After spending the day having Scott Wolter lecture me about why I am a basement-dwelling troll whose arrogance and close-minded bullying have only served to "harden [his] resolve" to oppose me, I'm not feeling particularly excited about spending another hour on one of Wolter's conspiracies. And yet here we are. BackgroundThis episode of America Unearthed is an adaptation and expansion of chapter 4 of Scott Wolter’s 2013 book Akhenaten to the Founding Fathers, and as such it requires us to accept a great deal of Wolter’s conspiratorial thinking in order to understand the new layers of conspiracy he lays atop the old. Regular readers will remember that Wolter’s original conspiracy and claim to fame revolves around his examination of the Kensington Rune Stone, a nineteenth century carving found in Minnesota that claims to be a medieval text documenting the voyage of “8 Götalanders and 22 Northmen” who traveled west from Vinland in 1362. As most of you know, Wolter believes that the stone is genuinely medieval but rejects the plain reading of the stone’s text. Instead, based on a secret code that only he can see—involving dots punched in the stone—he has “revealed” to his own satisfaction that the stone actually is a land claim marking the Mississippi watershed as the property of the Knights Templar, who had been forcibly disbanded in 1312, following the suppression of the order in 1307. Ultimately, the only warrant for his claim is a piece of testimony from Jean de Châlons, a Templar brother hauled before Pope Clement V and the papal court at Poitiers in June 1308. Under torture, Jean told the papal investigators that some of the Templars under Brother Gerard de Villiers had “set out to sea with eighteen galleys” the night before authorities raided the Templars in 1307. The trouble is that the word used for “galleys”--gallea—is a borrowing from the Byzantine Greek meaning a small boat with oars, not the ocean-going galleons that the term would refer to only after 1520. The Templars certainly did not row to America. Jean’s testimony is otherwise suspect since he told under torture other obvious untruths, such as his claim to have run a Templar prison where he put to death any Templar who failed to deny Christ. This text, unknown to Wolter, is not a secret. It’s in the Vatican Secret Archives in the Registra Avenionensia (48, f450r) and published (in Latin) in easily accessed books. (By the way: Don’t believe the fictitious version of the text that originated, as best I can tell, on the long-ago Mystae website sometime in the 1990s; it interpolates quite a bit of false text.) No other text speaks of any Templar flight by sea, or any trans-Atlantic voyages at all. Similarly, there is no record of the Templars writing in runes or pretending be Norsemen. Scott Wolter presented his Templar-land claim theory to a national TV audience in the History Channel documentary Holy Grail in America, the predecessor to America Unearthed. According to Wolter, shortly after the program aired, a man named Daryl Johnson called to tell him about a boulder located in Pine County, Minnesota, inscribed crudely with the words “Du Luth 1679.” Although most experts who have seen the stone consider the inscription a hoax, even taking it at face value would change nothing about history since Daniel Greysolon, the Sieur du Lhut, is known to have explored the area between 1678 and 1682. (In the book Wolter gives Greysolon’s title as though it were part of his given name.) However, the Duluth stone uses an English spelling of his name, Du Luth, not found in the explorer’s extant papers, where Greysolon signed his name as “Dulhut.” That said, contemporaries of Greysolon did sometimes spell his title as “Du Luth,” alongside “du Lud,” “du Lude,” “du Lhut,” and “Dulhut.” Don’t even ask about the variations in the spelling of Greysolon. Anyway, the spelling “du Luth” became standard due to its adoption by French Canada and its successor, the Province of Quebec, in whose archives he is so styled. Greysolon’s anglicized name, Duluth, became the moniker for the Minnesota town of that name when in the 1850s George E. Nettleton read of the “Du Luth” version of the name in an English translation of a French Jesuit work about early explorers and found the name fitting. Later, J. Proctor Knott would deliver a famous speech about Duluth satirically claiming the name had a “peculiar and indescribable charm…the name for which my soul had panted for years.” For Scott Wolter, though, the Duluth Stone is something more. Because it features small indentations that he reads as punch marks akin to those of the Kensington Rune Stone, he sees the two as connected—with the Duluth Stone marking some sort of relationship to the Templars and, of course, to the cult of Mary Magdalene. For Wolter, punch marks are symbols of the sun and an acknowledgement of God, necessarily small and crude because “carving a circle would be time consuming,” so a quick punch stands for the circle of the sun disk in occult writings. Nowhere in Akhenaten to the Founding Fathers, though, did Wolter suggest that Greysolon was trying to take over a Templar land claim. All of that said, this investigation into the Duluth Stone also represents something of an evolution of America Unearthed in terms of Total Brand Awareness, intentional or not. Scott Wolter’s famous backpack is provided by Duluth Trading Company, which has also been an advertiser on America Unearthed. By investigating the Duluth Stone, the show effectively integrates the brand’s name as part of the mystery, promoting it much more effectively than earlier episodes promoted personal submarines. The EpisodeSegment 1 We open amidst rocky hills where Scott Wolter is climbing on rocks amidst floating on-screen captions asking if the French were in America on a secret mission to steal America. The opening credits roll, and we’re