ANCIENT MAN-MODIFIED TERRAIN FOUND

ANCIENT MAN-MODIFIED TERRAIN 

FOUND IN WESTERN MINNESOTA

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The forty-five passengers of the VIKING WATERWAYS TOUR bus on Saturday, September 28, 2013 witnessed the unplanned re-discovery of two ancient man-modified terrain features in western Minnesota.
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Tour leaders Karl Hoenke and Dr. Myron Paine were telling them how the 1271-foot by 459-foot jetty at Stakke Lake was a strategic facility for the copper haulers of 3700 years ago.  Then the bus driver asked, “Are there two jetties here?  I see one ahead of me, but the one you want is over there.”

JETTY at STAKKR LAKR.

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This man-made jetty is located a strategic location.  The jetty is located seven miles from the Stinking Lake.  Stinking Lake is at the highest elevation of the Buffalo River that can float a boat.  The copper haulers, c1,700 to 1,200 BC, portaged the cargo directly from Stinking Lake to the jetty.  Then they moved their boats, which weighed a ton, via shorter portages through Duck, La Belle, Boyer, and Park Lakes to Stakke Lake. The jetty at Stakke Lake was a rendezvous place for hundreds of boats and thousands of men as they waited for the spring thaw.  When the thaw arrived, they launched hundreds of boats to transport 500 tons of copper away from Lake Superior.

This man-made jetty is located a strategic location.  The jetty is located seven miles from the Stinking Lake.  Stinking Lake is at the highest elevation of the Buffalo River that can float a boat. 
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COPPER MINE FIELD at ILLE ROYALE

The copper miners of 4,200 to 3,200 left behind nearly 10,000 pits near Lake Superior.

One estimate is that they hauled away 500 tons of copper per year for the thousand years.

The number of boats required to haul the copper is at least 100 boats per year. 

 The copper haulers, c1,700 to 1,200 BC, portaged the cargo directly from Stinking Lake to the jetty.  Then they moved their boats, which weighed a ton, via shorter portages through Duck, La Belle, Boyer, and Park Lakes to Stakke Lake. The jetty at Stakke Lake was a rendezvous place for hundreds of boats and thousands of men as they waited for the spring thaw.  When the thaw arrived, they launched hundreds of boats to transport 500 tons of copper away from Lake Superior.
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The bus driver had just seen another jetty, which may have been centuries older than the newer jetty that Hoenke and Paine were describing.

The Old Jetty at Stakke Lake

The old jetty at stake lake is the rectangle above "Lake" in the center of the image. This jetty appears to be the first jetty built in Stakke Lake.  The surface is just above the water level of 1364 feet elevation.  The ancient hydraulic engineers apparently determined they could raise the lake level to 1380 feet before the water would spill down Hay Creek to the north.  So they built a second jetty with an area as big as five city blocks and a surface at 1385 feet. [That jetty is off the picture just below the "Stakke" name]

The old jetty at stake lake is the rectangle above "Lake" in the center of the image. This jetty appears to be the first jetty built in Stakke Lake.  The surface is just above the water level of 1364 feet elevation.  The ancient hydraulic engineers apparently determined they could raise the lake level to 1380 feet before the water would spill down Hay Creek to the north.  
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So they built a second jetty with an area as big as five city blocks and a surface at 1385 feet. [That jetty is off the picture just below the "Stakke" name]
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Later analysis of the two jetties indicates an evolution that may have spanned centuries.  That evolution confirms Hoenke and Paine’s beliefs that the copper haulers raised the dam between Middle and Big Cormorant Lakes to an elevation of 1380 feet.   At that height Stakke Lake became nine miles long.  Stakke Lake enabled rowing between the new jetty at Stakke Lake and the dam between Middle and Big Cormorant Lakes.
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The thousands of men in hundreds of boats that left Stakke Lake jetty every spring rowed to Minneapolis to load five tons of copper in each boat.  They were part of the flotilla that removed 940 million pounds of pure copper from Lake Superior.
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Then Mark Hilde guided the bus driver to the Green Valley golf course to look at the mooring stones there.  There were four stones with holes in them.  Later analysis shows that the stone on the highest ground may have held a flagpole.
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The three other stones may have moored boats in a secure harbor.  The water level of that harbor would have had to be 1380 feet to make the secure harbor.
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STONES WITH HOLES at HOUGLAND LAKE

