In review

We were greeted today by our newest inducted member and the only Boomer Sooner in the club, Jen Tregarthen, the Unstoppable Dave Hatzung and, I guess, Billy McReavy. Just around the corner the fun begins with Mr. & Ms. Claus, or better known as Tom Pirsch and Jean Morrison, collecting gifts for the Rotary Holiday Giving Program, which will be given to Cornerstone's Holiday Shop and VEAP's Holiday Toy Drive. Donations can also be brought to the Dec. 8 meeting and to the Rotary Holiday Party Dec. 15. Cash and check donations are accepted.

 

 

Diligently working the front desk with Jen Garske was Tom Ries. Madame President Ann Platt began the meeting with a sincere thank you to Michael Stanzak and Mary Hustad for all their work on another successful Thanksgiving Basket meeting. Great job Mary and Michael.

 

A very thoughtful invocation was brought to us by John Buttolph, with an excellent quote from Ben Franklin. Chuck Agan introduced the following guests and visiting Rotarians: 

 

Dan Hallberg announced the dates and location of this year's Salvation Army’s Bell Ringing for our club, and that one day of the bell ringing will be in honor of Joel Jennings. All donations collected that day during our club's time ringing the bell will be matched! Members will be ringing at Jerry's Foods on Vernon Avenue in Edina from 2 to 8 p.m. Dec. 19 through 22, and from 2 to 6 p.m. on Dec. 23. Wednesday, Dec. 21, is Ring for Joel Day.

 

 

Membership Committee Member and Past President Steve Slyce inducted our newest member, Jen Tregarthen, at the meeting. Jen is sponsored by Greg Yoch. Jen is new to our club but not to Rotary as she was a member of the Norman Sooner Rotary Club in Oklahoma. Welcome Jen.

 

Mike Kallas introduced one of our 2015–2016 outbound Youth Exchange students, Walter Sullivan, who gave an informative review of his experience in Sweden. Steve Buettner brought our Edina High School students guests, Eric Etukyo and Emily Neville, (former neighbor and talented kid).

 

 

Our program was brought to us by Tom Bach, Edina West Class of '79, who has had a distinguished career with Northwest Airlines and United HealthCare. Tom introduced Scott F. Wolter who is a forensic geologist and petrographer. Wolter graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Geology and Earth Science from the University of Minnesota–Duluth in 1982. Professionally, he has worked as a petrographer since 1985. 
 
Wolter is the host of History channel's hit show "America Unearthed," which follows him on his quest to uncover the truth behind controversial historic artifacts. He also co-hosted History’s "Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar" about late 17th century pirate shipwrecks, Freemasons and the Knights Templar.

Scott did an excellent job of tailoring his program to fit our timeline. Scott has an ongoing quest to uncover the mysteries of the controversial Kensington Rune Stone he examined in 2001. We discovered only about half of the members and guests present knew about the Kensington Rune Stone. As Scott explained, the Kensington Rune Stone is a medieval document carved in rock. Scott proposed it is a land claim, carved in Minnesota in 1362. It is said to have been written by a party of Templar Knights. The rune stone was found in Kensington, Minnesota, by Olof Ohman in 1890 in the roots of an Aspen tree. As said, the runes were caked with mud so Olof used a nail to scratch them out and attempt to read them. Those scratch marks would haunt the rune stone as detractors claimed that they were the marks of recent carving. In fact the scratches are down in the runes and the remainder of the carved surfaces show obvious weathering compared to the scratches. The runes were quite old, certainly older than the 20 years Olof had been in the area. Scott conducted a study to compare the weathering of the rune stone to other similar stones exposed to similar climate for a known period in order to deduce an age. Tombstones of slate in Maine that were approximately 200 years old were selected. Samples were taken with permission and studied. The carvings on the tombstones did not have complete mica deterioration and the rune stone did. This made it possible to conclude that the rune stone was carved more than 200 years ago. This of course, rules out any any hoax and any conclusion other than the rune stone is an artifact of pre-Columbian European contact. More information can be found at http://scottwolteranswers.blogspot.com/2016/02/kensington-rune-stone-deception.html

 

In 1990, Scott founded American Petrographic Services and continues to serve as president. He has been the principal petrographer in more than 7,000 material forensic investigations throughout the world, including the evaluation of fire-damaged concrete from the Pentagon following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Scott quest to find Jeff Ohe's heart has come up empty, but he did find a big ego. 

 

Leann Stessman thanked Scott, and Madame President Platt concluded another successful meeting.