Viking Stone

[jcchicken]

Is it my imagination, or was there a stone found somewhere in Northern MN or North Dakota, near Canada, that had ancient Viking writing on it? I thought there was such a ruin found in that area of North America, that brought about conjecture as to who found N.A. first, the Vikings, or Columbus.

[Buenchico]

Many historians now accept that Leif Ericson was the first European to land on the shores of North America (around 1000 AD). However the actual evidence is tenuous and not everyone is convinced that the Kensington Runestone (to which you refer) provides proof of a Viking presence in North America:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Runest one

Chris

[dundurn]

All the American artifacts are subject to some dispute but the settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland is undisputably Norse.

[Lil O'lady]

The Vikings settled in greenland and on the scale of things it's only a short hop to Newfoundland, so it is likely that they knew about this landfall even if they did not make permanent settlements there. Leif Ericsson's descriptions include a word for the inhabitants - 'skraelings' - recently adopted by philip pullman in the Dark materials trilogy.
However, there are also tenuous hints that irish monks may have also made landfall in North America - see any info about St Brendan's voyages

[heathfield]

Many researchers in the subject now accept that the Solutreans were the first people from Europe to arrive in the Americas, 20,000 years ago.