The four stones with holes at HOUGLAND Lake appear to indicate that the spot was either a gathering place, a command center, or both.  The three mooring stones neat the lake shore implies several boats loading or unloading at the same time.  The boats probably moved into the larger harbor to anchor.

That 1380 feet elevation fits the jetty and dam configuration.  The flag and mooring stones might have been a site for a gathering place or for high commanders of the Stakke Lake-Cormorant Lake operation during the copper hauling era. 
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The evidence provides strong support to the hypothesis that thousands of men and hundreds of boats launched from Stakke Lake in western Minnesota every year for hundreds of years.
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After those unexpected re-discoveries, the rest of the tour was interesting but anti-climatic.  The tourists accepted without comment the discussion of the dam that created Lake Alexandria.   They saw the still visible dikes that retained the water of Lake Alexandria into a seventeen-mile long lake.
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The Kensington Rune Stone, the 14th century artifacts from the Viking Waterway, the dams, dikes and harbors, and the two Viking Ships in museums all confirmed that the Vikings had come to western Minnesota 1,000 years ago because they had found the copper haulers waterway.  They knew how to restore the waterway operation. 
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The Vikings used the Viking Waterway to be traders from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico during the Mississippi culture period.

DEVELOPMENTS

The pictures for the 2013 VIKING WATERWAY tour are available.
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LIDAR confirms that thousands of people walked between
               Stinking Lake and Stakke lake.
              Also confirms PARK LAKE existed.
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ON GOING
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Sign up for Boarding Pass.  Tell you friends to get theirs.
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The best way to appreciate the VIKING WATERWAY is to:

   Study the VIKING WATERWAY short course* and

  purchase the VIKING WATERWAY booklet **
   BEFORE going on a tour with a GUIDE in the vehicle.

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       Self guided tours are not recommended.
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     The new stuff, like the terrain features we discovered
    on the 2013 tour, will be added to the 2014 booklet.

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Based on the 2013 tour, which was too long, the VIKING WATERWAY tours should be divided into six nodes:

                 1. Detroit Lakes,

                 2.  Pelican Rapid,

                 3.  Fargo

                 4.  Kensington

                 5.  Alexandria

                 6.  Moorhead
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Tours departing from Detroit Lakes, and Alexandria will take about four hours in a wheeled vehicle.  Moorhead has the Hjemkomst viking ship, which was built by Bob Asp and friends because he believed that Vikings had been in the area of Hawley MN.  The Pelican Rapid, Fargo, and Kensington nodes involve rivers.  The man made terrain along these rivers is distributed.  The best way to appreciate the river segments is by slow poke touring along the rivers with wheels, or by canoe and Kayak.

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*If enough people sign up to make a class and if one, or more, of the 2013 TOURists are willing to lead the discussion, then maybe the Community Education center in Detroit Lakes might offer to put the VIKING WATERWAY Short Course  on the curriculum.
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**VIKING WATERWAY booklets can be purchased from Midwest printing in Detroit Lakes MN.

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On November 10, 2014 Bob Hill wrote:

Dear Mr. Paine,

Thank you so much for you very interesting ideas about movements of the Greenlanders into North America and their possible refurbishment and use of the old copper trade routes. I have been interested in the Lake Superior copper mines for decades and your explanation of how the Viking Waterway may have worked is fascinating.

You likely have already seen this, but while looking at satellite photos of Stinking Lake,

https://www.google.com/maps/place/46%C2%B055'04.9%22N+96%C2%B008'15.7%22W/@46.917515,-96.138933,638m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

I noticed that there appear to be modifications to it on the eastern side that I do not remember you referencing. 