off to an undisclosed location near Duluth, Minnesota, that Wolter reported on in his book but doesn’t want to reveal here. Wolter gives a potted history of French North America, and as he travels on a motorcycle he tells us that the French didn’t come to America to trap fur but rather to steal other people’s land claims. Wolter pretends to go hunting for the “recently discovered” Duluth Stone, which he wrote about in 2013 based on observations of the stone he made back in 2009. As I reported above, the stone is crudely carved. Tom Backerud, a local historian and author of the Minnesota Encyclopedia article on Greysolon, joins Wolter—without apparently having any trouble finding the site; he just walks up. Wolter and Backerund give a potted history of Greysolon’s adventures, which took him to the site of modern Duluth in 1679. Wolter chooses to refer to Greysolon (as I am calling him for clarity) as Daniel Duluth, conflating his Christian name and his title. Wolter tells Backerund that the Duluth Stone is a land claim, and that a rock like this would therefore claim all of the land connected by rivers from the site. Wolter claims that the rock marks a land claim to the rivers flowing north and south of the continental divide running through Duluth. I have no idea why he believes that land claim stones grant ownership to all of the watersheds meeting at a continental divide (which, it ought to be realized, explorers would not have been able to map). The only references I can find to such a claim are in books written by Scott Wolter, specifically The Hooked X. Wolter tells Backerund that the Kensington Rune Stone is also a land claim made by the Templars. Wolter claims that fifty years after Greysolon, another explorer he misnames as Pierre La Vérendrye, more properly Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (Wolter does not understand French titles), found yet a third stone that Wolter interprets as a land claim, and he plans to find this stone. Segment 2 After an on-screen and verbal recap, Wolter tests the Duluth Stone for age and goes in search of the stone, which is known only from a secondhand 1748 account by the Swedish scientist Pehr Kalm in his Travels to North America: At last they met with a large stone like a pillar, and in it a smaller stone was fixed, which was covered on both sides with unknown characters. This stone, which was about a foot of French measure in length, and between four and five inches broad, they broke loose, and carried to Canada with them, from whence it was sent to France, to the Secretary of State, Count de Maurepas. What became of it afterwards they know not, but think it is preserved in his collection. Several of the Jesuits who have seen and handled this stone in Canada unanimously affirm, that the letters on it are the same with those which, in the books containing accounts of Tataria, are called Tatarian characters; and on comparing both together they found them perfectly alike. Notwithstanding the questions which the French on the S. Sea expedition asked the people there, concerning the time when and by whom these pillars were erected, what their traditions and sentiments concerning them were, who wrote the characters, what was meant by them, what kind of letters they were, in what language they were written, and other circumstances, they could never get the least explication… Wolter’s idea is that the so-called Vérendrye Runestone was purposely removed from the future United States to eliminate a Templar land claim. Wolter discusses the history of Vérendrye, and in discussing Vérendrye’s views on lost white races, Wolter reverses his earlier episode on the Mandan’s claims about Welsh Indians and concedes that they were almost certainly not white Europeans. However, he still falsely claims that Thomas Jefferson ordered Lewis and Clark to look for evidence of white colonization, particularly Welsh. No such order survive. Wolter thinks that Vérendrye, in stealing the stone, covered up Welsh colonizations. Wolter thinks that Vérendrye sent the stone to the French Secretary of State because the Count de Maurepas was masterminding a secret mission. This is quite funny because explorers collected artifacts all the time to decorate the museums and palaces of Europe. The Habsburgs had one of the greatest collections of such artifacts, most of which are still house at the Hofburg. The image of the so-called “Tartarian language” he implies comes from the stone is no such thing. It’s the runiform Old Hungarian alphabet, and has nothing to do with the stone, which was never seen. “Tartarian” is not a language; it was a catch-all term for anything from the northern parts of Asia, derived from old medieval terminology. Segment 3 Wolter recaps his assertions, but he has failed to provide any evidence whatsoever that the stone is a land claim, or, frankly, that it existed. Wolter flies to France to visit the Church of Saint-Sulpice, associated with the Count de Maurepas. En route, he explains why he thinks the “Tartarian” characters (never recorded) are really Norse runes, though he doesn’t specify which of the many runic alphabets he means. There is more than one. The claim that the stone’s characters are Norse runes originates with Hjalmar Holand, a Kensington Rune Stone researcher who was casting about for any sort of supporting evidence to bolster his claims for that stone’s authenticity. To accept the claim is to accept that the inscription exists, that by Tartarian the Old Hungarian runiform alphabet was meant, and that no one paid much mind to which was which. In France Wolter learns that the church was built in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and that it houses many artifacts, such as a giant sea-shell from the South Pacific. However, he learns that the French Revolution devastated the church’s collections. Segment 4
