L'Anse Aux Meadows
The park has the first historic traces of a European presence in the Americas, the ruins of a
Norse settlement from the 11th century, with wooden and earth houses similar to those found in
Norway. According to the Sagas, in 985-6 Bjarni Herjolfsson was blown off course from his trip
to Greenland and spotted Newfoundland. In 995-996, Lief Eriksson went looking for this land
and described Vinland. Thorfinn Karlsefin and Thovald Eriksson led an expedition to find
Vinland and established a village for 3 years in what is now L'Anse Aux Meadows. While there
the first child born to Europeans on the North American continent was born: Snorri
Thorbrandsson.
A Norwegian team in 1960, led by Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad discovered the site while
searching for Vinland, the first Viking settlement in North America. Helge met a local
fisherman, George Decker, who showed him what locals thought was an aboriginal camp.
Excavation of the site later discovered the Viking settlement. During the 1920s, Newfoundland
author W.A.Munn in his book "the Wineland Voyages" first suggested the L'Anse aux Meadows
area might be the site of the Norse Saga's Vinland.