Editor's Note: Due to technical difficulties, this wee's Watch City History did not appear. The column will return on Tuesday, Feb. 22. In the meantime, enjoy the previous column.
Stories typically unfold at a given starting point, which is usually easy and straightforward.
No such luck with Waltham. Our history is woven into a few stories. After reading various history books I’ll start before Governor John Winthrop and his Puritanical crew “went to Massachusetts to find a place for our sitting down …”
Find out what's happening in Walthamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Winthrop landed on June 12, 1630 and luckily for us decided “Salem where wee (sic) landed pleased us not.” (Some books list 1631 and some 1630.)
He must have really disliked it because he walked “three leagues upp (sic) the Charles River” stopping at Charles Towne to observe rampant sickness and French opposition. He continued to what they called Eden Vale, or part of Waltham. (Eden Vale is now the name of a Ballroom at a well-known hotel near Trapelo Road.)
Find out what's happening in Walthamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
It all sounds so romantic – now. I’m betting Nipmuc Chief Cutstomach, who lived on the western shore of what we now call Hardy Pond – and he called something we’ll never know – wasn’t thinking they found anything but his business.
We’ll leave Winthrop and his crew to wallow in Beaver Brook as we wind back the clock about 500 years before Winthrop set foot here.
Waltham Historical Society Co-President Wayne McCarthy and a book titled Waltham Rediscovered by Kristen A. Petersen and Thomas J. Murphy, tell us we had a Scandinavian community in Waltham. The Scandanavians arrived far sooner than most think.
Yes, I speak of Leif Erikson and his brother Thorwald. Thorwald was a bit more curious than his brother Leif. Really, if you’re going to travel thousands of miles over rough seas, what are a few miles of thorny terrain?
Legend and a history book tells us that Thorwald made his way to a bend in the Charles River between what is now Waltham and Newton. Ringing any bells for those of us past 40?
The site was and is known as Norumbega. We can only assume Thorwald said something Norse and left a few of his friends there before doubling back to meet his brother, because, according to Harvard University Professor E. N. Horsford, it was colonized by Thorfinn Karlsefni in 1007.
Professor Horsford researched the Norumbega legend and traced the name Norbega to the Native American pronunciation of the ancient Norvega, which is said to mean Norway.
Horsford believed the Norsemen lived at Norumbega for 350 years before returning to the Netherlands in 1347. (I’ve been to Norway. They didn’t leave because of snow, ice, or the cold, all three are abundant in Norway -- almost all year.)
Ancient remnants of a hand-built river wall were cited as part of Horsford’s evidence. We don’t know how many lived there, only that they fished, trapped, grew crops and made wood products. The wood tools were probably taken back to Scandinavia when the Norsemen left.
In 1889, Horseford erected the tower at Norumbega in memory of those who lived in the area. It may be the the only part of Norumbega still standing.
Through the years, I thought the castle was a part of the Norumbega Park, which is actually in Newton where Marriott stands now. Most Waltham people remember the old park – or they have heard stories.
What was most striking in this Norse saga is that America is a young country – more noticeable if you’ve spent any time walking through the castles and ruins in Europe or Asia. Anything here that’s older than 350 is considered ancient.
But, somewhere on the Charles riverbank we have ruins built by foreign hands more than 1,000-years-ago. Other than our Native American treasures, this is probably the oldest in America – and it’s in Waltham.
