As theories of its origin abound, what does future hold for Narragansett Rune Stone?

The Providence Journal ^ | 06 July 2013 | RICHARD C. DUJARDIN

[Theoria]

June Goodhue says she’s known about the rock since she and her late husband moved to North Kingstown’s Pojac Point in 1952.

Sitting in shallow water, the 8-foot-long boulder sported unusual markings that were typically visible only at extreme low tide. Goodhue said she heard people say the markings might be ancient runic characters left by Viking or Nordic explorers.

Even so, Goodhue, who is now 89, says she didn’t give much thought to the significance of what people call the Narragansett Rune Stone or Quidnessett Rock. That is, until a week or so before Christmas 2011 when her neighbor Paul Roberti, a commissioner with the Public Utilities Commission, asked her to host a neighborhood meeting to talk about the boulder with Scott Wolter, a forensic geologist from Minnesota. Though Wolter has come under fire from critics who see his theories as over the edge, he is considered an expert by many on the subject of runestones, having produced documentaries for the History Channel and written two books. In “The Kensington Stone: Compelling New Evidence,” he writes about why he believes that a stone with runic lettering — found in 1899 by a farmer and his two sons on a hill in Minnesota — was not the hoax that critics claimed, but a real artifact made by visitors from Europe a century or two before Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world.

In his second book, “The Hooked X,” published in 2009, and in subsequent interviews, Wolter has gone further, suggesting that the presence of a mysterious “hooked X” character on the Kensington Stone in Minnesota as well as on the stone tower in Touro Park in Newport and the Narragansett Rune Stone off North Kingstown connects them all to the Military Order of the Knights Templar, a secretive medieval group that he says was suppressed by the Catholic Church because of its members’ unusual beliefs about the Holy Grail.

In the geologist’s view, the Narragansett Rune Stone was such an important piece of history — perhaps even more important than Plymouth Rock — that it was imperative that it be moved to a dry, safe place to protect it from erosion and vandals and to allow experts to examine it. Some participants at the meeting at Goodhue’s home in 2011 say that nearly everyone agreed — except for the neighbor whose property was closest to the stone, billionaire businessman Timothy Mellon.

Mellon, an heir to the Mellon family fortune, a founder of the Heritage Foundation and the CEO of Pan Am Systems, had, along with his wife, Patricia, bought two large parcels of land on the water’s edge in 2008 for $5.6 million. Mellon has been unavailable for comment.

Roberti, the public utilities commissioner, worked for 17 years in the attorney general’s office and has considerable expertise on federal and state jurisdiction over submerged lands. He says it’s easy to see why Mellon, who owns properties in other states, might have thought the rock belonged to him since in some states the property owner’s rights extend out into the water. In Rhode Island, however, the state owns the land below the median high tide, putting the rock under state jurisdiction.

In the spring of 2012, a pair of amateur archaeologists — Stephen DiMarzo Jr., of New Bedford, the Rhode Island chapter coordinator for the New England Antiquities Research Association, and his brother Peter DiMarzo of Newport — applied to the Coastal Resources Management Council for permission to move the rock to protect it and put it on public display.

Stephen DiMarzo, a former Teamster who delivered cupcakes for the Hostess Baking Co., said he first learned of the Narragansett Rune Stone in 2009 when he heard Wolter talking about it on the late-night talk radio show “Coast to Coast AM.” After talking with Wolter about the stone, the DiMarzos moved ahead with their application, though they found that getting state approval wasn’t easy. For one, Edward Sanderson, executive director of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, wanted to know where the stone would be relocated.

The brothers worked out an agreement with the priests at the nearby Scalabrini Villa Health Care Center that the stone would be put on display there with the understanding that it would not be physically altered without state permission.

Janet Goodman, who inspected the stone early in 2012 in her role as coastal geologist for the CRMC, says the boulder had been on land when it was first photographed in 1939 but gradually became surrounded by water as storms and hurricanes ate away at the shore.

Stephen DiMarzo says he believed his application was moving toward approval when he got some unsettling news on July 2, 2012. A kayaker, James Doyle of Old Lyme, Conn., reported that he had viewed the stone in early June but discovered three weeks later, when he returned with his girlfriend, that it was gone.

The stone had been “stolen,” in DiMarzo’s view, and he was outraged. Roberti wrote to his former colleagues at the attorney general’s office, saying he thought the office had an obligation to investigate. Roberti also participated with Wolter in a History Channel documentary tied to the stone’s disappearance which aired in February of this year.

