Runestone Museum - Alexandria, Minnesota

by Wm. P. Holmen, Viking Research 

It all started in l898 when the ten year old son of Olof Ohman, who was farming two and half miles northeast of Kensington, found strange markings on a slab of rock that had just been pried out of the ground. The son, Edward, called his father's attention to the stone.

The father, who had been clearing trees and rocks from a level space on top of a hill 40 feet above the surrounding low land, saved the stone, and later showed it to prominent citizens in Kensington. No one was able to completely decipher the stone, until nine years later when Hjalmer R. Holand, a University of Wisconsin graduate student with a major in history, heard of the stone on a trip to Kensington.
Mr. Holand translated the stone and found it to read,"8 Goths and 22 Norweigans on exploration journey from Vinland over the west. We camp by 2 skerries one day-journey from this stone. We were and fished one day. After we came home, 10 men red with blood and tourtured. Hail Virgin Mary, save from evil. Have 10 men by the sea to look after our ship, 14 day -journeys from this island year 1362."
 
The translation of this stone sparked an international search to find out if it could possibly be genuine. The Minnesota Historical society appointed five scholars to investigate, and after a year and half of work reported the stone genuine.

 

A link to: Runestone Museum