Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1907-08-17
STORY OF THE.
KENSINGTON STONE
MORSE MEN MUST HAVE BEEN
HERE CENTURIES AGO.
The Finding of the Old Anchor at
Crookston, and the Petrified Wood
At Hereford TeEd to Prove the
Story Written on the Kensington
Stone.


Elbow Lake erald:-About five
weeks ago, while at work ditchlng on
state experimental farm near Crooks
ton. an old anchor was found at a
depth of six feet imbedded in solid
CLAW. The anchor is light weighing
not more than twenty five or thirty
hounds. It consists of rather heavy
cylindrical shaped center piece, and
from sockets on each side prongs ex-
tend to catch the dirt if the anchor is
sunk in the bottom of shallow water
or to catch other distractions, the
prong swinging on iron pins through
the center of the cylinder. 1t is SINH
lar to the ship anchors used by the
Norsemen nine centuries ago. The
ditch was being dug near the section
line. on sod that had never been
broke. and there seems to be no ques-
ton but what the anchor has lain
there for centuries. 1t is in fairly
good state of preservation, though
badly rusted, and it is believed to be
relic of the very earliest Morse ex-
ploration voyages, and was lost here
during the era that the Red River
valley was portion of Lake Winnie
peg, when ships could sail from the
Atlantic to this section of the country.
Lief Erickson left a party of sixty
when he touched the coast of North
America, and it il possible that this
anchor is a relic of the little band he
left, as nothing was ever heard of
them afterwards.
An account in the Herald of the
finding of this anchor reminded X. K.
Lee, of Erdahl, that he had picked up
a petrified piece of wood that had been
taken from the gravel pit at Hereford.
Tn this. one nail still remains, and one
was picked out by Mr.. Lee. There is
no doubt that this piece of wood was
once used by man, and quite possibly
it belonged to some ship. 1t was taken
from what was once the shore of Lake
Agassiz.
The finding of the anchor and the
Mortified wood awakened great deal
of interest, and it was recalled that
few years ago stone, engraved IN Ola
Morse runes, was found by farmer
near Kensington. BY courtesy of Ed
itor McCrea, of the Alexandria Post
News, the Herald is permitted to pub"
lish cut showing the engraving on
this stone and diagram of the place
where it was found. An article pub
lished in the Post News at the time
the stone was found, also follows:
"The stone was. found last Novem-
Der, by Ole Gilman, a farmer in the
southwest corner of Douglas county,
while grubbing under a tree OF 80 or
40 years growth, and it's position I'M
der the roots of the tree, as well as it's
tombstone shape and peculiar charac-
tsrs, at one attracted attention.
"The stone is about 80 inches long,
II inches wide and inches thick, the
inscriptions being on the side and face
in characters about an inch in length.
It weighs about 215 pounds. The in
scriptions impressed some as Greek,
and copies we're forwarded to the de-
nartment of Greek at the university
of Minnesota, where it was discovered
that the characters were runic, and
the copies were turned over to Prof.
O. J. Breda, who has charge OF the
department of Scandinavian Language
as. Prof. Crume, of Evanston, was
furnished with a copy OF the inscrip"
lions and later the stone itself was
shipped to him and is now in his
hands.
"Prof. Breda, when seen today stat
ed that on the first blush when the in
scriptions were first submitted to him
as being possible runic stone found
in the western part of Minnesota he
was disposed to laugh. Nevertheless
he picked out the characters, which
were true runes, gave value to the
characters which we're evidently not
runes and of which he was in doubt,