[music playing] SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
The history that we were all taught growing up is wrong. My name is Scott Wolter, and
I'm a forensic geologist. There's a hidden
history in this country that nobody knows about. There are pyramids here,
chambers, tombs, inscriptions. They're all over this country. We're going to investigate
these artifacts and sites, and we're going to
get to the truth. Sometimes history isn't
what we've been told. In its earliest days, America
was a vast land of opportunity. We grew up learning about
people like Lewis and Clark who mapped the West, but not
much about the people who came before them-- the fur traders. Fur was big business
in the 1600s. Traders from many
European nations were fighting to gain
dominance at a time when the map of America
looked very different. In the mid 1600s, the Northeast
was controlled by the English, the Southeast by the Spanish,
and land just East and West of the Mississippi was
owned by the French. In 1803, Thomas Jefferson bought
a large chunk of that territory from the French In what history
calls the "Louisiana Purchase." The question I have now is,
how did the French get the land they ultimately sold to us? Could they have stolen America
from other explorers who arrived here first? I don't know the
answer yet, but I do believe that French fur
traders were here for more than just animal pelts. I think they had
another mission-- a secret one to destroy
already established land claims and replace them with their own. A key piece of evidence
could be sitting in my home state of Minnesota. It's a recently
discovered artifact called the "Duluth Stone" that
I've been asked to look at-- but first, I've got to find it. There it is. Hi, Scott. Hi, Tom. So this is the
Duluth Stone, huh? Yes, it is, and this is one
of the most incredible artifacts I've ever seen. I mean, if you look here, we've
got the date inscribed, 1679, it's very clear. It looks old. We've got the name Duluth,
no question what that is. And in my mind, this can only
be the early French Explorer Daniel Duluth. Well, Duluth-- this one,
I actually know quite a bit about. He was actually commissioned
to come out here, not only to explore the region,
but also to stabilize it for commercial interests. He arrived at the modern
site of Duluth in 1679. If this is actually
dated correctly 2-16-79, it would certainly be
a significant find. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
Daniel Greysolon Sieur du Lhut was a French
nobleman born in 1639. When he was in his
late 30s, he was sent to what is now
Minnesota to pave the way for French expansion. The journeys of Duluth and
other early French explorers were remarkable. They entered into
a wild frontier where Lewis and Clark wouldn't
step foot for another 125 years. French explorers hoped
to find gold and silver, but they discovered
something just as valuable-- animal pelts. Furs were high
fashion in Europe, and America had an abundance
of beaver, fox, mink and otter. Native Americans initially
traded animal pelts with the French, but eventually
they taught the explorers how to catch the
animals themselves. Daniel Duluth was on a
mission to make peace with the Native
Americans in an effort to ensure the long-term
success of the fur trade. Does that make him the
first European Explorer in what is now Minnesota? No, actually. There was French and
European exploration here as early as 1615. The fur trade was
extremely competitive. Few people realize that
the fur trade actually played a significant
role in determining the destiny of America. So in this area
what is now Minnesota, would Duluth have
been here in 1679? Yeah, the historical record
does place him in this region. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER): This
Duluth Stone may be incredibly important. It could be the earliest
evidence of a French land claim in the Midwest. But if it is a land claim, I'm
certain it's not the first one left here in Minnesota. Well, you know,
everything that I see so far is really starting to
tie together very nicely. We've got what looks like
period writing that appears to be consistent with the
time period, the block style writing of his name and
the separation of his name, and you know, the weathering
does look advanced. So I'd like to do a
little more work there. But there is one other thing
that is vitally important, and that is the location
of where this stone is. Let me show you something. You know, Tom, I've
done a little research about these early French
explorers like Duluth, and not only were they trying
to expand the fur trade, but they were also here in
North America claiming land. Yeah, that's absolutely true. In fact, there was actually a
French land claim at Sault Ste Marie shortly before Daniel
Duluth arrived in this region. So you think the Duluth
Stone is a land claim? I'm convinced it is. In the late 17th century,
there was a land claim practice that the French and
the Dutch had for sure where, if they placed a land
claim stone in the ground, or carved one on
a rock like this, they could lay claim to the
