[mtbopfuyn]

Why do people need to hold on to the belief that Columbus was the one and only explorer?

[garyhope]

They don't, it's just that Columbus represents certain things about the West and Western civilization.

The Vikings were probably here on the East coast first, but they didn't do all that much.

[ARCADIA]

Why do people need to hold on to the belief that Columbus was the one and only explorer?

He was the earliest one to systematically map and document his explorations. There may have been others who stumbled across the American continent before him; but until real documentation can be demonstrated, none of those could be said to have explored the new world.

[Condor51]

***Why do people need to hold on to the belief that Columbus was the one and only explorer?***

No offense, but.. huh?
Maybe I'm missing something but who says Columbus was "the only explorer".

And I know what the article says with that little blurb, but we all know ole Chris never set foot on "America". Technically Juan Ponce de Léon "discovered" America as he was the first European to set foot here - in Florida.

(Vikings excluded do to lack of historical documentation)

[willyd]

Who is holding that belief? Why can't you consider the possibility that the map could be a forgery? They did after all forge the archeopteryx fossile that supposedly provided the link between birds and reptiles (fooling the paleantologists that examined it in the process.)