Kensington Rune Stone

myself | 1-9-02 | myself

[crystalk]

It is a kind of stone called greywacke, and there was quite a bit of stone outcropping and a sharp bluff of 50 ft or so just below the hill on which it was found, and a lot of rocks there, but the story definitely was that no stones found within some hundreds of yards, if not miles, were the same type as this...

Of course glacial action thousands of years earlier must have created the kind of topography shown in those maps, wonderful! Thanks, Okie!

I thought it highly significant that just a mile or less NE of the spot was something called Lookout Mountain, which must afford a view of prairie for miles, and might have been sought out and climbed by, explorers looking for how the land lay...and what their course should be...

[Danette]

I live near Kensington, MN. There are not alot of lakes around that area. It's mostly FLAT farm land. Most in this area don't believe in the runestone....and they don't care. There recently was another stone similar to the "runestone" found. When the Runestone Museum (a hole in the ground....not much traffic) was going to hire experts to authenticate the stone, the pranksters came forward and admitted it was a fraud. Even showed them exactly how they did it and demonstrated. That rock went to the rockpile. I personally knew the great great grandson of Ohman. He's a theif. Got fired from his job for STEALING company money. The Kensington Runestone is a hoax.

[Danette]

Another tidbit. After the stone was discovered then the people in this area didn't believe it was real (The Ohman's aren't held in high esteem here). The Ohman's took the stone back out to their farm and used it for MANY years as step into the barn. The runestone resurfaced when Alexandria needed to boost their tourism. They built a shabby museum (tiny, unkept) to house the stone and lots of souveniers. A couple Ohman men killed themselves due to the backlash of the community on their tall tale.

[okie01]

"I thought it highly significant that just a mile or less NE of the spot was something called Lookout Mountain, which must afford a view of prairie for miles, and might have been sought out and climbed by, explorers looking for how the land lay...and what their course should be..."

The topography in the immediate area of Runestone Hill is clearly glaciated. According to the topo, the hill itself is surrounded by a marshy area and the area is shot through with pothole lakes. Given only a higher water level, the occasional hills (or hummocks) would, for all practical purposes, be islands.

[Danette]

Andes Tower Hills is the highest point around Kensington.

andestowerhills.com (see photos)

You can see this hill for miles.

[Free Trapper]

The Heavener Stone is on what could be called Lookout Mountain and it may be if my memory serves me right.It's a fine place for hangliding.The Tulsa Stone has a great view across the Arkansas River if it's the stone I'm thinking of.

[crystalk]

That's what has been said for 104 years now... The stone is a fraud because the people who found it were low class.

Not likely that a lot of high class people would be grubbing around out in mud, digging rocks out of soil so it could be farmed...not a lot of buttons and bows. A stone isn't responsible for who finds it, I am sure the Hope Diamond was not found by a prince of the realm either.

There is a difference between honest criticism, and accusing the innocent just because they claim something unusual. Where is the EVIDENCE of fraud?

100 Years Ago, even those who rejected the stone the most, also felt that Ohman could not have been the one to do the carving, on the contrary it might have been palmed off on him (ie planted where he would find it, they felt) because he and his family were scorned...

But I had no idea this class thing was still going ON out there...

[crystalk]

And SUICIDES! Small towns can be so cruel.

No, thank you for sharing this, Danette, you are just reporting the state of mind, not causing it, I know. But sheesh!

[crystalk]

Wow, that would have been the target for explorers trying to get their bearings in the trackless prairies, allright! The place of the Runestone's finding is about 1 mile or a bit more, SW of this Ski resort, and in between are both "Lookout Mtn" and "Lake Oscar" as well as several small lakes and ponds then around "Runestone Hill" itself...

I didn't suppose anybody was even out there any more, supposed everybody had moved away or frozen or something since those pioneer days that Holand and Ohman talked about. Giants in the Earth, and all that...

[Free Trapper]

Places where I have to drag a canoe every several miles in ankle deep water during the summer,I know were traveled on a regular basis by steamboats during the 1800's.Water can change things fast,even overnight.After hundreds of years no telling how much has changed.Water has a way of washing away all the evidence,or not being there as the evidence itself.