entire river system or systems and all the land
associated with it. So in my mind, based on
that, this Duluth Stone is vitally important. This is the Continental
Divide, and the rivers flow North to Lake Superior
and South into the St. Croix, Mississippi, watershed. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
Continental divides are found across America. They occur where rivers and
streams part and start flowing in two different directions. These divides were very
important to early explorers. They would lay down
rocks at these spots, allowing them to claim
ownership of the waters in both directions. Whether or not
this is a land claim, or whether it's simply Duluth
writing his name on a rock for posterity, pending the
results of testing and dating, I think it's, it's
a remarkable find. There's more work that I want
to do, but I have to admit, it looks good to me. But you're right, it does
have to be vetted out, and we'll do that. Are there any other
similar land claim stones? SCOTT WOLTER: Actually, there
is another land claim stone here in Minnesota. You've heard of the
Kensington Rune Stone? Yeah, I've actually had
a chance to see the stone. It's an incredible artifact. Well, it is. I mean, it was found
in 1898 by a farmer who was clearing trees. It's dated 1362, and it has a
long inscription that includes a phrase "taking up land." The Kensington Runestone's
primary function was as a land claim
made by the Templars, and it was found on the
North-South Continental Divide of North America. So we have two land claims
stones here in Minnesota-- one is a French land claim,
the other, the Kensington Runestone. But there's another land claim
stone that's not on display. Have you ever heard of
Pierre La Verendrye? SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
Pierre La Verendrye was the first explorer of French
descent born in what's now Quebec. He and his sons were French
explorers and fur traders who made their mark half a
century after Daniel Duluth. I suspect the La Verendryes were
looking for previously placed land claims, like the
Kensington Runestone. But I believe there were other
land claims, specifically one that I've learned about that's
covered with strange symbols. If I can find it, it may prove
there were explorers here from Europe way
before the French. Well, there's one
thing that many people don't know about La Verendrye. He actually found
an inscribed stone that I think might be
another land claim. So Scott, where
is this other stone? It went missing
about 100 years ago. But I do have a few leads, and
I'm going to do my damnedest to find it. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
300 years ago, North America was a vast land with territory
that was up for grabs. Different European nations
were vying for land in what amounted to an epic
game of capture the flag. The question is, were
the French playing dirty? I wonder if explorer Daniel
Duluth could have removed someone else's land claim
before he placed his own-- a rock with his name and
the year, 1679 carved on it. I'm running tests on the Duluth
Stone in my lab in an effort to find out if it's
as old as it seems. That's not the only
thing I'm working on. A generation after
Daniel Duluth, another French fur trader,
Pierre La Verendrye, may have uncovered a
different artifact. Unlike the Duluth land claim,
the so-called La Verendrye Stone is missing. The La Verendrye Stone
could be evidence of a pre-Colombian
land claim to America. If the French found
it and took it, it could prove they were trying
to steal America from someone who got here before them. I need to find that
stone to find the truth, and I think there's a
historian who can help me. SCOTT WOLTER: You know, I'd
like to learn a little bit more about this La
Verendrye character. What I'm trying to
understand more about is, did the early explorers that
came to the North American continent, were they actually
trying to steal America? Were they really secret agents
that were trying to expand the borders of their countries? TRACY POTTER: Well, secret
agents, I don't know, but certainly they were
engaged in commercial warfare. SCOTT WOLTER: You know,
all across America, the legacy of these early
explorers is preserved. TRACY POTTER: It's all over
Minneapolis with Hennepin County, LaSalle Avenue-- all
named for the early explorers. But one name you don't hear
is Pierre La Verendrye. SCOTT WOLTER: So Tracy, tell
me a little bit about Pierre La Verendrye. I think to understand
La Verendrye, you have to know him in context. You know, the, the other
European nations that were competing for North
America at the time-- the English, the
French, of course, the Dutch and the Spanish. But around here, it's
all about the French. Well, that's true. I mean, many of these
explorers' legacies are preserved in the
street system here. LaSalle's just two
blocks down the street. TRACY POTTER: That's
right, LaSalle, he's the one that named the
whole area Louisiana in honor of King Louis. OK, so land, obviously, was
