Leif Ericsson is the most commonly named Norse explorer in regard to North America, however he has never been confirmed as the one who did visit the Americas.

On the topic on what we do know about norse visits to the Americas we have established that Norsemen formed a settlement at L’anse aux Meadows in Northern Newfoundland. Ten or more building built in Norse style were built at the site and were first excavated in the 1960's. The site included housing for ships on dry land and a smithy that contained a working stone as well as traces of metals with vast quantities of slag iron material from working bogs. Both of these habits are not common to the work of local First Nations members and others who have inhabited the region. Radiocarbon dating has dated the site to about 1000 CE the same time as Leif Ericsson was believed to have sailed. The buildings themselves were built of timber and sod and were found with traces of iron nails further evidence that they were european in origin. For more information see the work of Ingstad and Wallace as they both were involved with the excavations of the site.

Both Wallace and Ingstad had competing explanations on what this site was:

• Ingstad felt that this site was the Vineland of Leif Ericsson as referenced in the Norse Sagas that spoke of a land filled with grapes, pastures and forests.

• Wallace argued that the site was more of a temporary camp for exploration of the Eastern North America, citing the existence of butternut wood and nuts as evidence that L’anse aux Meadows's residents traveled south into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence where they located the grapes and butternut which do not grow in Newfoundland.

Additional locations have not been confirmed but investigation of a coin found in Maine and an expedition may have located a second site in Baffin island.

Many hoaxes or non-norse sites have been identified and claimed to be norse across the Northeastern Unitied states and Canada over the years including:

• The Kensington stone(hoax) - a fake rune stone with a journey of norsemen to Minnesota,

• Newport Tower (Colonial) - a stone tower in Rhode Island,

• Axe and sword in Port Arthur, Ontario (hoax) - the finders father claimed they were within his basement before they were "discovered",

• And many other rune stones and inscriptions.

Sources:

Barrett, JH. "What Caused the Viking Age?" ANTIQUITY 82.317 (2008): 671-85. Print.

Foote, Peter, and David M. Wilson. The Viking Achievement; a Survey of the Society and Culture of Early Medieval Scandinavia. New York: Praeger, 1970. Print.

Haugen, Einar. "the Discovery of a Norse Settlement in America: Excavations at L'Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland, 1961-1968" by Anne Stine Ingstad (Book Review). 10 Vol. , 1979. Print.

Ingstad, Helge. Westward to Vineland. New York: St. Martin's, 1969. Print.

Logan, F. Donald. The Vikings in History. Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble, 1983. Print.

McGovern, Thomas H. "The Archaeology of the Norse North Atlantic." Annual Review of Anthropology 19 (1990): 331-51. Print.

Wallace, Birgitta. "L'Anse Aux Meadows, Leif Eriksson's Home in Vinland." Journal of the North Atlantic 2.sp2 (2009): 114-25. Print.