After a verbal recap, Wolter is off to Alberta, to the Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, which he believes is the site where Vérendrye found the stone. (It is a reasonable possibility.) He nonsensically claims that the Tartarian inscription is really runes and therefore marks a Welsh (!) land claim. I don’t understand this since the Welsh didn’t use runes; their enemies, the Anglo-Saxons did. At the park, Wolter sees rock art, and the geometrical forms of this rock art is a reasonable facsimile of the supposed Tartarian writing. However, Wolter reverses the conclusion and tells a member of the Blackfoot tribe that some of their rock art is likely European writing. Therefore, he tells the baffled woman that Vérendrye was trying to “steal America” from the Welsh and/or Templars. The Blackfoot park interpreter tells Wolter that Native peoples don’t believe in ownership of land. The implication she makes, of course, is that Native Americans were already living where his colonial fantasy of Europeans stealing America from other Europeans was supposedly happening. Not that this is particularly relevant, but I noticed that the commercials this episode are largely infomercials for diet pills, credit problems, etc., and these advertisers pay the very least of all. Is there trouble at America Unearthed? It is unusual to have so many low-paying advertisements in a first-run show. Segment 5 After a verbal recap, Wolter is now in South Dakota, spinning wild fantasy based on facts he failed to establish—namely, that there were pre-Columbian land claim stones, or, frankly, that post-Columbian land claim systems were in use in the High Middle Ages. This seems unlikely to me since Europeans weren’t in the habit of colonizing what they considered unoccupied territory before the exploration of North America. Wolter visits the spot where Vérendrye placed a lead plaque to claim land for France, and he takes a look at the plaque. Wolter repeats his claim that placing a stone on a continental divide lays claim to all of the land connected to every river flowing from it, though I am at a loss to understand where that idea comes from other than Wolter’s own earlier work asserting that the Kensington Rune Stone functions as a land claim because it is on such a divide. Segment 6 After another set of recaps, Wolter concedes that he did not find the Vérendrye stone, though he falsely claims that the stone is documented in “historical records” rather than the truth: that it has only been hearsay in one botanist’s book. Back at his lab, Wolter tells Backerund that he examined the Duluth Stone using relative dating techniques. Because the Duluth Stone appears more weathered than century-old tombstones, it is therefore 350 years old. Wolter does not explain why Vérendrye claimed land for Louix XV but Greysolon marked land in his own name. As I said above, most experts think the stone is a fake, but finding Greysolon’s name in a place where he was known to have been is not really changing history. Wolter shows Backerund an ant farm, and he tells the baffled historian that French explorers were like ants reporting to their queen, replacing older land claim stones with French ones. As always, even taking all of Wolter’s “facts” at face value, they fail to support his conclusions since there is no evidence whatsoever that any rock was a pre-Columbian land claim stone, of French knowledge of such claims, or of shipments of them back to France.
150 Comments
Dan
12/27/2014 02:18:56 pm
The absolutely sheer unadulterated gall of telling a Native American woman to her face that the French were "stealing America" from the Welsh or the Norse/Templars is absolutely mind boggling.
Reply
T
12/27/2014 02:45:23 pm
Property? That's a white guy thing..
Reply
RLewis
12/27/2014 03:26:59 pm
That was hilarious. "We don't have a word for ownership". SW: "Don't worry, I'm never going to try to prove that your people ever owned any of this land".
Reply
Varika
12/28/2014 01:22:27 pm
...yeah, sorry, I will NEVER AGAIN even remotely entertain the notion that Wolter is not overtly racist. Since he has demonstrated ON CAMERA some extremely overt and particularly disrespectful racism.
Reply
silverfish
12/29/2014 04:46:06 am
That was appalling.
Reply
EP
12/30/2014 08:25:51 am
My favorite windmill designer and erstwhile poster on this blog, has come to Wolter's defense on this issue:
Reply
Dan
12/30/2014 05:12:02 pm
I sort of feel bad for the guy. After facing so much ridicule over here, he finally laid out his ideas for Wolter and got rejected. He's tries so hard but must be one of the dumbest people to ever grace the fringe world.
EP
12/30/2014 05:25:31 pm
Did you pick up on Scott Wolter coining a wonderful neologism: "multi-international organization"? :)
T
12/31/2014 05:03:39 am
The blind leading the blind, then one refuses to follow. That is sad..
T
12/31/2014 05:06:12 am
Where's his inane website you tried to decipher?
EP
12/31/2014 05:49:02 am
For the turbines:
Dan
12/31/2014 06:56:18 am
And here is the sharpie map:
EP
12/31/2014 08:13:56 am
Now I'm craving goat curry. Dammit, Dan! :)
BOHALL
10/26/2015 10:54:49 am
The French became important to America in the 1500s as Huguenots engaged in trade with Spanish settlements in the Caribbean ~
Quote: "After spending the day having Scott Wolter lecture me about why I am a basement-dwelling troll whose arrogance and close-minded bullying have only served to "harden [his] resolve" to oppose me, I'm not feeling particularly excited about spending another hour on one of Wolter's conspiracies. And yet here we are."
Reply
Only Me
1/12/2015 05:03:46 pm
"I could spend years blasting and finding fault with everything you have presented in Documentation printed hundreds of years ago."
Americanegro
8/22/2016 05:01:15 pm
"If a document is in the Vaticans Secret Archives then how would anyone know about it? If its Secret?"
