Today we headed to the L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site - the only authenticated Norse (Viking) site in North America and the earliest evidence of Europeans in North America. This site is located on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland and is one of the most northern places you can drive to in the eastern part of North America. After driving five hours to get there, it felt like we were driving to the end of the world......
As they like to do in the Canadian National Parks, there were costumed performers telling the story of the people and the lands.
We learned that the Norse sailed from their colony in Greenland in search of goods - especially hardwoods for ship building - and this camp was built as a center of trade about 1,000 years ago. The Norse searched for wood and traded with the various indigenous people that lived and traveled in this area. Commerce wasn't that great for the Vikings, so they abandoned the camp after 10 or more years.
How was this area discovered? Stories passed down through the generations talked about the camp location somewhere between Labrador and North Carolina. Then in 1960, a team of scientists started searching and worked their way north, eventually finding the remains here. In fact, this was the first UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This is a recreation of what the camp looked like all those years ago:
Brad obviously was not there at the time, but if he was, he'd look like this:
There was also evidence found that the indigenous people began utilizing this region 5,000 years ago.
After touring the reconstructed area for a bit, we we took hike.....look you can see Labrador 15 miles away.......
Some more pictures from our hike........
To break up the 5-hour drive home, we stopped at The Arches Provincial Park. These photos show ....arches!!! 😉
So it was a long day - 10 hours of driving for a couple hours of touring/hiking.
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