In particular, there is an odd ditch or trough located at 46.918035,-96.137704. 

MYRON: You are right Bob I did miss that ditch it does appear that the pond and the ditch define a man made campground. I estimate that about 100 tepee or wigwam would occupy that campground. I suggest that this might have been a permanent campground for the local hunter gatherers who may have hunted and fished for food supplies for the 3,000 that would be coming through the area. This permanent campground was probably placed on the other side of the lake from where the transient 3,000 men would have passed. Another possibility is that this was a permanent command center. But the key element that it does appear to be man made at sometime in the past. The picture below shows the profile elevation from the lake to the ditch. 

Picture and Profile from Pond to Drainage Ditch. Land are about 12 feet above the water channels. The living area would hold about 100 living units.

This profile across the end of the pond illustrates that this is man modified terrain which raised the berms to keep the water in the pond. 

Bob:

The trough itself seems to be on a roughly rectangular raised area similar to the jetty at Stakke Lake. Perhaps the trough was a sort of slipway for pulling up ships for unloading or for repair.

Myron: Bob, the ditch appears to be similar to drainage ditches throughout Europe to remove water and snow melt from swampy land. The ditch does not seem to be involved  with the boats that may have been used. I suggest that the ditch is primarily used to make sure that the living area was dry. 

Bob:

Additionally, immediately to the west is a roughly rectangular pond that may be the remnants of another man-made harbour. The location of this area would be just right for the route that leads to Duck Lake and beyond. To me, that makes a lot of sense. The route between Stinking Lake and Stakke Lake is perhaps the most difficult stretch. Having a good sized camp at Stinking Lake gives a sort of mirror site to the jetty at Stakke Lake, a place for storing goods, making camp, and possibly repairing any damage done to the boats during hauling.

Myron: 

I agree that the campground looks like it was part of the boat moving process, but as I said above it may have been a permanent campground for the local hunter gatherers or it may have been a command center. The LIDAR sensing shows that the ground around the pond and ditch had much human traffic. 

This campground is much smaller than the jetty at stakke lake as I said above this area would hold only about 100 tepee, wigwams, or inverted boats. Stakke lake would hold the entire estimated 200 boats and 3,000 men for most of a winter season. I think the ground traffic shows the the boats were unloaded on the South side of Stinking lake, thats why the mooring stone is there. The mooring stone enabled boats to unload their cargo and float to a new elevation in Stinking lake. 

Bob, I appreciate your interest and your observation of this campground. Perhaps you and I will resolve a better solution but for now my thoughts and your thoughts are interesting thoughts that may lead to even a better solution. 

VIKING WATERWAYS TOURS 2014

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Definitely will attend                          Interested
          Detroit Lakes
01                                                                          Jay Wakefield

02                                                                     Christine Gregory
03                                                                               Don Spohn
04                                                                   Edward Darrington
05                                                                  Frederick P Hoenke
06                                                                        Houssam Nassif

07                                                                             Jeffrey Lund

08                                                                         Lee Pennington
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          Pelican Rapids
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         Fergus Falls

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          Kensington
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          Alexandria
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          Hjemkomst, Moorhead
01                                                                         Markus Krueger

02                                                                          Skip Neilburger
03                                                                            William Davis
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Ancient History Text

ANCIENT HISTORY
BACK GROUND

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The women of Wisconsin (his wise woman) began to cast copper 7,500 years ago.  They used pure copper which was found on the ground around Lake Superior.  Copper trade routes through America can still be traced by following many north and south highways.

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About 4,200 years ago the first ships from the Mediterranean sailed into the region.  An engraving of what may be one of the first ships into the area still exists on Keewanee  Peninsula.  Keewanee means "Lake that turns."  The peninsula is almost made into an Island by a lake that turns.