C
5/20/2015 10:31:20 am
Hubby (Native) laughed so hard over this episode, he snorted an entire coffee out his nose. He also wonders (and so do I) how SW can breath with his head lodged so far up his a$$. We are both concerned about his severe case of recto-cranial inversion. The cherry on top was the Blackfoot woman trying desperately not to laugh.
Reply
CHV
12/27/2014 02:25:01 pm
While I have no quibbles about the notion of 18th century North American land claim jumping, once again Scott presents a lot of conjecture in this episode, but zero hard proof. As usual, even more concerning is Wolter's apparent belief that that's okay.
Reply
EP
12/27/2014 02:33:30 pm
I'm pretty sure that's what he means by "the spirit of adventure" :)
Reply
CHV
12/27/2014 02:56:47 pm
In corporate America there's a common saying that goes "Perception is reality." Unfortunately, in many offices, this is true despite the very real risk that the perception in question may be: a) wrong, or; b) absolutely baseless.
EP
12/27/2014 03:00:57 pm
Hmmm... Christopher Loring Knowles? :)
T
12/27/2014 02:52:47 pm
Some of his most misleading "proof" we're the examples of the similarity of the alleged "runes" and the Tartartic (or whatever) writing. Plainly made up, both of them, in order to look uncannily similar but made from whole cloth. It's not like he got those demonstratives from anywhere, but were manufactured for the purpose of being similar for the show.
Reply
SaraKate
12/27/2014 02:27:07 pm
A simple Wikipedia search also found that the "lost" Verendrye stone is believe to have been destroyed at Rouen during WWII.
Reply
EP
12/27/2014 02:31:22 pm
The Ants stole America from the Giants!!!
Reply
T
12/27/2014 02:58:52 pm
Nobody seems to want to talk about who stole "America" from the ants. That's the original sin. Let's talk "big picture" and not quibble about details.
EP
12/27/2014 03:08:24 pm
Their idyllic worldis gone forever.
T
12/27/2014 02:31:59 pm
The formula of this show to spin a tale on a foundation of BS is so transparent, it's mindboggling that SW has any real "defenders." To sum up, SW finds a questionable carved rock that, taken at face value, doesn't change conventional historical wisdom. Then he meets with some guy and pulls out hearsay memoirs from God knows when that that guy even disputes--the Frenchman in question could not have gone and found what SW says he did based on the "memoirs." So SW not too subtly modifies his theory--"it must have been his sons!" Segment after segment, these "theories" are communicated in increasingly exaggerated form: "what if," "I believe," "some people believe," "many people believe," and so on. By the end, SWs pet theory is all but established and any lack of evidence (there is none) can simply be chalcked up to the "secrecy" of the mission, "which is to be expected." Patently bogus stuff.
Reply
CHV
12/27/2014 02:41:35 pm
What was even funnier about Scott's use of the ant farm as a metaphor to back his argument was someone's decision (a producer, most likely) to put a blanket over the tank, and shoot Wolter dramatically pulling it away as if revealing some greater truth.
Reply
T
12/27/2014 02:47:41 pm
I would approve it it had been a copy of Aliens dvd.
TonyD
12/27/2014 02:56:25 pm
Ants, wow. LOL.
Reply
WHERE ARE THE SACRED BEE????????
12/27/2014 06:54:58 pm
Ants are just ants.
Reply
JM
12/27/2014 02:56:32 pm
How sad you spend all of your time grousing over everything Scott Wolter does instead of sharing any wisdom you may have... speaks volumes about the lack of wisdom and information you actually do have.
Reply
T
12/27/2014 03:00:30 pm
Thanks for that insight. Very helpful.
Reply
EP
12/27/2014 03:01:35 pm
All of our time! ALL of it!!!
Reply
T
12/27/2014 03:02:17 pm
I don't think wisdom means what you think it means..
Reply
SaraKate
12/27/2014 03:05:13 pm
Hey. I did share my wisdom, carefully gleaned from Wikipedia.
Reply
Pauly_j
12/28/2014 04:47:15 am
Wikipedia is the worst possible source of any kind of information-period!
EP
12/28/2014 04:51:43 am
That's too harsh. Wikipedia has its uses, as long as one knows how to approach it.
SaraKate
12/28/2014 06:37:42 am
Noooooo, I"m pretty sure that the worst source of information happens to be our friend SW. Wikipedia is frequently more accurate than he.
EP
12/28/2014 06:56:11 am
Given some of Pauly_j's comments below, you shouldn't be suprised :)
T
12/27/2014 03:27:24 pm
To be clear, my "wisdom" is that this show is blatantly full of cr@p.
Reply
EP
12/27/2014 03:49:40 pm
Truly you are wise!
TonyD
12/27/2014 03:51:24 pm
Scott?
Reply
T
12/27/2014 03:56:15 pm
May have been. Like us in the "basement," we know he doesnt sleep at night. He can't.
