Anyone know of the reliability of the claim that an ancient Viking dolmen has been discovered on the Kelso River, north of Sawbill Lake? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RsBZODBjAM

It looks like someone had fun making up that story and sharing it with the rest of us.
That is a cool rock though - the first time I paddled by it we had to stop and get out to look to make sure that it really was supported by the three little rocks. That rock is slightly smaller than a VW bug from what I remember.

What a hoot! Imagine Vikings sailing up the St. Lawrence River, portaging their longboat around Niagara Falls, sailing through the Great Lakes, and somehow finding their way to Kelso Lake, only to leave behind a dolmen. I wonder who the supposed experts (as indicated in the video's intro) are who believe this happened.

I'm afraid the Ice Age & Glaciers did this long before any humans showed up.

Vikings in this region are not as far fetched as some people seam to think. The Kensington Runestone was found in Kensington, MN and is believed to be carved by Vikings who visited the area somewhere around the 12-1300's. They are believed to have either traveled up the great lakes or possibly up and into Hudson bay and then down. Kenningston is in central MN, and the Vikings would have to come either just south or through the Quetico to get there. Besides artifacts found along the way though the great lakes region, there are also stories in some of the Native America oral history about what many people believe are the Vikings who came through there.

As far as that being a dolmen, it would be pretty far fetched. Dolmens were made as tombs, or as tomb coverings and as such it wouldn't really make any sense to build one on bedrock.

The Only Real Viking Doleman.

What a coincidence! I just finished, moments ago, reading Jared Diamond's account of the Viking's colonies in North America and/including Greenland. Evidently, believable evidence for their visiting inland is lacking.

Fishguts, get reasonable! Those monuments in your pictures most likely date from before the crash of Sasquatch civilization.

I don't know Fishguts.....I'm still trying to figure out who did the 'Mexican Hat' in Monument Vally. ;)

There is another "dolmen" south of Kekekabec, on the way to Frasier Lake. It is also supported by very small stones. Two years ago I traveled in Ireland for 9 days (a great trip) and saw a number of actual dolmen. All of these dolmen were supported by BIG rocks...half-VW sized. I suspect that the CCC boys back in the 1930s had a good time jacking up these two rocks in the BW and putting softball sized stones under them. No way these are accidents of nature, and no way they are real dolmen.

On the other hand, I do believe that the Vikings or other Europeans did travel in North America long before Chris publicized the New World area. A very interesting book about this is "Michigan Prehistory Mysteries II" by Betty Sodders. Obviously there was a book "I" but I didn't find it.

has anyone done any real research on this?..and by that i mean looking under it and around it for wear marks of some sort.any signs of old,really old camping sites? are there another boulders like that in the area?.could this be a marker leading to the Knife lake flint knapping sites that were just found?

If you look straight across from the Kelso dolman there is a trail that goes to Oriole Lake and from there to the site of an old fire tower. When the tower was built they put rail beds and rails from Sawbill to Alton and to Kelso. The rails were later used into the 1960's to move boats from one lake to the next. I'm guessing that the dolman was created using some of the equipment brought in for the construction of the fire tower. That is just a guess though.

At one time, the idea of early Viking exploration of North America was very popular and there were claims of Viking artifacts as far away as Oklahoma. The amazing coincidence is that the finds always seem to occur around settlements of modern day Norwegian-Americans:)

The only undisputed site I've heard of is the Viking settlement in Newfoundland at L'ans Aux Meadows.

A really good book for those interested in such things is "Land under the Pole Star; a voyage to the Norse settlements of Greenland and the saga of the people that vanished." by a guy named Helge Ingstad. He discovered and excavated L'ans aux Meadows. That book is one of my all time favs.

Im always open to learn new things, so what is a Dolmen

Short answer, rocks placed on top of other rocks. They are thought to have some symbolic meaning or used in burial practices. Some are found in Ireland, Scandinavia, Korea and other locales.

Thanks Unas .

BP69, you can learn more and have some fun by checking out the clip on you tube at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RsBZODBjAM

The dolmen in Ireland were usually three vertical or slanted rocks, with a caprock on top. They were big--one we saw was about 8 feet in the air, and the caprock about 15 feet long--weighed tons. The info said they were used as burial sites...the body was laid out on the caprock and the birds ate the flesh away, and then the bones were put under the caprock. One in Ireland had 21 bodies (bones) in it. Other smaller rocks were then placed around the edges of the three upright rocks, sealing off the interior. I don't think we give the ancients enough credit for what they were able to accomplish.

