THE KENSINGTON RUNESTONE: Commentary and Speculation by Bob Voyles

This blog post is about a puzzling occurrence involving stoneholes chiseled into rocks, I believe in both the pioneering days of the late 1800s and in medieval times, perhaps as early as the 12th century.  This multiple stonehole-making happened near the border of Minnesota and South Dakota, near the town of Appleton, in Minnesota.  It is my firm belief that the stoneholes were chiseled out to mark a spot of earth along a ridgeline directly south of the Pomme de Terre River, a river that empties into the Minnesota River, not far from where the Minnesota river begins near the bottom of Big Stone Lake.  Significantly, the Pomme de Terre River reaches the farthest north of any river discharging into the Minnesota River.  This is important because I think the Norse Code-stone may possibly have been created to indicate an attempted medieval Scandinavian land-claim, and placing the seemingly encoded stonehole rocks by the Pomme de Terre River might have been inte...

This posting is about solving a mystery.  By putting many clues together, I believe I have discovered where the "Lake With Two Skerries" referred to in the inscription carved into the KRS is located.  Much of the material contained in this blog presentation was provided to the Minnesota Historical Society a few short years ago, where it is presently archived within the KRS documentation holdings. Not by coincidence, I believe, a medieval Scandinavian battle axe was found in 1894 (four years before the KRS was unearthed), a foot and a half deep on the west bank of Davidson Lake, which is about one day's journey north from Runestone Hill.  My belief is that the exact finding spot of the battle axe helps to verify--like a time capsule--where the KRS campsite was likely located by this lake with two small islands.  In its inscription, the KRS indicates that a bloody massacre occurred where the men were camped by this lake. My purpose in this blog posting is to help c...

Towards the end of summer in 2015, I found myself exploring the region several miles south of Glenwood, Minnesota, which offers a beautiful wonderland created by the final retreat of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago.  The area is a glacial paradise, offering a distinctive hill and lake appearance.  Here, one can expect to see one of the finest examples of "kame and kettle" glacial topography in the Upper Midwest. I was out enjoying the day, looking for reported medieval Scandinavian stoneholes carved into rocks--like those along rocky coastlines in Scandinavia and like those dozen or so stoneholes hand chiseled into rocks encircling the Kensington Runestone (at Runestone Hill), which I believe is a genuine medieval runic stone document self-dated to 1362.  Many people consider the runestone--discovered in 1898--to be authentic, while many other naysayers believe it is an elaborate hoax.  Unlike the typical hidebound "professionals" in Minnesota, I believe ...