Leif Ericson camp was named after the famous
Viking explorer, partially because of the great Scandanavian influence in the Sioux Falls area. The Norse Sagas,
one of the greatest sources of Viking history, tell of Leif's adventures as explorer and spreader of early Christianity.
According to the Greenland Saga, generally believed
to be trustworthy, Eiriksson's discovery of North America was no mere chance.
The saga tells that he fitted out an expedition and sailed west, in an attempt to gather proof of the claims made by the Icelandic
trader Bjarni Herjulfsson. In 986 Herjulfsson, driven far off course by a fierce storm between Iceland and Greenland, had reported sighting
hilly, heavily forested land far to the west. Herjulfsson, though believably the first European to see the continent of North
America, never set foot on its shores. Leiv Eiriksson, encouraged by the current talk of potential discoveries, and the constant
need of land to farm, bought Bjarni's ship and set off on his quest of discovery. He appears to have followed Bjarni's route in reverse, making three landfalls.
The first of these he named Helluland, or Flat-Stone Land, now generally regarded as having been Labrador. The second was Markland, or Wood Land, possibly Newfoundland. The exact location of the third, which was named Vinland, is a matter of scholastic controversy, but it
could have been as far north as northern Newfoundland or as far south as Cape Cod or even beyond this. Erickson
and his men spent the winter in Vinland, (research has indicated that the word Vinland, in Viking, meant "pasture land". References
to grapes, are usually considered wrong, since grapes did not grow in Viking country.) at a place they named Leifsbud-ir,
returning to Greenland in the following year, 1001. For more information on the adventures of Leif Ericson, go to: http://www.mnc.net/norway/Leif.htm