the big prize that they were looking for over here-- and fur trading, of course. What else were they looking for? They needed Indian
allies, and so they were looking for alliances. Sure. Well, you aren't going
to get anything done here without cooperation
of the natives. This is great. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, so tell me a little
bit about Pierre La Verendrye's early life. Well, he was born in 1685
and Three Rivers, Quebec. He became a soldier at age 12. He was a cadet fighting
with his Indian allies against the English,
and he became a farmer. There he, he met and
married a young French girl. He raised a family. And at age 43 he got
a mid-life crisis, and that's when he
became a fur trader. You know, it was part of
the job of being a fur trader is to interact
with Indian peoples. SCOTT WOLTER: OK. TRACY POTTER: And one
of the things that's really fascinating about
this story, of course, is this "bearded white people." We're talking about
the Mandan, right? TRACY POTTER: Yes. SCOTT WOLTER: OK. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
Those bearded white people La Verendrye heard about
weren't white people at all. They were Native
Americans-- specifically members of the Mandan tribe. The reference to them as
"bearded white people" is because of a similarity and
rumored biological connection between them and the Welsh. It's not just a facial
resemblance, either. The Mandan boats look like
those used by the Welsh. Some people think
the similarities stem from a pre-Colombian voyage
by the Welsh to the Midwest, where the two groups intermixed. But it's a connection that
most historians, and Tracy, don't support. TRACY POTTER: La Verendrye
was the first contact that white people ever made
with the Mandan Indians, the [inaudible] Indians,
the Cheyenne Indians, and he and his sons were opening up
the Northern Great Plains. So really, Pierre La Verendrye
was 75 years or so before Lewis and Clark, who really
did the same mission, right? Yes, 66 years before
Lewis and Clark. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
When I investigated the mysterious death
of Meriwether Lewis, I learned that President
Jefferson asked the explorers to look for evidence
of the earlier contact by ancient Welshmen
as they traveled West. Is it possible French explorers
like Daniel Duluth and the La Verendryes removed
earlier stone land claims before laying down their own? And if that's the
case, they may have stolen America from the Welsh. So you said that Pierre
La Verendrye was working with the French government to
try to expand the fur trade business. Do you think that he could
also have been performing a secret mission, a
secret land claim mission? You know, the
possibility exists. Have you ever heard of
the La Verendrye Stone? No. Well, let me
show you something. This is an excerpt from a
Swedish botanist's memoirs, who met Pierre La Verendrye
towards the end of his life in 1749 in Montreal. And as the story goes, La
Verendrye had a few too many-- He was doing a lot
of that in those days. --and a slip of the tongue
that was recorded by this botanist who wrote down a story
that La Verendrye told him. Listen to this. "They found, on a large plain,
great pillars of stone leaning against each other." You know, there is one place
where, geologically, it matches these pillars
that are described. It's in Alberta, Canada. "At last, they
met a large stone, like a pillar, which was
covered on both sides with unknown characters called
Tartarian Script, from whence it was sent to the Count
of Maurepas in France." SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
The Count of Maurepas was a powerful French leader
skilled in military strategy, and a mastermind of
French intelligence. The question is, why
would La Verendrye be sending a stone with
strange inscriptions back to a powerful
politician in France? I think the La Verendrye family
and other French fur traders and explorers were, in essence,
the Count's secret agents. I think they may have had orders
to send back anything that would threaten France's
interests in the new world-- like land claims placed
by earlier explorers. Tartarian is an old Eastern
European script which resembles Scandinavian runes. Very similar to those on
the Kensington Runestone, and possibly other
early languages as well. If La Verendrye saw
Tartarian script on a stone, he'd naturally reach the
conclusion the French weren't the first ones here-- someone else made it to
the New World before them. So the Count of Maurepas
was definitely communicating with Mr. La Verendrye
about the fur trade, and apparently he
had another mission. Well, it's just remarkable. You know, not a biographer
has written about this. Nor would I expect
there to be anything if this was a secret mission. TRACY POTTER: Well, La Verendrye
himself never made it farther than Missouri, but he sent
his sons on further missions. They went down the Missouri,
they went into Wyoming, and then eventually they went
farther North into Canada. They set out West and
explored the rivers of Alberta and Saskatchewan. So it does put,