EP
12/27/2014 04:03:54 pm
http://www.martialactivist.org/filez/images/big-tigger.jpg
RLewis
12/27/2014 03:01:36 pm
The Blackfoot woman explains that there are many stones with writing in the Writing-on-Stone Park. SW assures her that while this unseen rock came from the same area - it had different, special, white-man land-claim writing. BTW - After they stole this land claim rock, why did they not replace it was their own land claim rock (wasn't that the idea)?
Reply
T
12/27/2014 03:08:12 pm
Totally agree. In any event, if one can date a carving on the face of a rock as being around 350 years old (I wonder where he got that number?) to gashes on the Side of one allegedly 100 year old tombstone, I would be very surprised. A lot of potential problems with that come to mind.
Reply
SaraKate
12/27/2014 03:16:49 pm
I was wondering, did I miss something about where the tombstone pic was from? I mean, if it wasn't next door to the Duluth stone and also made from the same stone, I don't see how the weathering in one relates to the other.
T
12/27/2014 03:22:47 pm
I think what you missed, we all missed. As I recall, he just said he "took these pictures" of a tombstone. Not much else.
Rlewis
12/27/2014 03:28:40 pm
He stated that it came from the same area.
Rick
12/29/2014 01:57:17 am
I wonder if he authenticated that tombstone? My great grandfathers uncle died in 1890. When I was a teen and doing a little genealogy, I asked my dad why it looked brighter than the rest, like it's been cleaned or taken care of. He told me that for whatever reason there wasn't a tombstone there at all for about 40 years but that he didn't know I would need to ask my grandfather, who said he couldn't remember why it wasn't placed for such a long time.
EP
12/27/2014 03:04:38 pm
I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.
Reply
LTFMGP
12/27/2014 03:14:12 pm
holy shit, this cracked me up
Reply
T
12/27/2014 03:18:33 pm
It would be funny except for the lack of ant land claim carved in rock proving their original claim. As you know from the show, there is no legitimate claim or the like without some rock, existent or not, that we can at least speak to. Alas, I fear for the ants rightful place in history.
EP
12/27/2014 03:53:29 pm
I bet the rock is hidden at the South Pole.
T
12/27/2014 04:02:30 pm
Great point re ANTarctica, EP. I see no proof that that is not correct; ergo, it must be true. To back that point further, as i recall, the "Marco Polo" maps disclosed such a land mass. That knowledge must have come from somewhere. Thus since we now know it's incorrect to think the ants did not claim ANTarctica, the ants must have been the originators of that land mass from those questionable maps. As such, I believe we've just proved the proposition! And history has been wrong all along!!,
EP
12/27/2014 04:06:38 pm
I hereby award myself an Honorary Doctorate in ANTropology!
T
12/27/2014 04:13:47 pm
Now we have to prove the Chinese have nothing to do with China town in American cities. Then we'll all deserve a punch in the face!
tm
12/27/2014 05:17:59 pm
Don't forget about Antlantis.
EP
12/28/2014 03:33:58 am
More like ANT-lantis, am I right?
tm
12/28/2014 04:21:52 am
Yes, the ANT-agonist of ancient Greece. :)
EP
12/28/2014 04:32:11 am
A superpower of the ANT-ediluvian world!
Only Me
12/28/2014 04:38:41 am
The ANT-ecedent of all lost civilizations.
Jason D.
12/28/2014 01:52:24 pm
"I hereby award myself an Honorary Doctorate in ANTropology!"
EP
12/28/2014 02:07:33 pm
Two creams, two sugars, please.
Only Me
12/27/2014 03:37:58 pm
So, every rock with carvings, scratches, markings of any kind are land claims. Got it.
Reply
T
12/27/2014 03:41:08 pm
And any corroborating evidence, which would probably make more sense than leaving a rock sitting somewhere where no one has supposedly ever been (minus natives), simply does not exist. Got it.
Reply
EP
12/27/2014 03:55:16 pm
Sacrebleu!!!
Reply
Clint Knapp
12/27/2014 05:05:42 pm
I guess now is a good time to point out that I've personally carved my name and the date into several flint and limestone cliff faces overlooking the Mississippi River over the years. Some of these even have punch-mark holes nearby; hundreds of them! Obviously, I now own the entire Mississippi River and all surrounding watershed land.
Reply
Only Me
12/27/2014 11:47:17 pm
Seems legit.
EP
12/28/2014 03:35:15 am
I shall never abandon the lands of my ANTcestors!
SouthCoast
12/30/2014 03:45:22 pm
The only scratchy rock on my property is the small boulder I hung my F-150 up on several years ago. Which means, I guess, that I am now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ford Motors, Templar Division.
Reply
American Negro
8/22/2016 05:08:41 pm
Who writes a land claim in only one language?
Reply
T
12/27/2014 03:43:26 pm
Did anyone notice when SW was looking at the apparent Native American rock carvings in Alberta the cross in the circle and the hooked X?
Reply
tm
12/29/2014 03:36:40 am
Shhhhh! Don't say anything! We don't want "you know who" to take them to court for violating his trademark.
Reply
EP
12/29/2014 05:26:49 pm
Too bad it lapsed already.
