Early visitors: Vikings 1021, Columbus 1492

October is a busy month. We celebrated Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct 9. Hispanic Heritage Month was Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. And Halloween finishes out the month.

“But I’m fascinated by the first Europeans who visited North America,” said Kid Robin Read. “I enjoy stories about the Vikings since my family tree has a Norse branch.”

Researchers say the Vikings visited Newfoundland, Canada about 1021, almost 500 years before Columbus. A group sailing to Greenland went off course, discovering more land to the west.

“The Vinland Chronicles,” written 50 years later by a German cleric, reported that discovery to Europe.

The Greenland settlers were busy building communities there. About 10 years later, Lief Erikson led a settlement group to explore the land to the west and built a settlement they named Vinland.

The specific site was unearthed in 1960 by archaeologists led by Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad studying the Norse sagas, documented on paper in about 1300.

The current name is L’anse aux Meadows, and the original land may have been named after meadows, not grape vines.

The buildings on site follow Norse designs of the times, with “stofas” (communal houses) for about 100 people. The homes were built of peat sod walls and roofs of timber and sod. The settlers forged iron axes and repaired ships.

Groups went south to find nuts and additional animals for hunting.

The Norse lived at the site on and off for 30 years and may have visited for up to 100 years.

The indigenous people were hostile, so the Norse eventually moved home.

Archeologists dated the site by circles on tree trunks cut for the homes. The tree circles recorded a specific cosmic radiation event in 993.

One saga says Lief moved back to the Norse homeland when Eric the Red, his father, died. His sister left Vinland to take over Greenland.

The village is a National Historic Site and UNESCO World Heritage Site. A nearby replica is there for study and tourism.

“I’m amazed at how accurate medieval documents can be,” said Kid Libby Smart. “Columbus would have had a shorter voyage if he had sailed further north.”