COMMENTS ON

VIKING WATERWAY MAP

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One thousand years ago Vikings rowed their 15-man knarr through the lakes and rivers of western Minnesota. The Vikings were the 11th century equivalent of the UPS for the Mississippi culture.

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Stanzas in the Maalan Aarum (Walam Olum) record that Vikings in America were Christians. They called themselves “Lenape,” which means to “abide with the pure.”

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In the early Twentieth Century surveyors mapped Minnesota. A feature of their map is that the surveyors colored the grassland brown and the areas with trees a lighter yellow tan. This map shows how the Vikings pulled boats in grassland and floated through trees.

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About the same time Hjalmar Holand, determined that the ten-men-dead episode, which is punched into the Kensington Rune Stone, 1362, was the result of the ten men of a 30-man party, who were beaten to death.  Holand determined that they died near a mooring stone on Big Cormorant Lake, eight miles west of Detroit Lakes, MN.  The party was probably two knarr traveling together, who combined crews, when necessary, for portage.

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In 2011, Dr. Myron Paine used Google Earth to locate the position of each of Holand’s mooring stones.  Paine was surprised to observe that each mooring stone was beside a harbor.  Many of the harbors appeared to be man-modified by an enormous gang of men.  The connecting rivers of the Viking Waterway were also visible via Google Earth.

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Holand’s mooring stones and Paine’s harbors are shown as anchors on the Wynland map.  They define the route of Viking Waterway, as indicated by the blue trace.

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Also in 2011 Steve Hilgren published a list of locations, where old settlers had told stories of “Viking Ships.” When those locations were incorporated onto the Viking Waterway map, all 15 “Viking Ships” lay along the waterway or at the far end of a long lake that may have easily connected to the waterway.  The locations of the "Viking" ships appear to be in reasonable places for river knarr using the Wynland Waterway.

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When the Vikings started their journey from the Red River to the Mississippi River, they were at an elevation of about 861 feet. They had to lift their knarr up 498 feet to get over the height of land eight miles west of Detroit Lakes MN. Two portages were needed.

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They may have lowered the sail, boom, and mast to the storage arms. Men may have slung loads onto their backs. Then they may have had men on both sides of the river to pull the empty boats upstream, while walking through the grassland. They walked 90 miles up the Buffalo River to elevate the boat 375 feet at Stinking Lake. Then they had to portage twice to get into Big Cormorant Lake. 

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The area may have been a good place to stay for the winter, because of the grassland to the west, and the sheltering lakes with trees to the east.  Winter would have offered snow for sliding the boats.  The water levels would have been highest in the spring.  

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In 1916 the arc of land between Stinking Lake and Big Cormorant Lake was almost solidly settled by many Indian villages   The largest village was on the east side of Big Cormorant Lake.

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Later, after they crossed the continental divide, theVikings pulled their boats upstream again to regain 238 feet of elevation near Alexandria. Both long pulls to gain elevation occurred in the grassland. They floated downstream mostly in the forest. 

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The waterway layout implies that the Vikings had been over the route many times before. They knew where they were going. They knew when they should pull the empty boat, when they had to carry the boat, and when they could float downstream. 

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The construction signs must have said

 “INTELLIGENT MEN at WORK.”
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