Council Votes to Install Narragansett Rune Stone in Updike Park

The future of the Narragansett Rune Stone has been set in stone after a unanimous Town Council vote on Monday for the 7-foot-tall rock with runic markings to be installed at Updike Park in Wickford.

After putting off a decision last month when the stone’s origins suddenly became even cloudier, council members ultimately decided that erecting the stone in Wickford would be a win for the town, no mater what -- or who carved it, whether it was a group of Vikings in the 1400s, Icelandic immigrants in the 18th or 19th century, or, as some speculate, voyagers with the Knights Templar.

Questions arose about the stone’s origin last month after Everett Brown, of Providence, claimed he carved the stone over the course of a summer in the early 1960s when he was a 13-year-old boy.

Immediately, countering stories from residents who grew up and played on what they called the “Indian Rock,” emerged in the form of sworn affidavits, some dating the presence of the stone as far back as the 1940s.

Those affidavits, including from the former owners of the property adjacent to where the stone was situated a few feet beneath the waves, suggested that the story “is leaning towards that it’s more real,” said Councilman Kevin Maloney.

Maloney said the council’s decision to delay plans to erect the stone in Updike Park was primarily to prevent the town from looking foolish in the immediate wake of Brown’s claims surfacing.

But in the weeks since, the international attention on the stone, which has attracted the scrutiny of international scholars, historians and even a controversial TV archaeological explorer, has apparently led town officials to realize that letting the stone end up somewhere else could be a missed opportunity.

“I don’t understand the motivation of someone to say they did it when there are all these affidavits,” Council President Elizabeth Dolan said. “I’m inclined to say it’s a win-win.”

Councilman Kerry McKay said he spoke with Scott Wolter, host of America Unearthed, and he was convinced that Brown had no way of knowing how to carve the runes in the Narragansett stone. And no matter what its true origin, he said, “it’s worth every pound or penny we put into it.”

McKay said if the stone can somehow be linked to pre-Columbus explorers, “this would make Plymouth Rock look like a fairy tale.”

And he noted that the signers of the affidavits are pillars in the community, such as June Goodhue, who still lives in Pojac Point and recalls seeing and hearing about the stone in the early 1950s after she moved there with her husband.

Another concern was the fact that if the town declined the stone, it would end up in Goddard Park, which is what the state Department Environmental Management had planned before meetings with North Kingstown officials led to the new plan to install it in Updike Park.

And on Monday, it was revealed that the DEM itself has concluded that the chance of Brown carving the stone is highly unlikely based on their own investigation of the stone and a review of the affidavits along with everyone who claims to have seen it before 1963.

Brown himself did not respond to DEM requests for more information.

At the same time they voted for the stone to go to Wickford, the council imposed a $3,000 limit on how much the town can spend on the installation, though it is unlikely that the cost will be significant.

Once installed, the stone will be protected with a fence to prevent vandalism. Plans for a plaque will be determined sometime in the future.