not La Verendrye, but his sons out there. They found this stone
and they brought it back to their father, who
then sent it to France. That stone could
be very important, because I'm thinking maybe it's
actually a medieval land claim stone. Maybe La Verendrye was
one of many explorers who was clearing out the
old and putting in the new. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
I'm investigating the idea that French fur traders
acted as secret agents for the French government. I believe Daniel Duluth, the guy
who the Minnesota city is named after, left this stone as
a land claim for France. Who knows, he might have made
off with someone else's earlier land claim, too. I'm trying to track down a
stone that was reportedly found by another French
Explorer, Pierre La Verendrye, and his family. Some think it could be proof
pre-Columbian explorers were here long before the French. An ancient journal suggests
La Verendrye sent that stone to his boss, Count of Maurepas,
in Paris, possibly eliminating it as a land claim so the
French could place their own. Turns out I'm not the first
to search for this stone. In 1911, someone connected
with the Minnesota Historical Society searched
museums in Paris for the La Verendrye Stone. But there's one place
he may not have looked-- the Church of Saint-Sulpice, a
breathtaking place of worship that La Verendrye's boss,
the Count of Maurepas, had a hand in designing. I think the church might
hold clues, or even the stone itself, so I need
to travel to France. There are no photos of
the La Verendrye Stone, but I do know something
about the writing on them. Supposedly, the
language on the stone is written in Tartarian, an
old Eastern European script, but I think it could just
as easily have been runes or another medieval language. It's easy to see how
someone could confuse runes with Tartatian. It's possible that the La
Verendrye Stone ended up here because of Count
of Maurepas' connection to this French church. Michel, thank you for taking
the time to meet with me today. SCOTT WOLTER: Tell me a little
bit about this amazing church. Does the church house
historical artifacts here? Oh, it does? SCOTT WOLTER: The reason
I'm asking about artifacts is because a French Explorer by
the name of Pierre La Verendrye who was placing his own land
claim plaques for France, and he reportedly found a stone
that had an inscription on it that some believe
was carved in runes, and sent here to Saint-Sulpice. So that's what I'm looking
for here in your church. What I believe is that La
Verendrye was looking for older land claims to
clear them out so he could put his own
French land claims down to claim the land
in North America. Do these look familiar
at all to you? SCOTT WOLTER: This is an
example of Tartarian script used by the Tartars going
back to ancient times. SCOTT WOLTER: All
right, well, this is reportedly what was on
the La Verendrye Stone. SCOTT WOLTER: It
makes a lot of sense to me that La Verendrye would
have sent the stone to Count de Maurepas, who must have
been his superior in some way, because he was reporting back
something that he had found that he believed might have
been a previous land claim. And if the French were trying
to stake out land in North America, obviously you
wouldn't want older land claims to usurp your land claims. Do you have any of de
Maurepas' papers here? SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
The French Revolution lasted a decade,
between 1789 and 1799. People were fed up with all
the power the aristocracy and the priests had. The revolution marked
the rise of democracy, but churches like Saint-Sulpice
were raided or ruined, and valuable artifacts were
lost, destroyed, or stolen-- perhaps even the
La Verendrye stone. Well, Michel, even if
that stone isn't here, I think there are
more clues out there, and I think that La Verendrye
was not only placing land claims for
France at that time, but he was also trying to
obliterate previous land claims laid by anybody who
came before him. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
I'm in Paris, searching for a legendary
stone that French explorers may have stolen from
America in the mid 1700s. I think the La Verendrye
Stone could prove ancient cultures
came to North America long before the French did. My investigation led
me to a French church, but I didn't find the
stone I'm looking for. What I did discover
was that many artifacts were lost, damaged or destroyed
during the French Revolution. Next I'm going to what I believe
is the scene of the crime, the place from where the La
Verendryes may have first encountered the stone with
the strange writing on it. Based on descriptions
in an old diary, I think the La Verendryes
may have stolen the rock from this place,
Writing-on-Stone Park in Canada. There are great stone
pillars everywhere, just like those
mentioned in the diary. If I'm lucky, there might be
similar carvings still here. The La Verendrye stone itself
was identified as containing Tartarian, an ancient East
European script with characters that look a lot like runes. Could the La Verendrye