Clete
12/27/2014 06:09:02 pm
I am not fooled. After watching Scott Wolter pretending to wander in the woods and miracle or miracles find the "Duluth Stone" (Carved by a French-Canadian not in French, but in English). I know who carved the stone...It was a Big Foot hired by the Duluth trading company. 1679 is the price of the stone.
Reply
Only Me
12/27/2014 06:23:47 pm
"Carving a land claim in an ordinary flannel shirt."
Reply
Screaming Eagle
12/28/2014 12:38:02 pm
I just started going through the comments a day late and Only Me beat me to it, well done sir! (or Ma'am, sorry, gender is not clear)
Only Me
12/28/2014 07:40:40 pm
Thanks, Eagle! Glad you liked it. I just couldn't resist!
EP
12/29/2014 01:41:19 am
Yeah, it was pretty good.
JJ
12/27/2014 06:16:08 pm
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Celeron_de_Bienville's_Expedition?rec=494
Reply
Scott Hamilton
12/28/2014 10:38:17 am
Not exactly. The expedition was designed to strengthen France's pre-existing claim on the Ohio Valley, by leaving theoretically permanent features behind, not to claim the land itself. That's the point. There has to be a legal document somewhere to originate the claim, or else there's isn't much of a point in leaving markers behind.
Reply
Rick
12/28/2014 12:39:50 pm
This is a thought I share. Leaving a rock in the woods as a land claim is a sure fire way to claim something in a way that hardly anybody will be able to find. I feel as though there would have to be a corresponding document that lists the claims and said markers. Without it why even bother? I want to research this more but don't have the time.
correction
12/27/2014 07:09:48 pm
a-t-l-ANT-i-s
Reply
Tom Sensken
12/27/2014 08:50:58 pm
Why did he make this awkward ant analogy? Being a minion to a King/Queen/Dictator/President is not a french thing ...
Reply
Of Luth
12/27/2014 11:53:42 pm
du = of 1619 or 1679?
Reply
Only Me
12/28/2014 12:05:08 am
No. The inscription was arranged like this:
Reply
Of Luth
1/7/2015 07:30:59 am
i am a purist. after thinking thru the AVM stone as to its presumed
EP
1/7/2015 09:40:18 am
Thinking? "."? LOL
Only Me
1/12/2015 05:09:46 pm
There never was, nor has been, a "Luth".
nelson
12/28/2014 02:21:30 am
The idea of a land claim covering all the land of a river system may have came from the description of the land 'owned' by the Hudson Bay Company.
Reply
Marius
12/28/2014 03:00:01 am
I think that this was an Adam West Batman plot.
Reply
12/28/2014 03:36:55 am
There was an episode of "Get Smart" about a similar story, in which the U.S. government panics when it realizes that Columbus's heir owns the deed to America.
Reply
Salt
12/28/2014 06:03:36 am
Don't give Wolter any ideas. He'll start using Mel Brooks as a historical source--after all,he's the Thousand Year Old Man and was there.
Harry
12/28/2014 03:59:29 am
The idea that some incidental traveler can claim land that is already inhabited by someone else by carving a stone inscription reminds me of a scene in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (yeah, I see the irony, too) in which Arthur explains to a peasant that he is king because the Lady of the Lake reached out her hand and gave him Excalibur, and the peasant shoots back that "you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!"
Reply
Lost Templar Freemason Giant Pirate
12/28/2014 04:52:41 am
I wonder if he will post a thread on his blog for this episode. Even he must realize the stupidity of the Ant conclusion. If he does, I hope he gets raked over the coals for it.
Reply
Pauly_j
12/28/2014 04:53:50 am
I can't believe you let scott and this show rent this much space in your head Jason, I'm not a lover of pseudo-archeology either but WOW WTF dude? Get a life! Your pitiful, and if you disagree with his assessments then put forth your own and look intelligent for once!
Reply
EP
12/28/2014 04:58:45 am
Jason includes his own assessments of the balance of evidence in his discussions, inlcuiding this very blog post. You may want to try reading it again, concentrating this time.
Reply
Pauly_j
12/28/2014 05:24:34 am
I've read it twice now, and all he does is refute Scott's info, where's his theories?Possibly your you threw your mouth into gear before engaging your brain? Either way anyone that spends their entire days and nights refuting a TV show of this type is even worse of a loser and Scott ever will be. And I don't buy into anything so don't put me on that bandwagon either
Only Me
12/28/2014 05:29:05 am
Get 'im, EP! Show 'im your hardened....uh....resolve!
EP
12/28/2014 05:44:40 am
Only Me, are you being sarcastic? Or did you mean "Pauly_j"? :)
Only Me
12/28/2014 05:49:59 am
Just kidding, EP. I can't stop laughing every time I think about what Scott said.
EP
12/28/2014 05:53:17 am
Don't you start, Mr. "Does Size Matter, Rev.?" :P
Only Me
12/28/2014 06:10:11 am
Yeah....