The scant evidence available indicates that about 3,700 years ago, Norse people began to realize that they could sail into the big bay, (Hudson Bay) in large freight ships.   Those ships are called "Longships." Longships pulled a small knarr and, perhaps, carried two or more knarr on deck.  These knarr with crews of fifteen to sixteen mem were unloaded at the mouth of the Nelson river.  

Then the knarrs would be pulled up the Nelson river to Lake Winnipeg (Stinking Bay) and then the Red River to reach Wynland of West.  

Rowing up the Nelson and the Red Rivers took nearly a month.  The Pope at the Vatican in 1160 knew that the knarr took twelve days to return to Hudson Bay.

Starting 4200 years ago and continuing for 1,000 years enough copper was removed from Lake Superior to equip 300 ten thousand man armies.  That amount of armor represents the approximate quantity of the armor destroyed in the Mediterranean, Asia mInor, and Europe during the Bronze Age.  During the Bronze Age those areas of the world developed the warfare mentality that exists to this day.

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In North America trade may have been the core mentality of the people mining copper.  But there is evidence that the Copper Trade developed into an armed conflict.  Ships and men used all possible routes to and from Lake Superior.  There is evidence that armed conflict made some of the more practical routes, like the Mississippi, dangerous. 

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VIKING WATERWAY
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Just north of Fargo-Moorhead the crew on the boats could put up to 7 men with ropes on each side of the Buffalo River.  They would pull the boat upstream.  Ninty miles up the Buffalo River they would reach a lake now called Duck Lake at Lake Park, MN.

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From this location the knarr could row and occasionally portage all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.  At Duck lake, the boat crews had not yet crossed the north-south continental divide.  That would happen at Fergus Falls, MN (Worthy [to be called] "falls") where the crews would row up  a fast flowing river (Ottertail) and then carry the boats across a short portage into the Mississippi basin.

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The Bronze Age ended in 1,200 BC.  But the people of the sea still came to trade.  The Nelson River, Red River, and Mississippi River continued to be a waterway.  The Vikings came to Wynland of West after another ecological disaster in 535 AD.  Highway I95 from Moorhead to Minnesota still parallels the Viking Waterway.

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About 1,000 years ago Vikings spoke OlD Norse.  They had found the land north of Big Stone Lake (SD & MN) a fine land with plenty of grass,  meat from buffalo, deer, and fish.  They called the place Wynland of West."  They used the waterway we now call the "Viking" waterway.

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Europe and Asia Minor were only a few months away, but the warfare cultures over there probably led to the development of the Seven Fires Prophecy.  In the fourth fire prophecy the Viking traders were the friendly pale skinned people with the handshake The pale skinned people with weapons were people to avoid.  Most Americans knew the Seven Fires prophecy.  On first contact, Americans used the Seven Fires Prophecy to judge Europeans.

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Then came the Little Ice Age.  The nearly 4,000 Norse on Greenland were forced to migrate to the their kin in Wynland of West.

HUDSON BAY in the BRONZE AGE

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PICTURES of 2013 VIKING WATERWAY TOUR

Robin Mueller took 527 pictures.

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The links below will guide you to the best pictures with captions.
       Click on <-- (back) or --> (next) at the center bottom 
                to see other photos in the group.
      You can see all the thumbprints by clicking 
               on the square of nine dots at the center bottom.
                Click on Thumbprint to get new photo.
               Click on X on upper right of Thumbprints 
                       to return to photo.
Use the return arrow, upper left to get back to these links.

Enjoy.

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Rainy Morning

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Full Bus

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Stinking Lake

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The Straight Cut

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The Shallow Channel

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The Ramp

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Duck Lake

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Park Lake

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Jetty at Stakke Lake

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Surprise!  Another Jetty

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View of Jetty

Lake Alexandria Dikes

Map view of Alexandria Dikes

Lidar

 LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth. These light pulses—combined with other data recorded by the airborne system— generate precise, three-dimensional information about the shape of the Earth and its surface characteristics.

