07.oktober.2009
The Kensington Rune Stone and the Hooked X: Key to the Secret History of North America
Lecture and book signing by Scott Wolter PG, President of American Petrographic Services
Wednesday, Oct 7th at 6 pm - Lecture and book signing
Idea Lab at the Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center, UND Campus
Hosted by Nordic Initiative, the Norse Federation and the Assocation of Norwegian Students Abroad (ANSA)
Free and open to the public
On the evening of Oct 7th, geologist Scott Wolter will talk about his exhaustive research and objective analysis on the Kensington rune stone. Controversy has raged ever since 1898 when Olaf Ohman, a Swedish immigrant farmer clearing trees on his land in preparation for farming near in what is now Alexandria, Minnesota found a 202 pound mysteriously engraved stone slab tangled in the roots of an uprooted tree. Experts have debated whether this Norse runic writing was authentic. The stone, dated 1362, soon provided how difficult the search for the truth can be - and raised eyebrows over the possibility that Norwegians and Swedes were in the center of the continent more than century before Columbus was on the coast. Many historians, archaeologists and linguists over the decades have said "nonsense" to the idea that wandering Norsemen in 1362 got to Minnesota and left a carved stone in memory of slain members of their expedition. What is the truth after 111 years?
In 2005, Scott Wolter co-authored a book entitled The Kensington Rune Stone: Compelling New Evidence, that presented a large body of research and facts that prove the artifact is indeed a fourteenth-century document. This September Wolter released a new book "The Hooked X: Key to the Secret History of North America" The book is Published by North Star Press of St. Cloud, MN and picks up where the Kensington Rune Stone story leaves off, taking the reader on a journey from Minnesota to the New England coast where four more medieval rune stones are found. The trail then leads to a mysterious round stone tower in Rhode Island that may have been constructed by the Knights Templar. The story that unfolds behind the Hooked X shatters many historical and religious paradigms, and ultimately starts to reveal the startling untold history of North America. His journey winds through mysterious worlds of the medieval Cistercians monks, the Knights Templar, and modern Freemasonry.
This lecture quickly follows a two-hour documentary which premiered on the History Channel on September 20th which chroniclesd Wolter’s nine-year pursuit of the origin and meaning of the Hooked X symbol, and his research into the unknown and mysterious world of European visitors to North America prior to Columbus. The documentary was produced by Committee Films of Minneapolis, and the film won the 2009 National Association of Television Production Executives (NAPTE) Best New Documentary Film. www.history.com
This speaking engagement is co-sponsored by three Norwegian-affiliated organizations in Greater Grand Forks: Nordic Initiative, Norseman Federation, and the Association of Norwegian Students Abroad (ANSA) at UND.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Geologist Scott Wolter has authored eight books and has been president of American Petrographic Services in St. Paul, Minnesota, since 1990. He is responsible for the independent petrographic analysis testing laboratory where the Kensington Rune Stone was brought for investigation in 2000. He’s been the principal petrographer in more than 5,000 investigations throughout the United States and around the world, including the evaluation of fire damaged concrete at the Pentagon following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Wolter and his family live in a suburb of Minneapolis.