EP
12/28/2014 06:23:12 am
Remember: The really big ones are cheaper in Brazil! :P 12/28/2014 07:03:06 am
Pauly, if Wolter's information is all wrong, as you concede, what do you need a "theory" for? If the stones aren't what he says they are, there is no "mystery" to solve. But if you're interested in reading about my own evaluations, try buying one of my books, like "Jason and the Argonauts through the Ages," where I put forward my ideas on the origins of a famous Greek myth.
j*a*d
12/29/2014 04:15:46 am
the flip side of the coin is that Scott Wolter is good about
.
12/29/2014 04:30:10 am
If there any possibility that Scott Wolter thinks that the KRS was
SaraKate
12/28/2014 06:41:12 am
I'm pretty sure that once each show is over, Jason doesn't give SW another thought. I, for one, have found this blog to be invaluable in offering fairly well-researched facts that ARE Jason's assessments. I'd venture to guess, given the vitriol spewed forth by SW towards Jason, that SW rents a lot more space in his head to Jason than Jason does to SW.
Reply
Screaming Eagle
12/28/2014 12:49:15 pm
Agreed!
KM
12/28/2014 05:10:07 am
we have been watching this man in sheer disbelief at his reasoning, how has he made these conclusions, we have to watch it now as its like watching a freak show, you want to look away, but you know something worse is about to come.the trouble is some people might think he is an educated man, and believe this trollope is fact, when in fact its the ramblings of a man on the verge of insanity, similar to the British man David Icke who suddenly declared he was sent by God.
Reply
Dan
12/28/2014 05:16:57 am
In that vein, search America Unearthed on twitter and gasp in horror as a large number of people buy into his nonsense. Although, I have to say after last night, quite a few people also tweeted the opposite. His ignorant insult of the Native American woman did not sit well with quite a few people.
Reply
Only Me
12/28/2014 05:37:05 am
I'm detecting a trend. First, "In Search of Aliens" uses material from Jan Van Helsing, then "Search for the Lost Giants" embraces the Mound Builder theory. Now, Scott blatantly insults a Native American to her face, in favor of his Eurocentric fantasies.
Reply
Pauly_j
12/28/2014 05:58:45 am
EP, considering I'm doing all this through my iPhone, and I have a life and I'm out living it now, I don't need good English skills while using an iPhone! But you go ahead and go on keep changing the subject of Jason never putting forth his own theories. Anyone can sit around and just refute refute refute. It shows nothing at all as far as dispelling anything when you can't put forth any information. The funny thing is I just popped on here after finding this site, I don't buy into anything on the history channel, I'm smiling here realizing though that I do not know everything. And without a Time Machine-neither do you Butthole! And so since I only popped on here to read a bunch of people make fun of another guy who's making millions of dollars more than any of you jackasses, what does that say about you guys? LOL... Enjoy knowing the fact that I won't be back to read any stupid crap that you have to say, you should revel in the idea that I just shit all over your face dumbass, and I'm laughing hardest and I'm laughing last.
Reply
EP
12/28/2014 06:04:56 am
Look at Paul_j, everybody! He is too cool to use proper English! His life is just that rich and exciting!
Reply
Only Me
12/28/2014 09:16:09 am
Since Pauly won't be back, I can't resist dissecting this scintillating example of a troll.
Reply
EP
12/28/2014 09:26:15 am
"Is that a Hot Carl joke?"
Jeanne
12/28/2014 12:54:53 pm
Pauli....bingo...you got it right...it is about money....making up stupid crap for gullible people to believe ...and be privy to conspiriracy, to be " in the know".....what's to say about " another theory"....if you tell me a story about unicorns living on Mars and the secret horse rituals with Mars fairies, I say " horse pucky". Period. Because the premise is nuts
Reply
Harry
12/28/2014 01:42:28 pm
Pauly,
Reply
EP
12/28/2014 02:09:09 pm
That's just what a BUTTHOLE would say! :P
Americanegro
8/22/2016 06:05:48 pm
Pauly_J,
Reply
Kal the laughing partly norse
12/28/2014 06:41:34 am
OMG! This episode is so intellectually dumbstruck I cannot begin to fathom the depths of it! Scott W. needs to stop lying. That's all. And he needs to quit stalking through the lands of my ancestors. I am not JC and he thinks my comments are him. I am Kal. I've never posted on his goggle page, so he can stop harassing JC, who I have never met, about my posts. Thank you.
Reply
Kal
12/28/2014 08:45:29 am
"A review does not need to explose the whole story, complaining bloggers. It merely needs to summarize or inform, and it does. This is not a peer review or scholarly journal. How many times does this have to be pointed out? This is a blog."
Reply
snarky
12/29/2014 04:48:07 pm
A very wise man once said, "Profanity is the linguistic crutch of the inarticulate mofo."
EP
12/29/2014 05:28:04 pm
Will Smith ain't gotta curse to sell records, but I do.
Laughing My Butt Off
12/28/2014 12:44:48 pm
Speaking of idiots. Look at what I ran across on Facebook.
Reply
Rick
12/28/2014 12:54:11 pm
I don't have any if the preview commercials saved to the DVR but I could have sworn that in the previews he shows the runes to the "monk?"(I wasn't paying enough attention to his intro in the European cathedral) and SW says "do you recognize these?" And the old man says "of course". Then when the episode airs he asks that question and the old guy laughs and says something like "I've never seen anything like that". Then SW proceeds to lay his theories out while that old guy has a look on his face that says "I now realize I've been screwed over".