One of the sets of information about surface characteristics appears to indicate how the earth has been compacted by human traffic through many generations. Compacted earth reflects lighter than non-compacted earth.

For Example:  We hypothesized that, during the copper hauling years, 2,200 and 1,200 BC, thousands of men per year for about seven hundred years walked between Stinking Lake MN to Stakke Lake,MN.  The hypothesis is that they wanted to launch boats from the Jetty at Stakke Lake to take a water route to Minneapolis to pick up copper on the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Look at the image above. You can see light traces from Stinking Lake (upper left) to the Jetty in Stakke Lake (lower right).  Those lighter traces might be consistent with thousands of men per year walking between Stinking Lake and the Jetty for hundreds of years.

Another Exampe:  From contour maps we determined that the optimum height for the water Level on Stakke Lake would have been about 1,380 feet.  But at that water level the ground to the north east of Stakke Lake would have been flooded.  That is what the LIDAR image indicates!

But if the land to the north east of Stakke Lake were flooded, we knew that those thousands on men had to build dikes to keep Stake Lake from overflowing into Hay Creek.  We thought we saw traces of dikes on the contour maps, but we could not be sure how high they might have been.  The LiDar image appears to show us where the dikes were.

Take a look at the center of the image.  You will see an area of non-compacted earth connected by a narrow strip of land to the non-compacted earth of Stakke Lake at the elevation of 1380 ft.

This section of the LIDAR image may reflect a dike break out sometime after the thousands of men no longer came to monitor the dikes.  The rush of the waters toward the northeast may have washed away the earth that had been compacted by thousands of men passing by for hundreds of years.  The LIDAR image is consistent with a mammoth washout.

So the LIdar image appears to tell us where the dikes were and where the dikes failed.  These events took place before Christ was born! 

MORE COMMENTS

1. Traffic at Flag Stone hill.  Traffic in strategic spots guarding entrance to Stinking Lake.

2.  Heavy Traffic on south side of Stinking Lake.  This is the expected area were the cargo was unladed from boats.

3.  Heavy Traffic on both sides of "straight cut"  and along "shallow Channel.  This traffic is consistent with evidence of compaction in Channel.

4.  Heavy Traffic on hills on both sides of Ramp.  Less traffic on downslide to Duct Lake but trace still shows.

5 Heavy traffic west of Lake Park.  Traffic boundary on south could be on waterway of Park Lake.

6.  Traffic area around pond indicates a shore line different than predicted.

7.  No traffic in this area may be the result an ancient Lake.  The shoreline appears to be different than explicated from modern contour maps.

8  The traffic areas appear to be consistent with Stakke Lake being at 1380 feet.

9  The heavy traffic around this lake indicates that the lake may have been a major living area.

10 The traffic is focused into a narrow corridor to get to Stakke Lake.  Some of the traffic may have used the water.

11.  This heavy traffic zone to the west of the Jetty at Stakke Lake is consistent with expectations that there was a command center on this hill side.

12 This traffic on the east side of Stakke lake appears to follow the 1380 contour, which is consistent.  But the area to the North seems to have been a water area that is different than expected.  [We were expecting a dam between Stake Lake and a lower lake level to the North.]

Norway House

BIG EVENT  (13,OOO ya)

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BRONZE AGE (3,700 ya)

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NORSE CHRISTIANS (1,000 ya)

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NORWAY HOUSE, MANITOBA

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OVERALL HYPOTHESIS:

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   BIG EVENT

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Lake Winnipeg was created by the collision of earth with the debris of a super nova.  The same Big Event dropped nearly pure copper into the Lake Superior region.

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   BRONZE AGE:

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Men discovered the copper, which was the most precious metal on earth at the time.  Men removed about 500 tons of pure copper per year for 1,000 years.  To achieve that feat required about 200 20-oar knarr and 3,700 men passing from Cross Lake to Lake Winnipeg each year.

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This multitude of men was sufficient to make terrain modifications to enhance the movement of the boats.

