Fans Celebrate Viking’s Discovery

Not to be outdone by Christopher Columbus on the weekend commemorating Europe’s first outreach to the Americas, Leif Ericson also had a moment in the sun Sunday.

Just a day before the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s first voyage to America in 1492, about 150 celebrators marched in this New England town to stake the Viking claim to being the first Europeans in North America.

“We don’t want to belittle Columbus, but we feel the Vikings were here first,” said retired motel owner Else Jensen, 84, of nearby Dover, N.H.

Historians date the Viking landing in the Americas around the year 1000--some 492 years before Columbus.

For the Durham entourage, who marched around town wearing Scandinavian costumes, with hats with pointed horns, the date was clearly Oct. 9, 1003.

Organizer Doris Peterson, whose husband originated the event in 1977, insisted that the purpose was not to demean Columbus.

“Our only goal is to produce happy smiles,” said Peterson. “We are not here to criticize other people’s heroes.”