Expert: Ralph Salier - 9/2/2008

Question
QUESTION: I grew up on a farm in extreme SE Kansas about 100 north of the Heavener OK Ruenstone site.  In our pasture (where I spent a lot of time as a little girl) there was a rock in the middle of the pasture that stood aabout about 30 inches high and a foot across. I thought it to be magical and my family never seemed to notice it.  I have never forgotten it as there were markings on it that could resemble the nordic markings I saw today in Heavener OK.  Cherokee County Kansas is straight north of the Heavener site.  Although my sighting was over 60 years ago, I am not sure the rock is still on this farm.  Could it be a nordic ruenstone?

ANSWER: Hi Karen,

Do you have a photo of the stone or perhaps a rubbing you may have done as a child? Do you live close enough to the site that you could possibly find it again?  With out a photo or rubbing or some other information about the stone in your field, it is virtually impossible to know if it has runic inscriptions.  If the stone is in the middle of a field, then it is possible that it has been hit by a plow many times and this would put gouges into the stone that could look like runic inscriptions.  I have a stone from the family farm with what looks like a rune in it but was made by the disk plow we used.  

Could it be a rune stone, yes, perhaps.  The three stones found in Heavener have been extensively studied and there is no definative evidence that these are actual rune stones.  These could have been made as a hoax.  The problem is that these stones are found with out archaeological context that links them to any Norse activities.  Could they have explored all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi and into what is today Heavener?  That is a very long way from home.  Is it possible, yes but not very probable.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The stone was in the middle of a cow pasture and not in the fields where my Dad planted.  I go to this part of the country from time to time and believe I can get access to walk back to the place where the stone was just above the creek.  Like Gloria's book, it was in plain view but ignored.  Now my academic degrees are in geography.  I was the curious one and very observant even as a child to things that others just didn't care about or question.  No, I have no picture nor rubbing.  Next trip up to Kansas I will try to find the time to stop in and ask current owners of the land if I can walk back.  Karen Morgan

Answer
Hi Karen,

Even cow pastures were probably plowed at some point in time.  But as children, unique things in the environment some times do carry some long term interest and as humans, we occasionally embelish our memories.  That is not to say that your memories are not sharp and crystal clear... But if you can gain access to the property and the stone, I would be very interested in seeing photos etc... And if it is intact with runes, then this needs to be reported to the state archaeologist in Kansas for excavation and evaluation.

With the property owner's permission of course.  

Pleaes let me know what you find, the next time you see it!

Ralph