[Danette]

The Ohman's were not "scorned" until AFTER their tall tale. I don't understand why anyone would place a stone anywhere around that area. It's flat......in the middle of nowhere. No huge lakes, rivers or streams. The biggest town close by is Alexandria. There are huge lakes....chains of them, and rolling hills there. Big Olie is the town's mascot. He's a huge Viking standing in the downtown area. The Runestone Museum is a block away.

[crystalk]

I would give it a fifty-fifty, but it is amazing how scholars have not been able to just blow it to pieces, to the satisfaction of all...it is amazing what strengths it had...

but (just maybe) if you were trying to cross North America from north to south, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf, you would have to go up the Nelson and Red Rivers as far as you could go, and then try to get east into the Mississippi to continue on down to New Orleans, and guess what: you'd pass right thru Kensington.

That ski resort looks homey and fun, too bad it is so far from Fla. or I would come out and have a look round some time...

Thanks for your local-color input, you have made it a much more interesting thread and better than several published books (or booklets)...C.

[Free Trapper]

I know several places that 40 years ago had a 45 to 60 foot depth of water.Today these places are only knee deep to dry except during bad floods.In only 4 or 5 years I've seen many square miles of marsh turn to dry land and open water turn into duck areas.Lakes silt in faster than most people would think.

[Danette]

The Red River is very narrow. You barely notice it except there is a sign on all bridges (tiny or not) that state the river's name. Crossing the Red River from Minnesota to North Dakota at Breckenridge/Wahpeton is so narrow, you could jump (it's winding and narrow the whole way to Fargo). Now, when the floods came a few years back, it almost destroyed the two towns. Once you cross the state line it is so flat, you can see forever.......I've never seen such perfectly flat farm land. Just a little extra rainfall in the spring and the farmland is under inches of water for miles (the river not affected). The rivers on the Minnesota map are very deceptive. Most are barely a foot across for miles and don't get much wider than 10 yards if at all. The only rivers worth launching a boat is the Mississippi and parts of the Minnesota.

I commend you on knowing that the Red River flows south to north. Maybe they did cross over and come through Kensington to get to the Mississippi...IF they knew it was there....,but I can't imagine them leaving the stone in the middle of nowhere (no big landmarks). The tale is they were clearing brush for farming with horses and plow....pretty thick stuff.

Once you pass Fergus Falls and head north on I94, it's flat all the way to Grand Forks (I haven't been north of that). The whole west 1/3 of Minnesota is flat practically treeless (no forests)....as you head east (and north of I94), it becomes very hilly and you see huge forests of trees....especially pines (it's beautiful and remote....called "cabin country" up here).

Andes Tower Hills is a fun place...especially the tubing. Still have a sprained thumb from a few weeks back. It's mostly a "kids" hangout......there's not much to do here during the winter in Minnesota. It's been unusually warm here and the lakes are barely frozen over. Ice houses, snowmobiles (only place to ride right now), and vehicles are going through daily. Snow is practically gone, but expecting some tonight.

[crystalk]

There is some evidence that Norsemen had been traveling interior North America at will, and had a general knowledge of how it lay, for many centuries...

including having been involved in the large-scale mining of copper in the Lake Superior region during the Bronze Age: it had always been a mystery where enough copper could have been obtained to even HAVE a "Bronze Age" in the Old World...

[Free Trapper]

That was a lot of copper to just disappear.

[crystalk]

To be sure. If we go back to the era from say 3000 to 1000 BC, we have thousands of tons too much copper in the Old World, and at the same time thousands of tons too much in the New (it WAS mined, but there were only very few and scattered populations in the New World anywhere, with no evidence they used copper to any extent).

It is now being whispered at last that it may have been shipped from the New World to the Old. If I live to be a 100, they may yet get to where I was when I was 15.

[Free Trapper]

Too(little)in the New World.I agree.The Indians used their copper mostly as ceremonial decoration and status symbols,not the type things to be easily tossed away.Also,haven't a few pieces made of bronze been found in some of the mounds?I don't believe the Human Race is given enough credit for earlier accomplishments.Who in their right mind would spread word of treasure to their competition?I know I'd keep quiet about a new land rich for plucking and trade.

[crystalk]

Famous quote from Oscar Wilde about Columbus: "Of course America had often been discovered before, but it had always been hushed up."

[Free Trapper]

For another twist.An expedition for any reason can use all the help it can get hauling heavy loads.They were known to ship livestock.Why not take a few horses along to carry the goodies?