Vikings May Have Settled Oklahoma Long Before Europeans

They say to the victor go the spoils, and that winners are the ones who write history, but there's evidence some of our human history is wrong, especially when it comes to Oklahoma.

You know the official story... in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue... He arrived in the West Indies and sailed back to Spain with news he had discovered the New World.

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Of course, he didn't let the fact that there were generations of people on this side of the Earth already silence his claims of discovery, but there have been a few discoveries throughout time to counter those bold claims. While I haven't read a high school history book in twenty years, the popular belief backed by science says Vikings were here long before Columbus.

I'm sure you've heard of Leif Erikson - the famed Norse voyager who helped establish Iceland, Greenland, and the far eastern settlements of present-day Canada. It was his lineage of kinfolk from Vinland and Newfoundland who supposedly explored America.

How do we know? Runestones.

Similar to the way we used to write "(Name) was here" on desks, Viking explorers did the same. Only instead of wasteful words carved out of boredom, they would leave runes - Nordic calling cards.

The most famous you may have heard of is the Runic Rock of Norman's Land found off the coast of Massachusetts. While some believed it to be a hoax, the scientific community has since agreed it is likely authentic and was probably carved by Leif Erikson.

The Kensington Runestone was found in Minnesota in the late 19th century (1898), but upon scientific examination in 1910, it was labeled a fake. They even accused the discoverer of completely fabricating it as a rouse.

The Spirit Pond set of runestones was found in Maine in the 1970s. It didn't take long for the scientific community to dismiss these as a hoax also... but there is one runestone in America that science can't prove to be fake, and it's in Oklahoma.

The Heavener Runestone.

On the edge of a little town called Heavener, OK lies a park dedicated to the history of Oklahoma's only runestone.

It's a giant boulder with an inscription dating back to a time no expert can agree on. Some say it's ancient, which wouldn't be completely out of the question. Fewer believe it to be a hoax, but if they can't agree, the legend continues.

When it comes to this stone, there is a chance it dates back to the 900s - the 10th century of man - but again, experts, scholars, and scientists can't confirm it.

They all agree that it's likely something created by a Swedish immigrant in the 1800s, but the tooling marks - or rather the way in which the marks have weathered - disprove the claim of hoax.

It's worth mentioning that it would also be the earliest known Nordic stone in the world. After all, there are no stones found to be this early even in Iceland and Greenland.

There are a few other runestones around the same area. Stones have been documented from Shawnee, Pawnee, and Poteau, but they were all found to have been made in the last hundred years as hoaxes.

Still, the Heavener stone remains a confusing mystery.

If you'd like to go check it out, it's huge by the way, Heavener is quite a drive out into Meth-Country Oklahoma, but it'd be worth the trip if you're into that kind of stuff.