A collection of sites in Lubec previously identified as having a possible connection to Norse settlements is raising interest from anthropologists. While evidence continues to be circumstantial, those who visit the sites agree they are worthy of further exploration for the clues they may offer to early Norse, Acadian, or Wabanaki settlements.
The first identified site in North Lubec is an approximately 250-foot by 90-foot oval-shaped berm with knee walls and a 30-foot-wide entrance on its northeast side. The flat interior of the berm measures about 3-feet lower than the surrounding land. It was discovered by Mike Prenier of Lubec while hunting in 2015, concluding it was “not something you’d normally find in New England.”
After doing some research, Prenier found a 2014 article in The Quoddy Tides that referenced possible Norse settlements in the region and led him to Dr. Harold Borns, the state’s leading geologist at the time, who had given an open call to anyone finding ruins with potential Norse characteristics.
Borns investigated the berm and concluded it was a site of “a possible Norse habitation dating to around 1000 AD,” according to his written report, and he recommended it be explored further. Borns died in 2020 before being able to return to the site.
In 1949, Edward Reman determined that Vinland may have been in the Bay of Fundy or Passamaquoddy Bay area.
Prenier has since identified other places of interest, including six round sunken foundations close to the shore. The features are all the same size, measuring 16-feet in diameter with a depth of 18 inches. One has a small hand-dug well next to it.
A third site consists of an 8-foot by 8-foot stone frame at ground level, and a fourth site appears to be another large earthworks. Each of the sites has been compared with known historic foundations to rule them out as possibilities.
With multiple sites identified, Prenier has been working with experts in a to arrange an exploratory excavation, but has not yet succeeded, leaving the origins an ongoing mystery.
James Moreira, associate professor of anthropology and community studies at the University of Maine at Machias, has visited the sites several times with Prenier.
“If [the settlement were] Acadian, they were people fleeing the expulsion [from Quebec]. That would be incredibly interesting.”
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Finding Norse ruins in North America—aside from the famed L’anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland—would be a significant discovery. For decades, amateur archaeologists and artifact hunters in the state have been looking for concrete evidence that the Norse came to Maine during the time of the Greenland colony between 985 and 1300 A.D., but findings have consistently been discredited.
That’s not to rule out the possibility that the Lubec ruins are Norse in origin, however. After all, Moreira points out, it took several years of digging at L’anse aux Meadows before enough definitively Norse artifacts could be recovered for the site to be declared an official Norse habitation.
There are similarities between the two sites. Of the Lubec site, Born wrote that is “has some of the characteristics of one of the multi-room Norse building sites at L’Anse aux Meadows.” Other similarities in construction include rounded corners, sunken floor foundations, and opposing knee walls.
More clues come from the Norse themselves. In the Icelandic sagas, composed in 1250 A.D. and detailing the explorations of Leif Erikson, the Norse wrote of finding and settling “Vinland,” later identified as a short-lived colony in North America.
In 1949, Edward Reman, an experienced seaman and navigator, translated the sailing instructions in the book and determined that Vinland may have been in the Bay of Fundy or Passamaquoddy Bay area. He compiled his findings in The Norse Discoveries and Explorations of America, including among the anecdotal evidence a reference to a passage where the Norse sailors experienced “astonishment and dismay” by “a tide fall such as they had never seen or heard of before.”
It’s known that the Norse who lived at L’Anse aux Meadows also traveled south, says Terry Deveau, former president of the New England Antiquities Research Association and consultant for the Oak Island excavation in Nova Scotia.
“The presence of three butternuts and a burl of butternut wood at the L’anse aux Meadows site, dated to coincide with the Norse occupation there circa 1021 AD, is incontrovertible proof that they ventured considerably farther south of this location at that time.”
Tying it back to the Lubec site, Deveau further adds that it is a “curious coincidence” that “specifically butternut trees appear to be a significant highlight” there.
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While the Lubec ruins may be seen as a candidate for Vinland, that’s not the only archeological value they offer. The area has historically been associated with French settlements, going back to the St. Croix Island expedition in 1604 and continuing into the growth of New Acadia over the next century and a half. Beginning in 1755, the British forced the Acadians gradually south, resulting in temporary settlements popping up along the eastern seaboard as they traveled.
The area has historically been associated with French settlements, going back to the St. Croix Island expedition in 1604…
Some Acadians arrived in Lubec, according to a report on the Maine Memory Network by local historian Jennifer Multhopp titled “Lubec: A Border Town Shaped by the Sea.” That point is further substantiated by a reference to Acadian settlements “within the present limits of this town” and relics that are still visible in North Lubec and South Bay in James McGregor’s History Of Washington Lodge, No. 37, Free And Accepted Masons, Lubec, Maine, 1822-1890.
The timeframe would align with some of the features at the Lubec sites. Regarding the large earthworks site, Borns noted that “the flattening of the floor to this degree appears to have been done by machinery, not by hand,” which would date the process to later than the 16th century. The flattening could have been done to an existing structure, meaning it doesn’t rule out the potential that the earthworks are older.
The mixed origin of the features are problematic for researchers, explains Deveau.
“This typically causes difficulties for archaeologists, who are generally reluctant to devote resources to investigating ‘potentially older’ sites in relative proximity to sites of fairly recent activity, since things like agricultural or logging practices can leave behind traces that mimic what might look like ancient constructions.”
Outside of the features that are European in origin, Lubec has a long history of habitation by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Moreira readily agrees there are “undoubtedly Native remains there as well.” Prenier contacted tribal historian Donald Soctomah and discussed the features of the sites, with Soctomah subsequently determining the structures did not seem to be Passamaquoddy in origin, based on the discussion.
Markings around the sites may have been made by the Passamaquoddys, however, at least based on recent findings that Moreira identifies as potentially being “incised Native petroglyphs” made post-contact.
Despite visits from several knowledgeable experts in their field, the Lubec ruins remain unexplored by a dedicated research team. “My main quest is to get an archeologist who is interested in the site” and get out there and excavate, Moreira says. “Who knows what its potential is?”
Borns also thought the site worthy of excavation, writing that “an exploratory archeological dig should be done by a trained archeologist” under state guidance to determine the origins.
“It is essential that the archaeological potential of the site be preserved by preventing disturbance of the soil in and near the potentially older features, otherwise the archaeological record becomes scrambled and the opportunity is lost to adequately understand the story that the site has to tell,” Deveau said.
He also warns about the possibility of “pot hunters” who could come in and spoil the site prematurely.
For Prenier, it’s been a long waiting game, but one he’s willing to continue. “Hal [Borns] told me I was going to hit it out of the park with this. I think that’s one reason I’m still doing this—because I haven’t yet.”
This story first appeared in The Quoddy Tides and is reprinted with permission and gratitude. A longer version is available at QuoddyTides.com.
