When did the vikings reach Maine?

Answer 1

A Viking settlement in Newfoundland would be 1,006-1,007years old. The settlement was led by Leifr Eiriksson [c. 970-c. 1020] sometime in 1002 or 1003. Eiriksson sailed from Greenland with a crew of 35. He was looking for land to the west of Greenland.

Eiriksson was an individual who had the courage, and the means, to follow his dreams. He in fact had grown up hearing about such a possible land. What he had heard were the reports that Bjarni Herjolfsson [fl. 10th century] brought back, of a land that he had sighted but not landed at, in 986. Herjolfsson's boat had been blown off course while he was sailing from Iceland to Greenland.

Eiriksson used Herjolfsson's boat on his historic trip, which culminated in the Viking settlement of Vinland. Vinland is thought to have been the northern tip of the Canadian island of Newfoundland. A Viking settlement of about that age was discovered, at L'Anse aux Meadows, in 1963 by explorer Helge Marcus Ingstad [December 30, 1899-March 29, 2001] and his wife, archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad [February 11, 1918-November 16, 1997].

Answer 2

In the year 1002 or 1003.