Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd was a Welsh prince, who sailed to America in 1170, more than three hundred years before Christopher Columbus’s voyage in 1492.
Madoc was the son of Owain Gwynedd, the King of Wales. The king died in 1170, and soon Wales degenerated into a state of civil war as his sons fought over the throne. At one point, Madoc couldn’t bear the pain of his family fighting, and he decided to start a voyage to the west. He set up a successful settlement at Mobile Bay in modern Alabama.
The ‘Madoc story’ has always been the subject of much speculation in the context of possible pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. No conclusive archaeological proofs about Madoc could ever be found.
However, speculation abounds, connecting him with certain sites, such as Devil’s Backbone, located on the Ohio River at Fourteen Mile Creek near Louisville, Kentucky. The township of Madoc, Ontario, and the nearby village of Madoc, are both named in the prince’s memory.