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by Ts Rhodes (Author)
In the small Illinois town of Geneva, forty miles outside of Chicago and nearly a thousand miles from the nearest ocean, a longboat lies at rest. She is the last of her kind to navigate across the North Atlantic. In 1893 she sailed alone from Norway to Chicago, crewed by 12 brave men, bent on a mission to prove that the Norse - not Columbus - were the first Europeans to find and settle the Americas. She attracted thousands at the World's Columbian Exhibition, the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. She has sailed the Mississippi River to New Orleans. She has spent decades docked near what is now Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, has been sheltered under a wooden structure in the city's Lincoln Park. Today, she rests in Good Templar Park, Geneva, under a canopy. The State of Illinois has listed her as one of the state's 10 most endangered landmarks. But she is protected by Friends of the Viking Ship, an organization dedicated to her preservation. Hundreds see her every year, and learn about her construction, her adventures, and the ongoing efforts to preserve her. Her name is Viking.
