Follins Pond
Follins Pond is a
brackish lake located on
Cape Cod, separating the towns of
Dennis, Massachusetts, and
Yarmouth, Massachusetts. The lake is connected to
Nantucket Sound via the
Bass River.
Follins Pond is noteworthy primarily because there has been at least one attempt to connect it to the semi-legendary lost
Norse colony of
Vinland.
In the 1950s,
Frederick J. Pohl investigated Follins Pond and declared that he had located shore rocks along the pond into which were drilled holes, that strongly resembled Norse mooring stones (the Norse were known to drill holes into which iron pins were inserted for the purpose of mooring their
knarrer).
Additionally, Pohl claimed that he had uncovered the tops of posts about a foot underground, arranged in a pattern that might have been that of either a Norse
shipyard or
drydock.
Further, at about the same time a "Viking horse bone" was unearthed at Follins Pond. Pohl was of the opinion that at least a few horses were brought from
Greenland by the Norse on their further voyages of explanation.
Pohl published a book in 1952 entitled
The lost discovery: Uncovering the track of the Vikings in America which detailed this claim. It is generally not taken seriously by mainstream historians, as the evidence presented is rather scant and no archaeological finds of any significance have been made in the area since.
Local notoriety
Interestingly, some of the road names around Follins Pond seem to reflect this theory; a
Norsemans Beach Road can be found on the eastern shore of the lake, a
Norse Road on the north shore of the lake, and a
Valhalla Drive and
Erik's Path close to the south shore.
Additionally, along the shore of a smaller body of water known as
Kelleys Bay joined to Follins Pond by the
Bass River can be found
Vinland Drive,
Skerry Road,
Saga Road,
Fiord Drive,
Freydis Drive, and
Lief Ericson Drive (sic).
Further south, along the shores of the Bass River, can be found
Lief's Lane,
Legend Drive,
Old Saga Drive,
Rune Stone Road,
Viking Rock Road,
Keel Cape Drive,
Erickson Way, and
Mooring Lane.
At the very least, the community finds these theories noteworthy or humorous enough to reflect them in street names.
In addition, articles about the purported past of Follins Pond occasionally turn up in the
Cape Cod Times and other local newspapers.
*
Waquoit Bay*
Article about alleged mooring stones in the area*
Article about the horse bone find
