by American efforts; the other, Alpha Colony, vanished in a manner likened to Roanoke.
The Briar King provides a fantasy explanation for the mysterious disappearance of the Roanoke Colony in 16th century Virginia, suggesting the colonists had been abducted by the dimension-crossing Skasloi and enslaved.
Paul (John Leguizamo) is a projectionist in a Detroit theater who is reading about the 16th century disappearance of the Roanoke Colony when the lights suddenly go out in the theater.
Cape Colony | MacDowell Colony | Roanoke, Virginia | Roanoke | colony | Gold Coast (British colony) | Colony | Plymouth Colony | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Roanoke Island | Red River Colony | Swan River Colony | Roanoke River | Transvaal Colony | Orange River Colony | Colony of Virginia | Roanoke Colony | Old Colony Railroad | Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America | Roanoke Valley Rampage | Pilgrim (Plymouth Colony) | Hindu colony | Crown Colony | Crown colony | Connecticut Colony | bird colony | art colony | William Bradford (Plymouth Colony governor) | The Colony | Roanoke Valley Rebels (ECHL) |
The ideas which inspired the "Gone to Croatan" chapter—i.e. the disappearance of the Roanoke Colony—were later used as the basis for the book Gone To Croatan: The Origins of North American Dropout Culture, edited by Ron Sakolsky and James Koehnline.