Stone be proof that ancient Europeans, perhaps
the Welsh, made it to America and left a carved
rock as a land claim? I think French explorers
came looking for land claims, and once they found
them, removed the stones and left their own. That may have happened with
the recently discovered Duluth Stone, which I'm
having evaluated back at my lab for authenticity. I saw many Native
American carvings while I was walking
around the park. Unfortunately, none
of them resembled runes or Tartarian script,
the markings supposedly found on the La Verendrye Stone. But I'm hoping someone
from the local Blackfoot Tribe can help me find
clues I might be missing. JUANITA TALLMAN: Hi, Scott. Well, Juanita, I have to say,
this is stunningly beautiful, and I have to believe it's
probably a sacred place, is it not? It is a sacred place
for the Blackfoot people. So out of all of our territory,
this is the most sacred place. Well, the geology
is amazing as well. The softer rock which
creates these cliffs and these tall columns, I
think you call them Hoodoos? JUANITA TALLMAN: Yeah,
that's what we call them. The Blackfoot would actually
call them "Spirit Rocks." So when I was
hiking around here, I noticed that there's
a lot of petroglyphs. I did see a lot of what has
to be Blackfoot art here. Tell me a little bit about that. So we've got the largest
concentration of rock art in the plains of North America. SCOTT WOLTER: Really? And we have some of the most
unique rock art in the world. You know, we're talking
about carving in rock, and that's part of
the reason I'm here. There's a story that involves
a man by the name of Pierre La Verendrye. Pierre La Verendrye was
an early French Explorer. He reportedly sent his two sons
into this area trying to find a passage to the Pacific. Apparently they were
led by the Blackfoot, and it was here
that they reportedly found an inscribed
stone with what was called Tartarian script. And I have a couple of
examples of some of the script. If you look at these
characters, and then if you look at these
carved characters, which are Scandinavian runes, you
can see that the similarity is striking. JUANITA TALLMAN: Uh-huh. SCOTT WOLTER: Have you seen
anything like this around here at all? JUANITA TALLMAN: Well, just
seeing the lines on there, we've got many places that have
lines that are drawn in there, but due to erosion,
it's hard to pick out the details in some places. So it's possible there could
be some writing around here that could look like this? It's possible. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
Hearing that there could have been carvings similar to the
La Verendrye Stone in this part may be important. It makes me even
more convinced that pre-Colombian European
explorers made it here and left their mark. JUANITA TALLMAN: So
what do you think this stone was doing here? SCOTT WOLTER: I think it
was a very old land plain, and it was put at this
particular place for a reason. What I think La Verendrye's
sons were doing, I think they found
out about this, or knew about this
older land claim, and they came here
to clear it out and then bury lead plaques
for a more modern land claim, claiming land here for France. For us, you know, we
don't believe anyone really owns the land. We don't actually have
a term for ownership. That's a modern concept? JUANITA TALLMAN: Yes, it is. OK. Well, it's an old concept
to, to the white people, and that was the main mission
that La Verendrye was here for. So you mentioned
a lead plaque. Where is that? Well, La Verendrye buried a
lead plaque in South Dakota. And I've never
seen it, but there might be some clues
there, because that's what I think this is all about. It was about claiming
land, and in essence, trying to steal America. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
I'm exploring the question of whether French fur
traders and explorers were on a covert quest
to steal America. I think French explorers like
Pierre La Verendrye and Daniel Duluth may have removed
land claims placed by others and replaced them
with their own. This could explain the Duluth
Stone that I saw in Minnesota. If it's authentic, that
means Duluth carved it over 330 years ago, likely
to claim land for the French. I'm awaiting results
that could give me the answers I'm looking for. In La Verendrye's
case, I've got reason to believe his sons
found a stone carved in a mysterious language. I think they found it
at Writing-on-Stone Park and gave it to their father,
who sent it to a government official in France. I'm about to see a land
claim I know for sure that the La
Verendrye's did place-- it's here in South Dakota. A monument overlooking
the Missouri River now marks the spot where
the plaque was found, but the lead plaque itself is
preserved nearby at the South Dakota State Historical Society. SCOTT WOLTER: I'm very anxious
to take a look at this La Verendrye plaque, but I
have a question for you. Pierre, South Dakota, is
that named after Pierre La Verendrye? Well, let me correct
you right away. It's not pronounced "Pierre"
South Dakota, it's "Peer" South Dakota.
