The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1910-01-13
NORSEMEN IN AMERICA.

Hudson did not discover Hud on's
bay. Columbus did not give to the
world the first authentic record of
new continent. But other men, hardy
and brave, facing terrible perils on
sea and on land, sailed Hudson's bay,
established station on the southern
shores, and by neans of exploring ex-
petitions penetrated south to the wes-
tern portion of Minnesota 100 years
before the Spanish discovery and left
an authentic record of their journey
This is the record, translated from the
Kensington rune stone, the anthem
ITCHY of which is confirmed after
many years of debate by the Mime
sofa Historical Society:
Eight Goths and twenty-five Morse
men upon an exploring expedition
from Vinland and very far west We
had camp by two skerries one days
journey from this stone. We were
fishing one day. When we returned
we found ten men red with blood and
dead A. V. NJ. save us from the evil.
(We) have ten men W the sea to look
after our vessel, forty-one days journ-
ey from this island. Year 1862"
What fate may have befallen the
ten, or where the camp by the sea
may have been is a mystery shrouded
in the mists of forgotten years and
there is no answer in any facts which
the years of search have brought to
light. Piecing the shreds of fact and
the story of the stone together, the
historical society has reached the con-
Clusion that the stone was planted at
the southern point reached on all eX-
petition from a base on the southern
shores of Hud3ons bay, the distance
mentioned by the rune tallying with
the facts. Journeying from the sea"
or Hudson's bay up the Nelson river
to Lake Winnipeg, through Lake Win
nipeg to it's southern shore and thence
south through the Red River valley
into what is now Minnesota. From
the point where the rune was found
at Kensington, Mimi, twenty miles
back over the trail and at the south
west shore of Elbow Lake, there is a
point of land with two skerries, such
as the rune mentions, and the distance
is twenty miles or one days journey
The translation of the rune is the
work of Hjalmar Holland, an expert on
Scandinavian history, who has found
by much study and comparison that
the rune bears it's own marks of au-
thenticity in it's similarity to other
rune stones of the fourteenth century
Since the discovery of the stone at
Kensington, fifteen main arguments
have been advanced against it, each
of which has been considered by the
historical society and discarded as
lacking weight Prof. n. H. Wiz chell,
state geologist, frankly declared at
the time Of the discovery that the
stone was forgery, but is now con-
vinced that it is genuine. 1t was
found by farmer who was grubbing
stumps and when unearthed was lock-
ed deep in the roots of a tree ten inch
es in diameter. If the stone il a forg-
cry, it must have been placed in the
field where it was discovered by a
man travelling 100 miles from the
nearest white settlement and 400 miles
from a railway. The stone shows the
marks of age and the eroding action Of
soil and water and weighs more than
200 pounds. 1t has been placed in a
case in the rooms of the historical So
ciety, which is now searching for
another stone believed to have been
set up by the same explorers from
Hudson's bay, but found in the earliest
history of this territory by a French
explorer and transplanted to Paris
with other exhibits from the new land.
The society proposes to make a close
investigation of the properties Of
French museums and archives in the
hope that another rune carved by the
same hand may be discovered and
further facts revealed of the Morse ex-
petition and it's history.