Hoax or history? On November 8, 1898, a Swedish immigrant farmer, Olof Ohman, and his ten-year-old son say they found a Scandinavian runestone, dated 1362, wedged in the roots of a tree in rural Minnesota. Ever since 1898, when Olof Ohman, a Swedish immigrant working his fields in what is now Douglas County, MN, found the 202-lb., mysteriously engraved stone tangled in the roots of an uprooted tree, controversy has raged over the artifacts authenticity. The stone, dated 1362, soon proved how difficult the search for the truth can beand raised eyebrows over the possibility that North European explorers predated Columbus in America.