Case file · Folklore / legend
Horsford's Norumbega Tower
Harvard chemist Eben Norton Horsford became convinced that Norumbega was a Norse city on the Charles River and built a stone tower at Weston, Massachusetts, to mark the spot.
1889 CE · 42.35, -71.26 · status: claim
The account
He also claimed to have found Leif Erikson's Vinland near Cambridge. The tower still stands at the confluence of Stony Brook and the Charles.
The sceptical view
Archaeologists have found no Norse settlement in Massachusetts; the only confirmed Norse site in North America is L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.