Land ahead! The Norsemen directed their gaze forward. On
their way westward from Greenland they had stopped twice, but the land they
had encountered was found to be of little value. Would this land be any better?
Sailing closer, they saw a small bay, where the land was rather flat with
grass, shrubs and small trees. A little stream flowed into the sea. Leif,
the captain, ordered, "Sail down ! Oars out !"and they rowed into the bay,
where they dragged the ship up the beach, above the tideline.
That summer they spent exploring the area, building houses and cutting firewood
to take home to Greenland.
Throughout the next 5-10 years, the Norsemen kept coming back to this place. The icebergs floating by did not bother them. Coming from Greenland, icebergs were a familiar sight to them. The Norsemen were more interested in the abundant 'sea harvest' : cod and whale in particular. The land provided them with valuable timber.
On one of the trips from Greenland, a ship was in need of repair and some
new nails were needed. The Norsemen were familiar with bog iron and knew
how to work it. There was plenty of it around; even the water in the stream
was stained brown with iron particles. umps of iron ore were collected from
the bog and smelted. The blacksmith and his assistant established themselves
at the far side of the stream, to distance their smoky and dusty smithy from
the houses. Soon the ring of a blacksmith's hammer was heard for the first
time ever in the Americas. On picking up the nails, after allowing them to
cool off, the blacksmith didn't notice that one of them had fallen down into
the marshy ground beside the forge.
A few years later the Norsemen stopped coming to the site we today know as
L'Anse aux Meadows. Did they find somewhere else to explore, further south
along the coast of North America ? Or did the go back to Greenland, never
to return here?
We do not know for sure, but walnuts found on the site are not native to
Newfoundland, though they are plentiful farther south.
Out to sea, the icebergs still float by. Whales can still be seen offshore,
showing off to amazed spectators.
"Over there,
the iron nail was found", pointed Debbie Anderson, Site Supervisor of
the L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, Parks Canada.
A small hollow in the ground was the only remaining evidence of America's
first smithy. Across a little bridge, over the stream, were the remains of
the Norse houses and boat shed, everything taken good care of by Canadian
authorities who also exhibit the site's archeological finds, America's first
iron nail included.