Weird history: Runestone may prove Vikings were in Oklahoma 1000 years ago

HEAVENER, Okla. ( KTAL/KMSS ) — A former Arkansas State Park in Oklahoma is either proof that Columbus was not the first to “discover” the new world, proof that the state of Arkansas was once duped into believing that Vikings were living in Oklahoma 1000 years ago, or perhaps proof that a famous explorer met his end in a location that was previously lost to history.

And yes, this is about to be weird. It’s so weird that it will be published as three separate articles.

Welcome to article number one on the Heavener Runestone.

The Heavener Runestone

At the edge of the Ouachita National Forest, on the side of a mountain, sits a massive stone with a carving that has been baffling people for generations. It’s called the Heavener Runestone, and many a person has tried to decipher the meaning and origin of the carved symbols.

For the purposes of this article, we’ll look at one of the hypotheses concerning the Heavener Runestone. But in upcoming articles, we’ll discuss another old and then a new hypothesis that has the potential to get a lot of heat from history-lovers all over the world.

So without further adieu, here’s the Heavener hypothesis #1

Heavener hypothesis #1

U.S. President John F. Kennedy, better known as JFK, came to southeast Oklahoma in late October 1961 to dedicate the Ouachita National Forest Road. During his visit, his handlers passed information about the area to the press, who could use the handout to shape their articles.

But one of the paragraphs in the press kit described something quite interesting: an important runestone on Poteau mountain.

Here is that paragraph:

“Just north, the Spiro mound was excavated in the 1930s, yielding proving civilization’s existence here long before Columbus sailed. Also of historical importance is a runestone on Poteau mountain, north of here. On the face of this 12 x 16 foot stone, eight letters or characters from an ancient alphabet are carved. It is believed, but not proved, that the letters were etched in the stone before the year 1000. Archaeologists and alphabetical scholars here and abroad are seeking to identify the language, country and century represented by the letters.”

Want to see a pic of the Heavener Runestone? You’ll need to walk down these stone steps to a little building that sits quietly at the bottom of a cliff. The massive stone is housed inside the building.

Some think the writing on the Heavener Runestone is Native American. Still, common thought is the Native Americans living in North America did not have a form of written language that used an alphabet.

So if Native Americans inside the borders of what is today the United States didn’t have alphabets, and they were the first to live on the land where we are today, then where do alphabets originally come from?

Believe it or not, the answer is Egypt.

The origin of alphabets

More than 4700 years ago, Egyptians had their first set of letters taken from hieroglyphs. That turned into a Proto-Canaanite alphabet, which then turned into the Phoenician alphabet. The South Arabian alphabet also came from this descendency. These alphabets were only consonants. Vowels were added by the readers who spoke the languages.

The Greek alphabet was formed from the Phoenician alphabet, and the Italic languages—including the Roman alphabet—were born. These languages are known as the romance languages .

But after the fall of the Roman empire, something funny happened. Germanic tribes began writing with a different set of alphabetic symbols.

We call those symbols runes.

Runes

There were 24 runes in the alphabet, and they were loosely based on Latin letters. But runes are very angular and feel stiff to the human eye that has been trained to read English or Spanish.

Runes went out of style in England about a thousand years ago, and elsewhere, the runic alphabet underwent a series of changes—some subtle and some severe. New runes were still being created a thousand years ago, but by the 1400s they were out of use. Latin-based alphabets had been introduced to most Europeans.

That’s why it’s especially strange to find runes in North America and even more so to find them in Oklahoma. They’re not supposed to be here—they’re supposed to be in Europe. (Old Viking runes have, indeed, been found on many continents.) (Because they were Vikings who went places and took things.)

So what if, on the edge of a mountain in Oklahoma, of all places, there is a set of sharp, angular letters that seem to defy history, written in French, Spanish, and English alphabets? Is that even possible?

Gloria Farley believed so.

The late Gloria Farley

“If the tales told by the old-timers are correct, Oklahoma may once have contained dozens of runestones. Five of these have been found,” Farley wrote on her website not long after the internet became widely available in America. “The study of epigraphy, which has dominated my adult life, was to have as its seed a childhood visit to a local site… it would take thirty-five years of research to determine that the Heavener Runestone on Poteau Mountain in eastern Oklahoma is most likely a boundary marker.”

