Runestone Park, Kensington MN, August 2012

On our way to Detroit Lakes this sum mer, we made several stops: 1) visited with Laura, Alli, Lettie; 2) stayed at St Cloud Holiday Inn; 3) visited Kensington, MN (Grandpa Gundy's birthplace and childhood farmhouse location; 4) and, we also made a stop at Runestone Park in Kensington, MN...
Jason and I wanted to see the runestone discovery site in which Grandpa Gundy had discussed with us a few weeks prior.

The story goes - in 1898, a farmer by the name of Olaf Ohmann, who lived in Kensington, MN at the time, accidentally dug up a large runestone while working on his farm. Olaf discovered the runestone had several markings on it. Here is a translation of those markings on the Kensington Rune Stone:

"8 Swedes and 22 Norwegians on an exploration journey from Vinland westward. We had our camp by 2 rocky islets one day's journey north of this stone. We were out fishing one day. When we came home we found 10 men red with blood and dead. AVM save us from evil. We have 10 men by the sea to look after our ships, 14 days' journey from this island."

runestone website


Book: Kensington Rune Stone - It's place in History, 2001. By: Thomas E. Reiersgord