Laurel outlook., 1948-09-08
STONE LEFT BY MORSE
BEATS COLUMBUS DATE

The story of the Kensington
stone, a monument left in Mime
sofa by early Morse explorers,
how it was discovered, denounced
as a hoax and finally accepted as
authentic, was told by o. M.
Void at the meeting of the Lau-
rel Rotary club Tuesday. Void
was raised in a small town 20
miles from where the stone was
found and has been interested in
it for many years.
In 1898 Olaf Gilman, while
grubbing at the stump of an as
pen tree, unearthed a peculiar
gravestone-shaped piece of gray
wack, a type of rock common in
the region, which bore strange
engravings on one face and n
edge. On his next trip to town,
Gilman turned the stone over to
the local banker who was keenly
interested in local antiquities.
The banker sent the stone to the
University of Minnesota for ex-
animation. A Scandinavian schol-
ar at the university translated
most of the inscriptions, which
were written in Morse runes, but
was unable to make a complete
translation. He left blanks where
there were symbols he could not
translate; it has since been found
that these symbols represented
numbers.
This is the translation that is
now accepted: 1--WE are 8 Goths
and % Norwegians on an explor-
alton journey from Vinland
through the west. We had camp
by a lake with two skerries
(islands) one days journey north
from this stone. We were out and
fished one day. After we came
home we found 10 Of our men red
with blood and dead. Ave Maria,
Save us from evil. We have 10
of our party by the sea to look
after our ships ii days journey
from this island. Year 1862"
As the figures representing the
date were not in the early runic
alphabet, the scholar missed the
date and assumed that the only
Norsemen who could have been
in Minnesota would have had to
come from the colonies of Eric
the Red. The inscription on the
stone could not have been written
by any such man as that for the
Swedes and Norwegians were bit
ter enemies at the time. Besides
that, there we're symbols in the
engraving that were Latin and
some that resembled old English.
Despite this, the stone was sent
to Northwestern University for
further examination. The experts
here agreed with those at the
University of Minnesota. After
his the stone was sent back to
Gilman, who used it to fill a
lole in his barnyard.
An outstanding Norse-American
historian, H. r. Holland, took an
interest in the stone and devoted
great deal of time to it. After
aking it to % European univer-
tiles for study and examination,
ie was able to dispel most of
he objections to it's authenticity.
he first break in the transla-
of the date. By the time
he stone had been engraved, La
N had been introduced into
scandinavia, and Latin and runic
were often intermingled.
he second break was the dis
overy in the royal library at
copenhagen of an order from
ing Magnus to Paul Knutson
nat he lead an EXPEDITION to
nd the lost colonies in Green
md. The order was dated 1854
nd it is generally thought that
lapse of eight years between
lie time the order was issued and
lie explorers arrived at the head
aters of the Red river is quite
accord with the mode of travel
the day.
The stone is now in the Smith
'nian Institute at Washington.
/. c.
The visiting Rotarian at the
was Robert H. Smith of
adar Civ Utah