Farley visited the mountain to see “Indian Rock,” the name the carving had in 1928. The stone was 12 feet high, 10 feet wide, and 16 inches thick. Carl F. Kimmerer had found it when he was a child, and he led Farley and her friend Rosemary to the stone.

And there, upon the stone, were strange letters. The first was an X. The second letter looked like an l with a weird little line off to the side on the lower left, which made it kinda look like an upside-down Y. Then there came a sideways shape that looked like a fish drawn with only straight lines. It was standing on its tail. Then, a symbol that looked like a 2-year-old child’s line drawing of an upside-down bra. An M was next, followed by two triangles touching at their tips. An F that slanted to the lower right and a version of the number 1 that looked like a drunken, upside-down L.

Kemmerer told Farley he had other stones carved with similar letters, which he’d found in the same area.

After Farley grew up, she focused on solving the mystery of the stone. First, she had to find it, which was easier said than done. But as time passed, she began to notice facts related to the stone. For one, it could be reached by sailing up the Mississippi River, then up the Arkansas River to the Podeau River. The Podeau flows only a few miles away from the runestone today, though the river could have easily changed course through the years.

When Alf Monge , a former U.S. Army Cryptographer who was born in Norway and broke a Japanese code during WWII, looked at the stone’s inscription he determined the letters could be translated to the date of Nov. 11, 1012. A.D. He also believed the runestone was a mix of two ancient Norse alphabets which were used from the 3 ^rd to the 8 ^th century.

But that wasn’t the only professional translation that vexed everyone who loved the runestone.

Dr. Richard Nielson from the University of Denmark believed the stone proclaimed “GLOME DAL,” which meant “valley owned by Glome.”

Who the heck was Glome? That’s part of the mystery.

And here’s another: a runestone was found by schoolboys in Potea. This stone was 15” and the characters were similar to that of the runestone Farley was obsessed with deciphering. The first letter on the newly discovered stone was an X, the second the same weird L with a line off to the side that pointed to the middle right. Then there was that weird upside down fish again, an l M, F, an r with a squiggle to the left, and a D made of straight lines.

The boys took the stone to their teacher because, as a kid, what else would you do with such a weird stone?

Then came the Shawnee Runestone. It was found in the city of Shawnee, Oklahoma, close to the Canadian River. Kids found that one while out on a snake hunt, where they turned over a rock in hopes of finding a snake but instead found strange, angular letters. This time, it was the upside-down bra again, a weird bolt of lightning, the two triangles touching, the upside-down fish, and the lesser-than sign.

The Canadian is a tributary of the Arkansas River.

Here’s where things become even more odd: Farley came to believe that Viking explorers were in North America by 1100 A.D.

According to Welsh legend, Prince Madog ab Owain Gwynedd took 10 ships to the Americas and landed in Mobile Bay in modern-day Alabama . There’s even a historic marker in Mobile Bay to “prove” it, if you dare to believe. (But there are also factually incorrect historic markers all over the South, so keep that in mind, too.)

Back in Heavener, as Gloria Farley’s years passed, translations of the letters engraved upon the stone began to pour into Heavener. In 1994, she published a book called “ In Plain Sight ” that supposedly documented evidence of Europeans in Ancient America.

(Heads up: one of the cheapest places to buy the book is at the museum in Heavener.)

Farley wrote about her findings. She believed the rune was best translated to “Glome’s Valley.” She also believed the stone was carved about a thousand years ago.

What do you believe so far?

In upcoming articles, we are looking forward to speaking with sources who will bring another twist to the Heavener Runestone. Some sources even believe in a hypothesis so surreal that it stands American history on its head.

Want to know more about the subject? Visit the runestone in Heavener. It’s less than four hours from Shreveport, and though the state park has closed, the historic site is still open. A little gift shop sells rune-related trinkets, shirts, coffee cups, etc.

It’s pretty relaxing on the side of the mountain with the sound of a little waterfall pouring into the valley below, so don’t be afraid to take the hike.

It’s definitely worth the trip to visit Heavener–especially after you learn what one Shreveport professor has to say about the subject in our next article on the Heavener Runestone .

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