The Vikings in Augusta County
The first Europeans to meet the Native Americans were the Vikings. The Native Americans were friendly to the Vikings probably because they were not settlers but rather explorers and their trade was meaningful.
More than 500 years before the Columbus Expedition discovered North America, the Vikings came in wooden ships . They dropped anchor and went ashore in North America. They were among the first people to establish trade with the Native Americans
In 1010 AD, Thorfinn Karlsefni, a Viking from Labrador with his wife, Gudrid, sailed to Virginia and traveled up the James River. While in Virginia, Gudrid gave birth to a son, Snorri, who is believed to be the first child born in America of European parents. The Vikings traded items of bronze and copper with the Native Americans and referred to them as “Screamers.”
While the Vikings are not known to have visited Augusta County, word of their cultural and material exchange with the Native Americans in eastern Virginia surely reached the west, as there have been artifacts found in Augusta County relating to eastern Virginia and the ocean (bronze Jesuit trade items, shell, etc).
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