Big Ole and an Extra-Large Runestone

From Fergus Falls, we hopped on I-94 for about 20 miles and then exited at Evansville, MN to get back onto county road 82, a former alignment of US-52. We followed county road 82 all of the way into Alexandria.



Alexandria is the site of the alleged oldest evidence of white explorers, in the form of a runestone. It bills itself, then, the “Birthplace of America,” a name also used by the Fountain of Youth park in St. Augustine, FL (with less accuracy, perhaps, but with more use of mannequins and black light, which should surely count for something).
We didn’t visit the Runestone Museum, so our facts are somewhat shaky, but Big Ole is obviously of Scandinavian heritage.



From his clothing, we could see that he was also a fashion visionary: he was flaunting the micro-mini long before the Mod scene came along.



Not far from Big Ole is a giant replica of the famous runestone, with translations of the runes provided.