The Kensington Runestone
A Swedish farmer in Minnesota said he dug up a stone carved with runes about Viking explorers in 1362.
What was reported
In 1898 Olof Ohman, a Swedish immigrant farmer near Kensington, Minnesota, said he found a flat stone tangled in the roots of a tree while clearing land. It was carved with runes telling of a party of Swedes and Norwegians on a journey west in 1362 who met with misfortune.
If genuine, it would put Scandinavians in the middle of North America more than a century before Columbus. It's on display in a museum in Alexandria, Minnesota.
Explanations offered
Most experts in runes and Scandinavian languages consider it a 19th-century creation, pointing to words and runes they say didn't exist in the 1300s and match the speech of local immigrants. Defenders argue those forms did appear in medieval texts. Norse visitors did reach North America, at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, but nothing similar has been found in Minnesota.
- When
- Found in 1898
- Where
- Kensington, Minnesota, USA
- Witnesses
- Olof Ohman, a farmer
- Status
- Probably a hoax
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.