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   NORSE CHRISTIANS

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The Norse were a sea people, which were more adapted to living on water than land.  They retained knowledge of the copper hauling routes or rediscovered the route.  They came as traders.

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About 1,000 years ago, the Norse became Christians.  Norse of the sea people’s culture chose to row away from warfare. Warfare was the mentality of Western Europe.  The Norse Christians created the Mississippi culture in America.

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PROPOSED EXPEDITION OBJECTIVES

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The terrain between Cross Lake, MB, and Lake Winnipeg offers an opportunity to look at evidence of the Big Event, the Bronze Age copper haulers, and the Norse Christians as written in the earth in one remote location.

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Impactors of the Big Event created Lake Winnipeg.  Detailed examination of the regional terrain may provide evidence of the impact in the same way impact evidence supports the creation of Lake Michigan.  The expedition will examine the existing maps of the regional terrain looking for evidence of impact and verify the evidence on the ground.

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Google Earth appears to indicate man-modifications to the terrain made during the Bronze Age.  The expedition will examine these man-modifications to determine if the earth features are natural or may have been modified by man.  

The Linear Mounds and the Manitoba Burial Mounds may have been created during the Bronze Age.  The people in those mounds may have harvested the food supply for the 3,400 men that passed Norway House each year.  The expedition will try to determine if the mounds were related to the Bronze Age copper haulers.  The Linear Mounds appear to be a buffalo trap and mass killing structure.

[NOTE: the Linear Mounds and the Manitoba mounds are an excellent example of suppression of knowledge by omission.  How could both sets of mounds make it onto the National register of Parks and the knowledge of the mounfd still be suppressed from the schoolkids?

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The Norse Christian era is evident in the place names of the region.  The expedition will compile those names. The expedition will look for cultural behavior associated with Norse Christians.  DNA sampling of the regional population should reveal a northern European DNA population, similar to Greenland and the Shawnee in America.

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The expedition will identify the terrain changes made by the Big Event, the regional man-modifications made by the copper haulers of the Bronze Age, and the human residual of the Norse Christian era.
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PRIMARY GOAL:  The expedition will generate maximum publicity about the Big Event, the Copper Haulers of the Bronze Age and the Norse Christians.  These three paradigms are not included in the school curriculum. The public will become aware that these paradigms are suppressed by the institutionalized omission of evidence not included in the 17^th century, when WASPs created a biased history, which is still taught.

SELECTED TERRAIN:

CROSS LAKE

(a.k.a. Kichie Sipi)

WATERS AROUND CROSS LAKE

The waters around Cross Lake all appear to be at the same elevation.  But the terrain is not.  There appear to be locations where the earth was modified to enable the waters to have the same evecation.

A change in elevation occurs at the draw where Norway House is located.  Thia location may have seen where the boats were lifted from one water level to the higher level.

WINNIPEG WATER LEVEL

LAKE WINNIPEG LEVEL WATERS

 Winnipeg Water Level is maintained in a canyon lake that connects to the Norway House on the upper side of the dam.  The 25.6 elevation between Lake Winnipeg and the Cross Lake water levels was within the capabilities of men using primitive hand tools to move earth.  When compared to the 30 foot deep mines in rock around Lake Superior, this terrain modification would have been warm up practice.

NORWAY HOUSE

Joseph Smith was sent in 1756, from York Factory, to explore the area. He ascended the Nelson River seeking Lake Winnipeg. He reached Little Playgreen Lake on September 21 that year.

In 1816 Lord Selkirk sent out a band of Norwegians, apparently ex-convicts, to build a road fromYork Factory to Lake Winnipeg and a series of supply posts. They built Norway House at Mossy Point (west side of outflow) in 1817 replacing the former Jack River post at that location.

Jack River, the connection between the Winnipeg Level water and the Cross Lake waters has been the key link from the Nelson River to Lake Winnipeg ever since Europeans invaded America.