SERENDIPITY

Lenape Lands
“SERENDIPITY”

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I began my quest for the LENAPE History by a process that I now call “serendipity.”  “Making pleasant and unexpected discoveries entirely by chance.” 

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At Oklahoma State University about 1971 I was given an assignment to help State Extension Agents in ten prairie states deal with “Feedlot Waste Management.” 

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As I traveled into each state I would buy and read a book about the state.   When I visited in Nebraska, I had little spare time throughout most of the visit.  As my wife and I departed the University of Nebraska bookstore, I saw a book entitled
“Ancient Pioneers, Early Early Connections.”  I thought the book was about the pioneer couple, who were featured as the mascots of the Nebrasa sport teams.

A string of decisions led to my being in the University of Nebraska bookstore.  But those decisions were, each one, “entirely by chance.”  They had no relation to the “Ancient Pioneers” book, which I bought.
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SERENDIPITY #1.

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Astri A. Stromsted wrote a book about ancient Norse pioneers.
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I was reading the book as my wife drove.
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I came across another discovery.  Four thousand Norse oeople vanished from Greenland.  No one knew where they went. 
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SERENDIPITY #2.

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I remember exclaiming. “I am 52 years old.   I read history books all my life.  Why is it that I never heard of the 4.000 people, who vanished from Greenland?”

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At home I told my family about the 4,000 people, who  varnished.  I told them that, when I retire, I would find out where the 4000 people went.  “4,000 people cannot vanish with out leaving a record.”

But I still had thirteen years to make a living.  I put the book references into my Commodore 64 computer.  I added references to the VIKING and the RED MAN.
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Then I forgot the Ancient Pioneers.

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Then I, a man who should have been settled  for the rest og hid life, moved at least eight  times into four states. I changed computer systems three times.

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Afer a year into retirement, I told my daughter, “I do not know what to do with myself.”  She said, “Dad, remember that book you were going to write?”

I searched my computer’s memory for “Ancient Pioneers”.
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SERENDIPITY #3.
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The Ancient Pioneers data was an unexpected find.