My guess is quite a few people from Europe made it to America before Columbus. Except for the Vikings I doubt any of them made it back to Europe.
I have often read about early American explorers running into Indians who spoke various English dialects or maybe just knew a few words.
He almost established a colony there, but then made the mistake of serving the natives Haggis. They were not amused.
I made a point if seeing this a few weeks back. You definitely can see a sword but a knight I couldn’t see. There is a TV show on I think Discovery Channel called “America Unearthed” that points out some very interesting places in the US and elsewhere that could be connected. Some of it is stretching it but most of it is pretty good. The same guy had a show about the Kennsington stone that was really eye opening and well done. Scott Walter is his name.
The difference is:
“When Chris discovered America it stayed discovered”.
I believe America was visited by others before Columbus. I’ve read that the Indians in the northeast were different from the western Indians.
In New England there are Mystery place... such as Gullywamp (sp)Near Groton, CT.