- OK. JAY D. VOGT: And
actually, the town was named after
Pierre Chouteau, who was a fur trader who had started
a fort up the river a ways. You know, I've learned an
awful lot about fur traders, including La Verendrye
and his four sons that were in this area. I just came from Canada,
as a matter of fact, where many people believe an
ancient land claim stone was found by La Verendrye's sons. But I'm here to look at
the La Verendrye plaque. Shall we take a look at it? Yeah, let's go. Come on. SCOTT WOLTER: So Jay, this is
the La Verendrye lead plaque. It's over 270 years
old now, right? JAY D. VOGT: Absolutely. It was placed in 1743. OK. It wasn't found until 1913. There were four kids that
are credited with being the discoverers, and they
were up with other kids up on this bluff overlooking
what's now the city of Fort Pierre, and I guess was a kind
of a common hangout for kids to be at. And one of the kids saw
this thing protruding out of the ground, went over and
kicked at it and picked it up and started brushing
it off, and noticed there was handwriting on it. And so they were
fascinated by it. One of the other kids took
it and brushed it off more, and saw the date, 1743. SCOTT WOLTER: So who placed it? Was it his sons, I would guess? JAY D. VOGT: Two of his sons,
Francois and Louis-Joseph, and they're the ones
who actually placed it. And we know that, because
on the reverse side of it is carved into the
metal their names and the date that
they placed it-- March 30, 1743. Does this represent
for South Dakota the oldest evidence of
European contact in the state? JAY D. VOGT: Yeah. It's the first physical
evidence of non-Indians being in South Dakota. And what does it
say on this side? JAY D. VOGT: Oh, it's stamped
on the one side into the lead, it's got the fleur de lis,
it's written in Latin, and it basically claims
the region for King Louis XV of France. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER): I
know enough about land claim practices to know that they
get placed at spots that grant the most amount of land. One reason I think the
Duluth Stone is a land claim is because it was found
on a Continental Divide. This meant all the land
to the North and South would belong to the country
of whoever placed the claim. For Daniel Duluth, that
country was France. If the La Verendrye plaque
is also a French land claim, then where it was placed
is also important. The placement of
this plaque, what's significant about its location? JAY D. VOGT: It's where the Bad
River flows into the Missouri River, and it provides a
great vantage point for France from the standpoint that it's
the Missouri River drainage system which feeds into the
Mississippi drainage system, and claiming this large and
geographic area for the, for the King of France. SCOTT WOLTER: This
particular plaque was one of maybe other plaques
that served as the foundation for what would eventually become
the Louisiana Purchase, right? JAY D. VOGT: Absolutely. The Louisiana Purchase is key
in the history of the United States, clearly. You know, France owned
the land for a long time. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
You can't underestimate the importance of the
Louisiana Purchase. When Thomas Jefferson signed
that deal with the French, he more than doubled the
size of the United States. Who knows what America
would look like today if that deal hadn't gone down. Well, Jay, I don't
think anybody's going to debate that this is
a land claim plaque placed by the La Verendrye party
claiming land for France that eventually became
the Louisiana Purchase. But there's also some evidence
that suggests that the La Verendrye party may have
traveled farther West and found an earlier land claim. La Verendrye told this
story that his sons found an inscribed stone at
the top of a pillar, and they gave it
to their father. So what happened to the stone? La Verendrye said he
put it on a ship to France to the Count de Maurepas, and
it's never been seen since. I think that this is
an older land claim. I think it's very important. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER): In
the end, the Count of Maurepas may be the only one who
really knows the truth about whether or not explorers
like the La Verendryes were in America stealing
other people's land claims and replacing them
with their own. Everything I've seen leads me
to believe that Daniel Duluth, the French fur trader who
came 60 years before the La Verendryes, may actually
have had the same mission. I suspect he may have been
sent to hunt down medieval land claims in Minnesota, like the
Kensington Runestone, which wasn't found until
the late 1800s. He may very well have found
one and removed it, then replaced it with
the Duluth Stone. I just want to
