In 1994 Gloria Farley published the book In Plain Site. (http://www.amazon.com/Plain-Sight-Records-Ancient-America/dp/1880820080/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437323148&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=gloria+farley+in+plain+site) Gloria was an Oklahoman with in insatiable curiosity.  She believed that Scandinavians and Egyptians visited the new world long before Columbus discovered America.  She attempted to prove it with carvings and artifacts dating long before Europe invaded what is now the Americas.  She felt they were not left there by the Native Americans but someone else.  She was not an archeologist; she was a social worker who spent her own time and money researching not only the Heavener Runestone but many more sites across the United States. But with the help of archeologists and other scientists who believed her tale, she found, researched, and documented runestones across the United States.

She first stumbled across the runestone in 1928 hiking Poteau Mountain near her hometown of Heavener, Oklahoma. It was then known as “Indian Rock.” And from that day forward, Gloria was hooked on artifacts.

I first heard about the site on Discover Oklahoma tourism show on television and my husband and I made a weekend trip to visit the runestone.  I was enchanted.  Later I took my grandson back to see the site because I had an idea for a book using that area for the setting.  My “city kid” grandson with a constant electronic device in his pocket, said “This is cool, Grandma.”  I got through to him, and he was right.  It was cool.

Glome’s Valley (http://www.amazon.com/Glomes-Valley-Peggy-Chambers/dp/1633730603/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1437324299&sr=8-3&keywords=peggy+chambers) was hatched at that southeast Oklahoma site and my imagination was on full throttle. I loved the idea of a fairy tale born of Oklahoma history.  Gloria Farley felt the Heavener Runestone was a boundary marker stating that that valley had been claimed for Glome.  Whether her ideas were right or not it made a magical setting for a book; a Viking ghost named Glome who had been in the valley for centuries and a modern kid bored with spending his summer alone except for his ever present cell phone.  Of course since there is Viking mythology, Thor had to be involved along with his crazy step-brother Loki.  I wrote a fairytale for a magical area.

I hope you read and enjoy Glome’s Valley and visit the Heavener Runestone.  Take the kids. They will think it is cool.