One question: Who could have had the capability to remove a 2½-ton rock without anybody noticing?

To find out, Detective Sheila Paquette, of the Department of Environmental Management, started knocking on doors last August. One neighbor said he had heard machine-like sounds one evening that June and wondered if that might have been the night the stone was taken.

Paquette says that when she went to interview Mellon, he shut the door and told her to see his lawyer. Mellon’s lawyer is former Attorney General James O’Neill, who has not returned calls from The Journal regarding the stone.

The location of the stone remained a mystery for more than eight months until a man, whom Attorney General Peter Kilmartin’s office refuses to identify, advised the state lawyers that he knew where the stone was and how to get it back. Amy Kempe, a spokeswoman for Kilmartin, says on April 16 the rock was returned on a flatbed truck to the grounds of the University of Rhode Island’s School of Oceanography in Narragansett where officials are keeping it under wraps in an undisclosed location, as archaeologists decide what to do with it.

Wolter, the Minnesota forensic geologist, said he was “extremely upset” when the stone was taken.

“I’m just glad that whoever took it came to his senses. It’s a cultural resource for everyone.”

And just what do the markings on the stone mean? Wolter maintains that the existence of a “hooked X” on one of the two lines of lettering shows that whoever carved it was associated with the Knights Templar, a secretive sect in Europe whose members saw themselves as the protectors of the Holy Grail. Legend has it that the grail is the sacred cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, but Wolter runs with another theory popularized by Dan Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci Code,” in which the grail is seen as a reference to the bloodline resulting from a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Wolter says there is little doubt that the Knights Templar, facing suppression by church authorities, would have wanted to escape — even if it meant traveling across an unchartered ocean.

“I’m not trying to offend anybody. I’m just trying to get to the truth of real life. I believe Jesus is a real historical person, a power person, who was teaching the ancient mysteries, and as such he was a threat to the Romans,” Wolter said in a recent interview.

Still, there are other stories surrounding the Narragansett Rune Stone that don’t involve bloodlines or grails. Suzanne Carlson, writing in the Journal of the New England Antiquities Research Association, found in the runic lettering symbols referring to gift, riding, pasture and homeland. She suggested it might have been a boundary or claim stone.

On the other hand, Valdimar Samuelsson, an engineer of Icelandic ancestry, says he was intrigued by Carlson’s comment that the characters also seemed to refer to a Skrauma, or screaming river. There is a river Skrauma in Iceland, he says, which many believe was the place where Viking explorers set out to sea.

Rod Mather, a professor of maritime history and underwater archeology who has recently investigated the rock at state request, thinks the chance that the Narragansett Rune Stone and the Kensington Runestone were crafted by the Vikings, or any other early explorers, is miniscule.

“We really have only one piece of authenticated physical evidence of Vikings being in this part of the world, and that was the village of L’Anse aux Meadows in the northern part of Newfoundland,” he says. “There is no verifiable evidence they were anywhere else.”

Mather said it’s more likely the stones were made in the late 19{+t}{+h} century by immigrant settlers from Scandinavia who felt moved to create runestones — with hooked X and all — to celebrate their Scandinavian heritage.

“In my professional opinion that’s what happened,” he said. “Of course with all of these things, you are not going to convince everyone … . But whether the stone was carved in 1890 or a thousand years ago, we need to treat it as a historical artifact. Just like the Shroud of Turin, it needs to be preserved.” Now that it’s back, the DEM investigators have permitted only a small group of individuals, including Mather, to see the stone.

Roberti, who originally asked that the stone’s disappearance be investigated, said he has found nothing in state law to support a criminal charge against someone who takes a rock from Rhode Island waters, especially a rock whose value has never been ascertained.

Paquette, the DEM detective, said that once archaeologists and other experts have examined the rock for indications of when it was engraved, she hopes it can be put on public display.

“It needs to be preserved and protected. We all know how it only takes one idiot to try to destroy it,” Wolter said in a phone. “I personally would love to see the stone brought to Touro Park in Newport on the same grounds as the Newport tower.”

DiMarzo, however, thinks the stone should be kept closer by, and insists that the Scalabrini Villa would be the best location. He said that while he had been angry that the stone was taken, he now thinks the person did everyone a favor.

“He did what we were all trying to do in the first place. He got it out of the water.”

[Theoria]

Archaeologists at the School of Oceanography have examined the Narragansett Rune Stone, which some believe was engraved by Vikings. The massive stone disappeared from the shoreline last August but was recovered by the Attorney General's office.

