# Who was the first European in the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-european-in-the-us/227502 "2004-02-04T16:56:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-european-in-the-us/227502/1 "2004-02-04T16:56:42Z")
As the thread title says - we know that Lief Ericson and the Vikings were in Newfoundland, and Columbus’s 1492 landing was on a Caribbean island. Which Eurpoean can lay claim to being the first to set foot on territory that is today the United States of America? And what about on the mainland of North America in general? Is there any solid evidence that the Vikings were on Labrador as well as the island of Newfoundland (likelihood, yes; I mean hard evidence). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-european-in-the-us/227502/2 "2004-02-04T17:52:02Z")
Ponce de Leon landed in Florida in 1513. John Cabot _may_ have landed in Maine in 1497, but it’s unclear exactly where he landed; it could also have been Newfoundland or Labrodor. Sebastian Cabot may also have landed in 1508-09. Again, it’s unclear whether he actually got to what was now the US. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-european-in-the-us/227502/3 "2004-02-04T21:00:29Z")
Well if you want to get technical you’d have to find out from some source who was sent from the ship to the mainland. I doubt they’d send their leader as the first person to meet possibly hostile natives. ---
**Author:** ![vd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b19c9b/32.png) [@vd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vd)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-european-in-the-us/227502/4 "2004-02-04T21:14:23Z")
> [@clayton\_e](#): > > Well if you want to get technical you’d have to find out from some source who was sent from the ship to the mainland. I doubt they’d send their leader as the first person to meet possibly hostile natives. Even if an officer did go in the first longboat, it would still be one of the swabs who has to jump out and yank the boat ashore so the officer doesn’t get his feet wet. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-european-in-the-us/227502/5 "2004-02-04T21:26:51Z")
There is a legend that the 6th-century Irish saint Brendan the Navigator undertook on a seven-year journey west and discovered new (to him) land. In the 1970s, a British scholar reconstructed a leather sailboat according to St. Brendan’s descriptions, and managed to sail from Ireland to Newfoundland, thus proving that the voyage was indeed possible. Inscriptions have also been found in West Virginia dating from 600 to 1000 CE, that some scholars believe are Old Irish, written in the Ogham alphabet. Their conclusions are highly disputed, but it is at least possible that one or more Irish monks managed to reach what is now the US centuries before the Vikings made their landfall. ---
**Author:** ![Ice97531](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@Ice97531](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice97531)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-european-in-the-us/227502/6 "2004-02-05T00:01:10Z")
I’m not sure the specific date but viking may have come over from Sweden way before Cabot ever did. They had a whole thing on it on the Discovery Channel called “the barbarians are coming”. Well that’s my two cents 🆒