"The number of archaeological sites which have been excavated is an extremely small proportion of sites which exist across Arctic Canada dating to the period prior to the abandonment of the Norse colonies (click here to see a picture of a Thule house). Further archaeological investigation will undoubtedly uncover additional evidence of relationships between the Norse and the Inuit. It could be that all of the iron, bronze, copper and cloth artifacts found in the Canadian Arctic Inuit sites may have been obtained by a few raids on Greenlandic farms or parties on hunting trips and then traded northward through Inuit communities to the Thule district and west and south across Arctic Canada, but it seems likely there is more to the story. It is doubtful that the relationship between Inuit and Norse could be only one of occasional brief and violent encounter. Rather it would seem possible that these people engaged in mutually beneficial trading activities over a period of several centuries, and that these activities may have encouraged occasional Norse penetration of parts of the eastern Canadian Arctic."
In addition to this generally-accepted evidence of Vikings in eastern Canada, there are other, more controversial finds in other places. One that is heavily debated is Newport Tower in Newport, Rhode Island--here is a fairly detailed article on that with pictures which describes many of the various competing theories:
Loose Threads in a Tapestry of Stone: The Architecture of the Newport Tower
An alternate proposal had made its debut in 1837 when Carl Christian Rafn, Danish archaeologist, scholar, professor and Royal Counselor, who possessed a formidable knowledge of the repertoire of old Norse literature, produced his Antiquae Vinlandicum. He presented a forceful case for Norse presence along the New England coast, specifically Rhode Island. Rafn had been sent drawings of the Dighton “Writing Rock” at the mouth of the Taunton River,[2] and, in collaboration with scholar and runologist Finn Magnussen, had concluded that there was indeed written on the rock THORFINN[3] in the runic letters of the 11th century. This led to the conclusion that the nearby tower in Newport must have also been a product of Viking craftsmanship. Rafn’s enthusiastic support of Norse presence in America set off a flurry of interest, theories, and “proofs” supporting the Norse Theory.
The flurry saw a new burst in 1841 when Henry Wadsworth Longfellow expanded on the discovery of a “skeleton in armor” in nearby Fall River, Massachusetts to embrace the Newport Tower as the location for the melancholy end to his heroic, if mediocre, poem where the skeleton became a Viking prince and the tower, his lady’s bower.[4] Partisans for the Norse theory grew in number, encouraged by the unearthing of the Kensington (Minnesota) rune stone in 1898. Journalist Hjalmar Holland, who had dedicated his life proving the authenticity of the Kensington stone, took up the banner for Newport. The proper Bostonians entered the fray in 1877 with Eben Horsford joining Longfellow, Edward Everett Hale, Lowell, Whittier and Oliver Wendell Holmes, in supporting the Norwegian Ole Bull on the pro-Norse side. Horsford and his daughter Cornelia continued carrying the Viking torch, which was passed on to Frederick Pohl.[5]
The above-mentioned Fall River, Massachusetts skeleton site has been discussed in previous FR threads on this topic (Study Says Medieval New World Map Is Real [Thank Leif Eriksson], Post #12, which notes--blam, you may find this of interest--"Many descriptions I have read indicate the skeleton had red hair."). Here are some details:
THE SKELETON IN ARMOR (Fall River, Massachusetts)
When Longfellow wrote " The Skeleton in Armor," he commemorated forever the curious and mysterious remains that were found in Fall River in the year 1832, and destroyed in the great fire of 1843. Few persons of general reading are entirely unacquainted with the conjectures of antiquarian and archaeological societies in relation to the origin of this skeleton. The Society of Northern Antiquaries of Copenhagen, Denmark, which, a few years after the finding of the skeleton, had the subject under consideration, raised the query whether it might not have been the remains of one of the Northmen, who are now very generally supposed to have visited our coast, and to have spent a winter here, or near here, about the eight or ninth century. Probably the best account now extant of the finding of the skeleton, and a description of its appearance at the time, was written by the date Dr. Phineas W. Leland in the records of the old Fall River Athenaeum soon after the fire of 1843, and is as follows:
"Among the curiosities of peculiar interest (in the cabinets of the Fall River Athenaeum) was the entire skeleton of a man, about which antiquarians in the odd as well as the new world had speculated much. The skeleton was found in the year 1832 in a sand- or grave]-bank a little east of the Unitarian meetinghouse by some persons while digging away and removing a portion of the bank. (On or very near the site now occupied by the "Gas-Works, corner of Hartwell and Fifth Streets).The skeleton was found near the surface in a sitting posture,the legbones doubled upon the thigh-bones, and the thighs brought up nearly parallel with the body. It was quite perfect, and stood remarkably well the test of exposure. Covering the sternum w as a triangular plate of brass somewhat corroded by time, and around the body was a broad belt made of small brass tubes four or five inches in length about the size of a pipestem placed parallel and close to each other. Arrowheads made of copper or brass were also found in the grave with the skeleton. That these were the remains of an Indian seemed to be very generally conceded; the configuration of the skull, the position in which the skeleton was found, and the additional fact that parts of other skeletons were found near the same place renders it nearly certain that these were the bones of an Indian. Whose frame it was will not likely ever be permitted us to know. Whether it belonged to some chief still celebrated in song and story, or to an obscure child of the forest, whose bones and deeds slept in the same undistinguished grave, we have no means of knowing. Tradition and history are alike silent when interrogated. We would fain believe that these were the remains of some noble old chief, once master of the beautiful and rich valley through which the dark waters of the Titicut (Indian name of Taunton River) still rot. We would believe so, for we dove to think that humanity once warmed the heart of him whose bones have excited so much our wonder and curiosity. Whoever he was, peace be to his ashes."
Both the Canadian and New England sites are near stoneworks such as burial mounds which resemble structures built by the Norse and Celts in Europe as well as those of the Mound Culture of pre-Columbian America. There are also racial and cultural parallels between certain Northeastern tribes and Northern Europeans--for instance, in Algonquin legends there are trickster characters who resemble the Norse god Loki (for a reference and discussion/debate on this see Re: Vikings, Vinland, and Native Americans). Things like this lead me to wonder if perhaps there was some contact between Viking colonies like L'Anse aux Meadows and the Mound Culture, which would be a possible solution to the logistical problem of how the Vikings could have gotten from the Eastern seaboard to places like Minnesota.