Reply
silverfish
12/29/2014 04:43:45 am
I remember seeing that too. In my memory it was an old lady he was asking but maybe it was the monk. In any case he or she definitely said, "of course".
Reply
Rick
12/29/2014 01:27:38 pm
I hate that I didn't save whatever I was watching that had all those adverts. Most of those shows like AU i delete as soon as it's over.
Ragnar
1/3/2015 12:46:52 pm
I think that was some fancy editing to make it look like SW actually found something. But once the episode airs, you realize its just smoke and mirrors.
Reply
Shane Sullivan
12/28/2014 02:14:02 pm
"For Wolter, punch marks are symbols of the sun and an acknowledgement of God, necessarily small and crude because “carving a circle would be time consuming,” so a quick punch stands for the circle of the sun disk in occult writings."
Reply
Manfred
12/28/2014 02:26:45 pm
I don't understand why the stonework and carvings shown on shows like this in Europe are ornate, very detailed and exacting in placement and forethought. And yet the ones in America look like I took a wood chisel and claw hammer from my basement and carved the most hastly un thought out marks I could make.
Reply
EP
12/28/2014 02:27:40 pm
I heard St. Peter's Basilica got thrown together in an afternoon:
Reply
Harry
12/29/2014 12:15:37 am
Wolter's religious zealots are strong in the faith, will become mortally offended if you disagree with them, will travel to the far corners of the Earth to make their point, but will not put in the effort to make sure that their work is correct, just like....
Reply
Kal
12/28/2014 03:46:43 pm
That last one said it all.
Reply
Will
12/29/2014 12:18:43 am
Sounds like a silly episode.
Reply
Titus pullo
12/29/2014 06:48:05 am
I honestly don't get this obsession with so called land claims. European nation prior to the mid 19th century just took what they wanted regardless of land claims. Even World War One was an example of this when the Brits and French bribed Italy and Romania into the war for land which in no way was theirs. Even if the Templars were here putting up rocks that said they owned the land, they sure we're not here to occupy it. And there is no proof they went anywhere east of Europe anyway. About the only thing the Templars actually did that survived wasthe start of the modern banking system and check book money.
Reply
InquisitorX
12/30/2014 01:20:24 pm
Wolter is a never ending bullshit artist. Good for you confronting the git, Jason.
Reply
Cort Lindahl
1/2/2015 07:08:14 am
I guess the one part that is confusing things somewhat is the fact that the sandstone pillar was not shown in the show. The pillar is documented as having a Hebrew Inscription so this is somewhat out of place for 'Native American' rock art. Then it is more confusing since the rock art that was shown appears to be Native American. See the movie 'Lapis Excillis' on youtube and you will see pictures of the pillar and inscriptions in Hebrew. Next you are totally wrong that explorers in this era could not fix their position on earth. This has been proven many times. My studies show that most of these things were a type of path of initiation etc.
Reply
Tok
1/4/2015 01:51:59 pm
I am so glad Google directed me to your blog. I just began watching this series this week. I didn't attend college, and my high school education was lame, to say the least. I have an interest in history and try to watch documentaries and shows that intrigue me.
Reply
EP
1/4/2015 01:57:46 pm
Your English seems pretty educated to me. It's certainly more literate than Scott Wolter's.
Reply
The Observer
1/12/2015 08:28:31 am
There may be plenty in the episode to criticize, but I wouldn't spend too much time mocking Wolter for the use of a French title as a last name (i.e., La Vérendrye, Duluth/DuLhut/et al.) Shockingly, the Encyclopedia Britannica does the same thing: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/326618/Pierre-Gaultier-de-Varennes-et-de-La-Verendrye ... and .... http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/173355/Daniel-Greysolon-Sieur-DuLhut ... One must store up one's outrage for greater offences, methinks.
Reply
Bohall
10/26/2015 10:32:19 am
Hmm ~ my first thought on seeing the Duluth stone segment ~ why an English spelling?
Reply
ynotvt
12/19/2015 11:59:07 am
On the one hand Scott Wolter provides a refreshing openness to explore stories, myths, and theories, and so on for glimpses of truth, regardless how difficult they may be to accept on the surface. The show’s underlying tenet – that what we consider to be proven history may not be supported by facts – is admirable and often correct. Likewise, it would be difficult to corroborate all of the scientific or historical skepticism in 44 minutes of broadcast and leave room for the story of the subject around which the episode is based.
Reply
SA
2/14/2018 02:46:23 pm
It'd just be better if some people would just stop trying to find a reason that they actually had a right to these lands to begin with. If it isn't, i was here first, its that you weren't from here. Pphewie!
Reply
David Richards
4/21/2019 07:48:46 pm
I appreciate your time and interest on this strange television series. It appears to be only pseudo-history and needs to be exposed if that’s all it is.
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.
Categories
All
Terms & ConditionsPlease read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.
Archives
November 2023
|