Not to confuse anyone, but guess what? The illustrious History Channel has decided that maybe it was not the Vikings who placed the Kensington Runestone where it is, but a group of Knight's Templar. This particular show was contending that the Templars, not the Vikings, were the first Europeans to come to the America's (Greenland/Iceland/etc.) They also tied it in with a few other 'relics' from that era which have been found along the east coast/new england area which bear similar markings. I'm left wondering: Buried Templar treasure in the heart of Minnesota?

Have any of you ever heard of Madoc.

Basically there are stories of Welsh sailors coming to the Americas in the 1170's......

Lots of INTERESTING and fairly compelling information regarding this.

Even some information with regards to Madoc at Falls of the Ohio State Park in Indiana.

Check out this link:

Madoc Info

Later,

Geo

Mandan Tribe came from there. Built boats strikingly similar to a Welsh style boat. Some migrated to SE and Cherokee called them 'moon eyes'. Fair complected. I firmly believe there were several migrations or at least shipwrecks long, long before Columbus. I've heard of 3 different caves not far from Cincy where 1st Century Roman coins were found. Doesn't prove anything but.......

for a good read on the Americans before Columbus try Charles Mann's "1491"..lots of good solid info,no "lost tribes"stuff.after reading it the Knife Lake stone quarries made a lot more sense.

Another good read are the Vinland Sagas, which are the accounts of the Vikings discovery of North America. They were written in Iceland about 200 years after the actual events they describe.

The sagas relate that when the Vikings first encountered Indians in North America, the indians brought them furs. Which seems to me pretty strong evidence that someone must have been trading furs before the Vikings got there (This was in the year 1000 AD or thereabouts).

Thanks mort .

None of the above.

Everyone knows aliens created these dolmens.

The truth is out there.

This is all great stuff.

But if anyone has ever paddled the Kelso River, they will immediately know that it was never a navigable waterway until it was visited by white men in search of adventure.

The Kelso River is a dead-end for all intensive purposes. There are many navigable waterways in the the border country that can take you from one place to another. Humans take the path of least resistance.

If a Viking made it all the way to the Kelso River, which the DID NOT, they sure as heck would not have gone to the Kelso River and made a dolmen. That's like saying there is a dolmen on Bog Lake. :)

Sorry,

Tom

In reality it was Big Foot

Ahhh yes, ..the famous Sasquatch conspiracy theory!!

An old post for sure - but I was looking for a pic of the Kelso dolman and this is one of the top Google hits.

It's bizarre to me that all the talk about dolmens in North America focus on vikings. As noted above, Korea has more dolmens than Europe, and no one is suggesting vikings were in Korea. The arctic is scattered with stone cairns (inuksuit), so why might we not expect Native Americans to have constructed stone markers farther south - at some point in the 10,000+ year period prior to European contact?

I've see something similar very far from any road or house, but what should have been a popular travel route between the large Kazan and Thelwiaza watersheds in northern Manitoba. Here there was not one, but two of these boulders, each supported by 2-3 small stones, located about 50' apart, near the water's edge (at the beginning of a portage trail).

Kelso and Wisini don't seem that significant to us - but I wouldn't dismiss the notion that both are ancient markers of some importance to somebody, a long time ago.

Well I gotta tell ya, the BWCA is nothing but a ginormous pile of rocks. We don't see 90% of them since they are covered and filled in with a layer of topsoil.
Portages aren't just rocky because they made the portage on the rocks. Humans have worn down the top soil to the rocks beneath.

After a hot forest fire, you will find the immense piles of rocks that were hidden from us before the fire. The glaciers carried mountains of rocks and placed them where the glaciers melted. Of the billions of rocks beneath our feet, some of them settled in ways that make us think it couldn't have happened naturally. But it did.

I've been to the dolmen on Kelso and to me, there is nothing remarkable about it. More importantly, there is nothing remarkable about Kelso. It is most certainly not a travel route to anywhere in particular.
Tom

Who cares about Dolmens.....where can I learn more about the Knife Lake quarry or knapping and such?

Wow, 11 year old thread back to life. Ok I’ll play. I saw this on one of my trips. It is directly across from the old landing to the Kelso lookout tower. You can still see the dock pilling in the water at the landing. The tower area is kind of cool to see also. The outhouse is still in working order there, and metal junk everywhere. Old cast iron stove, lantern parts and radio parts. Even wire spools with wire on them in the woods. Lots of mysterious things up there.