Spirit Pond runestones

Disputed: a Norse origin for this site has been claimed but is not accepted by mainstream archaeology. Listed for reference only. The Spirit Pond runestones are three stones with alleged runic inscriptions, found at Spirit Pond in Phippsburg, Maine on May 27, 1971 by a Walter J. Elliott Jr., a carpenter born in Bath, Maine. The next week the discovery and photos was publicized in The Bath-Brunswick Times Record. After being told that they were state property he wired the official who had instructed him to give them to the state saying "Just returned from Phippsburg, reburied stones on state land near site for some other fool to find. Disgustingly yours." Four months later after letters to various people he received a reply from a Dr. Ole G. Landsverk who told Elliott and the press they were genuine Viking artefacts. On December 3, 1971, a Maine newspaper published an editorial saying it was settled that the Vikings were here four centuries before Columbus. Elliott then asked $4500 for the stones but neither the state of Maine nor its museums could afford that amount. An anonymous Philadelphia citizen paid it and the Maine State Museum finally was able to buy them in January 1972. The museum then asked Einar Haugen to examine them. The stones, currently housed at the Maine State Museum, are widely dismissed a Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).