[Treebeard]

When I was a kid in southeast Oklahoma, there was this big slab of sandstone near Heavener that was called the runestone. They've made a state park out of the area now, but if I remember correctly, they had dated those runes to around 800 AD.

If that's true, it's a pretty significant trashing to Columbus' claim of 'discovery.'

[MosesKnows]

Scandinavians landed in the New World in 1362, 130 years before Columbus.

Who made it first has never mattered. Who made it stick has always mattered.

[RipSawyer]

My first wife (RIP) grew up around Heavener and Poteau, I took her back there to visit and we went and saw the Runestone together. She said most of the local people have no interest and she had never seen it before. If it is for real then my ancestors must have traveled extensively in the New World, Oklahoma is a long way from the East coast!

[blam]

It would break my heart to find out that the rune stones are fake. This woman, Gloria Farley, did a lot of good, honest work in this area. She was also a close friend and associate of Dr Barry Fell.

[twigs]

I believe that a number of different people, including Europeans and Africans, maybe Arabs too, got here before Columbus. The date of his voyage, coming so soon after the invention of the printing press, made the critical difference in him getting the credit. He got the word out.