Boston is the capital and most populous city of Massachusetts, covering 48.4 square miles with a population of approximately 675,647 as of the 2020 census — making it the third-most populous city in the Northeastern United States after New York City and Philadelphia. It serves as a cultural and financial hub of New England, a region with deep colonial and pre-colonial history. For Gates, it also happens to be home: he grew up in the Boston area and has described being raised on local legends of Viking landings in New England. The episode centers not on Boston's famous Revolutionary-era sites but on a cluster of Norse Revival monuments scattered across the city and its suburbs — landmarks built in the late 19th century by enthusiasts who believed, passionately if not always rigorously, that Vikings had settled here around 1000 AD. Gates returns to his hometown to ask a question he says he accepted as fact growing up: did the Vikings actually reach Massachusetts?
According to Norse sagas, Leif Erikson reportedly reaches a land called Vinland — the location of which remains debated by historians and archaeologists
A statue celebrating Leif Erikson is erected on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston during the height of the Norse Revival movement
The Norumbega Tower is constructed in what is now Weston, Massachusetts, bearing a plaque claiming the site as a Viking fort visited by Leif Erikson in the year 1000 AD
Gates investigates Boston's Norse Revival monuments in Expedition Unknown S04E02, "Vikings in America"
The Norse Revival of the late 19th century was a genuine cultural phenomenon in New England, fueled in part by Romantic nationalism and a desire among some communities — particularly those with Scandinavian or Protestant heritage — to claim Viking discovery of America predating Columbus. Harvard chemistry professor Eben Norton Horsford was among its most prominent sponsors, funding the Leif Erikson statue on Commonwealth Avenue in 1887 and the Norumbega Tower in 1889. Horsford believed the Charles River valley was the site of a Viking settlement he called Norumbega, a theory rooted more in wishful etymology than in stratigraphic evidence.
Mainstream archaeology does not support the claim that Vikings reached Massachusetts. The only archaeologically confirmed Norse site in North America remains L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, where radiocarbon-dated artifacts establish a Norse presence around 1000 AD. As Gates notes in the episode, the critical open question is whether L'Anse aux Meadows represents Vinland itself, or merely a staging post from which Norse explorers traveled farther south — a question the episode frames as genuinely unresolved rather than settled.
The place-name "Norumbega" does appear on 16th-century European maps of northeastern North America, but scholars generally trace it to Indigenous place names recorded by early European explorers, not to any Norse origin. The elaborate plaque on the Norumbega Tower, which Gates reads on camera, reflects the confident claims of 19th-century enthusiasts rather than the conclusions of modern archaeology. The monuments themselves are now understood as artifacts of that revival movement — historically interesting as examples of how communities construct identity, but not as markers of verified Viking settlements.
Gates uses Boston less as a site of active excavation and more as a frame for the larger question driving the episode: separating genuine Viking-age evidence from the layers of mythology and monument-building that accumulated on top of it. The city's Norse Revival landmarks give the investigation a personal dimension — Gates grew up here, absorbed these stories as fact, and the episode becomes in part about interrogating his own childhood assumptions. It is an honest starting point: acknowledging how compelling the local legend is before going to look for actual proof.
Boston covers 48.4 square miles and had a population of approximately 675,647 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in the Northeastern United States.
The Greater Boston metropolitan area had a population of approximately 4.9 million in 2023, making it the largest metropolitan area in New England.
The Leif Erikson statue on Commonwealth Avenue was erected in 1887, more than a decade before any archaeological excavation would begin at L'Anse aux Meadows — the only confirmed Norse site in North America.
Josh Gates grew up in the Boston area and has said he portrayed Leif Erikson in a high school play, genuinely believing at the time that Viking discovery of New England was established historical fact.
The Leif Erikson statue on Commonwealth Avenue and the Norumbega Tower in Weston are generally accessible to visitors, though the tower is a modest stone structure in a roadside park rather than a major museum exhibit. Boston itself is well-served by public transit and offers extensive visitor infrastructure. Check current local advisories for parking and access near the Weston site.
Boston, Massachusetts — the site itself is Boston; the Norumbega Tower is located in Weston, approximately 12 miles west of downtown Boston.
Late spring through early fall offers the most comfortable walking weather for exploring Boston's outdoor monuments and neighborhoods. Summer brings larger crowds to the city's major attractions, so weekday visits to sites like Commonwealth Avenue can be more relaxed.
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain has been associated with pre-Columbian contact theories in North America, making it thematically connected to Gates' broader investigation of who reached the Americas before Columbus.
Roanoke Island
Roanoke Island is another Gates investigation into a colonial-era American mystery — the disappearance of the Lost Colony — and shares the episode's theme of separating legend from archaeological evidence.
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is the homeland of the Norse culture at the center of the Vikings in America investigation, and Gates' show has explored Viking-age history and culture at multiple Scandinavian sites.
Historical data sourced from Wikipedia