CLAIM NORSE RELICS FOUND continuing the Fenwick Papers

The News Chronicle
Port Arthur - Fort William - Westfort - Schreiber - Nipigon
October 18, 1938 page 1
From the Fenwick Papers collection Nipigon Museum Archives

JAMES DODD TELLS AT TORONTO HOW RELICS WERE DISCOVERED

Port Arthur prospector and railroad man says he first thought Norse Sword and Armour part of Indian grave.

by Canadian Press
Toronto, October 18  - James Edward Dodd, Port Arthur Prospector and railroad man, told yesterday on a visit to Toronto of his discovery of relics which many authorities declare were left by Norsemen in Northern Ontario in the 11th century.
Since he came upon Viking weapons seven years ago while tracing a vein near Beardmore,Ontario, Dodd has received considerable support for his claim that the relics establish a contention Norsemen were in Northern Ontario 900 years ago.
" I had just set off a couple sticks of powder to loosen the over-burden in tracing a vein," Dodd said, "and with my son was shovelling the dirt away."
"The sword came up in one shovelful and I tossed it to the bank without looking. The sword rolled back into the ditch and I thought at first it was a rusty old lining bar - a piece of drilled steel used in mining. I picked it up and found that it was flat. Then I saw it was a sword of some kind."
Dodd thought at first the relics constituted part of a grave of an Indian chief. They are now in the Ontario Museum here.
The prospector expressed hope the site of the discovery some day would be a tourist mecca. He thought a monument should be erected at the spot.