Birthplace of America

We took Lisa and the grandchildren over to Alexandria today where we visited Big Ole.

Notice the shield of the big Norseman and you will see the claim to Birthplace of America.

We told the grandchildren the history of the Kensington Rune Stone.   Here is a summary of the controversial story of Vikings visiting our area 500 years before Christopher Columbus "discovered" America.

At this spot on a farm near Kensington....

A farmer, Olof Ohman, dug up a 202 pound rock with runic characters on it.

Here is the translation of the old text.  Note the date of 1362, some 500 years before the arrival of Columbus.

Today, there is a museum on the old farm.

Today, the flags of Norway and Sweden, the Viking countries, fly side by side with the American flag at the Kensington site.

Scholars will debate whether the Vikings or Columbus first "discovered" America.  How would they have reached our area of Minnesota?  Looking over the map below, they would have come west from Iceland or Greenland.  They would have moved west across Hudson Bay and down the lakes and rivers to what is now Minnesota.  The Red River runs north along the Minnesota border.  The Mississippi River flows within 14 days march of the Kensington site.

 

A friend in Norway, Halvor Haugan, gave me a two-volume set of hard-cover books.  These books, Tinn Soga (Tinn Story in English) describe in detail the history of each farm in Tinn, Telemark, Norway.  One of my ancestral farm records  includes the words:

"Dette gard var her i Vikentidene."

Translation:

This farm was here in the time of the Vikings.

So, as for me, I will be on the side of the Vikings when it comes to the Kensington Rune Stone and its validity.