A "hooked X" appears on the Narragansett Rune Stone. Some say the character links the Rhode Island rock with the Kensington Runestone in Minnesota, and by extension the Knights Templar, a secretive European sect.

Brothers and amateur archaeologists Stephen and Peter DiMarzo, at the stone tower in Touro Park, in Newport, think the stone should reside at Scalabrini Villa Health Care Center in North Kingstown.

[Theoria]

Templar/Rune/vikings/Mellon/Ruin stone ping.

[SunkenCiv]

In the background is the Newport Round Tower, which itself has a runic inscription that indicates it used to be the seat of the Bishop; a record of said bishopric survives in the Vatican. Anyone with a brain who's been to the thing and has seen the niches inside knows that is sure as Hell wasn't built as a windmill or any other kind of mill, although it came into use after the better-known settlement of Rhode Island. Anyway, thanks Theoria.

[Joe 6-pack]

History Channel had a neat (but typically speculative) special that's available on dvd....

[Oratam]

I was concerned this was about Dighton Rock. That’s one freaky rock.

[AnAmericanMother]

Their helmets don’t fit. Look like they’re wearing rocket nose-cones.

[Pontiac]

Roberti, the public utilities commissioner, worked for 17 years in the attorney general’s office and has considerable expertise on federal and state jurisdiction over submerged lands.

He says it’s easy to see why Mellon, who owns properties in other states, might have thought the rock belonged to him since in some states the property owner’s rights extend out into the water.

In Rhode Island, however, the state owns the land below the median high tide, putting the rock under state jurisdiction.

Well if RI is like Ohio in this respect I would side with Mellon

Here in Ohio many times you will be taxed on submerged lands that at one time were part of the dry land that you currently own.

Here in Ohio people who own water front property aflected with erosion gradually loose their property to the lake/river through erosion. However their deed will still reflect the original dimensions of their property and their tax assessment will reflect the value of that missing property.

However state and/or Federal law will state that land below the water’s edge or mean lake level is state property. The land owner can not build on it or install erosion control with out permits from the Army Corps of Engineers.

So the land owner ends up paying taxes for land that he; doesn’t own, doesn’t control and can’t use.

To avoid paying excess taxes is of course a long and expensive process and you fight the city, county and state all the way because they want your money.

[BenLurkin]

Somebody certainly had quite a story to tell. Shame there is no way today of knowing what they saw.

[BwanaNdege]

Nevil Shute's Old Captivity

[VeniVidiVici]

Also some controversy over the origin of this Stone Tower too.

[Elsiejay]

Do not fail to read “1492; The Year China Discovered America.”

[ZULU]

That Vikings were here is irrefutable. But Minnesota???

[Stingray]

“I’m not trying to offend anybody. I’m just trying to get to the truth of real life. I believe Jesus is a real historical person, a power person, who was teaching the ancient mysteries, and as such he was a threat to the Romans,” Wolter said in a recent interview.

---

Mr. Wolter needs to read his New Testament a little more closely. On the surface, Jesus was killed because He represented a threat to the religious authorities of His day; not the Romans. Rome could’ve cared less about Him. It was the Sanhedrin that had Him crucified.

[Stingray]

“That Vikings were here is irrefutable. But Minnesota???”

What? You’ve never heard of the Minnesota Vikings???

[Cold Heart]

I saw that episode on the History Channel. Interesting series.

[faucetman]

I watched this Wolter guys series and he's a joke. He makes GIANT leaps and states things as FACTS that are just his speculations. He can't prove anything he says. In my opinion he is a fraud.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks, good idea for another topic. :’)

https://www.google.com/search?q=Dighton%20Rock

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve already seen “National Treasure”, so...

;’)

[FroggyTheGremlim]

“One ring to rule them all ...”

[Stanwood_Dave]

This is not meant to flame you, but if you will, another look at what Wolter does. In my humble opinion, he has gone out of his way and does state that it's only a "hypothesis." (See: http://www.livescience.com/21490-what-is-a-scientific-hypothesis-definition-of-hypothesis.html)

You may not like his "hypothesis," but I believe he is laying the ground work to support his "hypothesis." On more then one occasion, he has stated "I could be wrong" (in my hypothesis).

Personally, I think that "Hooked {'X'}" has some meat on the bone, so to speak. Wolter seems to be the only one with a so-far working hypothesis, on that subject matter.