get back to my lab where tests are being
run that will hopefully solve this ancient mystery. My investigation into whether
early French explorers stole land claims and replaced
them with their own has taken place in
three countries-- here in the United States,
in France, and in Canada. I searched in vain for a
possibly medieval land claim that I believe the French stole. It's called the La
Verendrye Stone. It's documented in
historical records, and I think it was
shipped off to Paris, only to be lost in the
French Revolution. But there's one stone
that isn't lost-- the Duluth Stone, a
newly discovered boulder that could be a
missing land claim left by another French fur
trader, Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut. TOM BACKERUD: Hey, Scott. How are you doing? Good. How's the investigation going? Well, it's going pretty well. Although I have to
say, I've got good news and I've got bad news. The bad news is, I was not
able to find the La Verendrye Stone in France. It looks like the French
Revolution has something to do with it. All the archives
and artifacts were taken from Saint-Sulpice
church during the revolution, and who knows where they are. But I do have some good news. Take a look at this. What do you have for me? Well, I did a little
work on the Duluth Stone, and this relative age weathering
study worked out pretty good. There are some tombstones
in the same area, and I was able to get some
close up photographs here of the carved surfaces. Now, this is a tombstone that's
just under 100 years old, and see how sharp the edges are
on the grooves here at the top? Now take a look at
the Duluth Stone. This is the groove
right here, and notice how rounded the top edges are,
and the bottom of the groove is also very rounded? That's consistent with
lengthy weathering, and it's much different
than the tombstone which is only 100 years old. So when I look at
the weathering here, it looks consistent with
about 350 or so years. So in my mind, this
thing's genuine. Well, it matches the time that
Daniel Duluth was in the area. We know he was in
that area around 1679, so it definitely fits. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
Authenticating the Duluth Stone is a huge accomplishment. It's possibly the earliest
proof of a French land claim to America. It helps us know who
was where, and when. It also makes me question
Daniel Duluth's motives. He could have been hunting
for medieval land claims like the Kensington Runestone
to try and clear out evidence of who was here before-- whether he found any is
something we may never know. This thing being
genuine, I mean, doesn't it represent the oldest
tangible artifact of Europeans in Minnesota? TOM BACKERUD: Very likely. I mean, there wasn't really
any habitations or permanent European settlements
at this time, so I think this is
very significant. SCOTT WOLTER: You think
it is significant? I do, too. In fact, I think it's
really important-- not just for Minnesota
history, but American history. Let me show you something.
Come here. Sure, what do you have? Looks like ants. SCOTT WOLTER: This
is an ant farm, and ants are really
amazing creatures when you stop and think about it. I mean, the amount of
ground that they cover, and they're amazingly powerful. In fact, they can carry
objects five to ten times their own weight. OK, so what does this have to
do with the European explorers? Well, in my mind this serves
as an interesting analogy. I mean, these guys
are working hard, and really, they're answering
to the queen, right? Just like these French
explorers were working over here in North America and
answering to the French crown. La Verendrye and Duluth were
burying land claims stones and clearing out the old ones
to try and steal American. SCOTT WOLTER (VOICEOVER):
After everything I've seen and all the places I've been,
I'm more convinced than ever that French fur traders
and explorers in America were here looking for a lot more
than beaver pelts to send back to France. I think they were looking
for land claims that might jeopardize their own. Just like ants in my lab, they
were working for someone-- not a queen, but a king,
King Louis of France, looking for ways his
country could get a leg up on the competition to claim
land in what's now the U.S. In the end, the
calculations of the French may have led to the
prosperity of Americans. After all, the
vast amount of land they claimed they sold to us
in the Louisiana Purchase, creating what is now
the United States. Now, with one stone
lost and another found, we at least have a better
handle on what I think could be our true history. If you have a mysterious
artifact or site I need to see, I want to know about it. Go to History.com/Unearthed.
