The Kensington Runestone is a 202-pound slab of greywacke covered in runes on its face and side which, if genuine, would suggest that Scandinavian explorers reached the middle of North America in the 14th century. In l898, a man who was prying trees out of his farmland northeast of Kensington, Minnesota found strange markings on a slab of rock that was stuck in the roots of a tree that had just been pulled out of the ground.
The man later showed it to prominent citizens in Kensington. No one was able to completely decipher the stone, until nine years later when Hjalmer Holand, a University of Wisconsin graduate student with a major in history, heard of the stone on a trip to Kensington.
Mr. Holand translated the stone and found it to read:
"8 Goths and 22 Norwegians on exploration journey from Vinland over the west. We camp by 2 skerries one day-journey from this stone. Where we fished one day. After we came home, 10 men red with blood and dead. Ave Maria, save from evil. Have 10 men by the sea to look after our ships, 14 day -journeys from this island year 1362.”
The translation of this stone sparked an international search to find out if it could possibly be genuine. The stones authenticity is still in question to this day. If indeed genuine, it would confirm America was discovered long before Columbus.