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In 1912, a farmer found an unusual, ancient-looking limestone tablet in his field. It seemed to have an exotic language, that he’d never seen before, chiseled into its surface. Over the next 50 years, he showed the stone to family, friends, and even took it to the fair, hoping to find anyone that could decipher it, but no one ever could.Fast forward to the late 1990's, and someone not only deciphered it, but tied it to the legend of Prince Madoc. As the story goes, Madoc sailed to North America from Wales, in the year 1170, 322 years before Christopher...

On a rugged bluff overlooking the Ohio River, known locally as "Devil's Backbone," centuries of overgrowth obscures a secret of history... In 1799, early settlers found six skeletons clad in breastplates bearing a Welsh coat of arms. Indian legends told of "yellow-haired giants" who settled in Kentucky, southern Indiana, southern Ohio and Tennessee -- a region they called "the Dark and Forbidden Land." Archeologists debunk the legend. They say that evidence indicates that the natives of the region once conducted a vigorous trading network nearby and buried their dead on the bluff... Upstream about 14 miles from Louisville, Ky., the...

An Appalachian people offers a timely parable of the nuanced history of race in America Head into Sneedville from the Clinch river, turn left at the courthouse and crawl up Newman’s Ridge. Do not be distracted by the driveways meandering into the woods, the views across the Appalachians or the shadows of the birds of prey; heed the warnings locals may have issued about the steepness and the switchbacks. If the pass seems challenging, consider how inaccessible it must have been in the moonshining days before motor cars. Halfway down, as Snake Hollow appears on your left, you reach a...

Of course the Chinese didn't discover America. But then nor did Columbus A map supporting claims that the admiral Zheng He reached the New World in the early 15th century is plainly a hoax Simon Jenkins Friday January 20, 2006 The Guardian (UK) We all know that a lie goes halfway round the world while truth is putting on its boots. But what if the lie goes the whole way? What if it claims to circumnavigate the globe? Last week came purported evidence that the Chinese admiral Zheng He sailed his great fleet of junks round the world a century...

Who discovered America? It's a simple question and one that usually brings the standard response - Christopher Columbus. But here in Wales we have our own theory. And that theory says that America was actually discovered 300 years before Columbus sailed "the ocean blue" in 1492 - and more importantly, that it was discovered by a Welshman. Mandan Indians used Bull Boats for transport and fishing that are identical to the Welsh coracle. The man in question was Prince Madoc, the son of Owain Gwynedd, one of the greatest and most important rulers in the country, and while the legend...

A GROUP of Welsh Americans are hoping their campaign to reinstate a plaque celebrating the arrival of Prince Madoc ap Owain in the US will overcome its final political hurdle. The plaque was blown out of its position on the Alabama shoreline at military museum Fort Morgan by Hurricane Frederic in 1979. The Alabama Welsh Association (AWA) wants the plaque restored to its original position and last year won the backing of the state’s House of Representatives. Though the motion then stalled in Alabama’s senate the AWA believes a resolution calling for its reinstatement could be passed when the local...

The remains of the 855-foot stone wall that gives Fort Mountain its name wind like a snake around the northeast Georgia park,and its very presence begs a question:Who put them there? A Cherokee legend attributes the wall to a mysterious band of "moon-eyed people" led by a Welsh prince named Madoc who appeared in the area more than 300 years before Columbus sailed to America. A plaque at the wall says matter-of-factly it was built by Madoc and his Welsh followers,but most professional archeologists give no credence to the legend. "There has been no archaeological evidence to back up stories...

Explorer Madog 'never existed' Feb 27 2004 Darren Devine, The Western Mail A CONTROVERSIAL new book has rubbished claims that a Welsh explorer Prince Madog discovered America hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus. The story of the prince fleeing to America in about 1170 after his father King Owain's death unleashed a battle for the succession has held sway over popular imagination in Wales for centuries. But Did Prince Madog discover America? claims the explorer did not even exist and attempts to credit him with finding America were simply made to deny Spain's claim to the country. Author Michael Senior,...

<p>Historians and researchers announced today that Radio Carbon dating evidence, and the discovery of ancient British style artefacts and inscriptions, provided "the strongest indications yet" that British explorers, under the Prince Madoc ap Meurig, arrived in the country during the 6th Century and set up colonies in the American Midwest.</p>

Madoc In AmericaNative American Histories in the USA Is truth stranger than fiction? Of course it is; it always has been One subject that has been debated for the last four hundred years was whether or not a Khumric-Welsh Prince called Madoc discovered America. Queen Elizabeth I was persuaded by her advisors that this was so and the Khumric-Welsh discovery was put forward as somehow giving England a prior claim in the political wrangles over first rights in the New World of the Americas. No one ever thought to investigate the British records. Caradoc of Llancarfan wrote about it circa...

Did the Welsh discover America? 26/8/2002 A team of historians and researchers announced today that Radio Carbon dating evidence, and the discovery of ancient British style artefacts and inscriptions in the American Midwest, provide the strongest indications yet" that British explorers, under the Prince Madoc ap Meurig, arrived in the country during the 6th Century and set up colonies there. Research team members have known the location of burial sites of Madoc's close relatives in Wales for some time, it emerged today; but they have decided to break their self-imposed silence in order that their research be fully known and...