What's the most visited rock in New England? Plymouth Rock, of course. It's housed within the smallest state park in Massachusetts, Pilgrim Memorial State Park, which is visited by nearly one million people each year.
According to legend, Plymouth Rock is the boulder upon which the Pilgrims landed when they arrived at the location of their permanent settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. Most first-time visitors to "the rock" are a bit startled by its smallness. How could such a monumental artifact in American history be so, well... puny?
For starters, the well intentioned residents of Plymouth who first set out to preserve the symbolic rock in 1774 had the unpleasant experience of watching the rock split in two when a team of oxen attempted to raise it.
Only the upper portion of Plymouth Rock left the waterfront originally for display in the Town Square.
Souvenir seekers who desired to bring home a "piece of the rock" caused further deterioration until Plymouth Rock was moved to safety inside an iron fence at the Pilgrim Hall Museum in 1834. It had a rough trip to the museum, though, falling off its conveyance and obtaining its distinctive crack.
Remember the bottom part of the rock that was left behind at the waterfront? The Pilgrim Society acquired the other half of Plymouth Rock in 1859, and in 1867, a Plymouth Rock canopy structure was completed at the waterfront to house it. Unfortunately, the canopy was not large enough to hold the whole rock, so a few pieces had to be hacked off and sold as souvenirs.
Finally, in 1880, the upper chunk was united with the lower piece of Plymouth Rock--cement did the trick! And "1620," the date of the Pilgrims' arrival in Plymouth, was permanently carved into the rock.
Plymouth Rock was moved for the last time during the celebration of Plymouth's tercentenary in 1921 to a new canopy designed by famed architects McKim, Mead and White and built by Roy B. Beattie of Fall River, Massachusetts. Would you believe that the rock broke apart once again during this move to its elegant new digs?
Plymouth Rock, though a bit battered by time, remains a powerful tribute to the courage of the 102 Mayflower passengers who founded the land we know as New England. Getting to Plymouth Rock... Follow Route 3 South to Route 44 (Plymouth). Follow 44 East to the waterfront. The memorial is always open free to the public.
I need to go back and read the one about the 'witch house.' It should bring back memories of being in Arthur Miller's play 'The Crucible,' about the Salem witch trials, in college.
That would sure be neat to see.
FRUS to YOU and the other STUS will be here to give them, too!
Plimoth PlantationPlimoth (Plymouth) Plantation was the first permanent European settlement in southern New England (AD 1620). Today, this area is the site of a living museum, dedicated to recreating 17th - century lifeways in the New World.
Plimoth Plantation includes several exhibits:
A reconstruction of the 1627 village occupied by the Pilgrims
A reconstruction of Hobbamock's Homesite.
The Nye Barn
All components are interpretive exhibits illustrating many aspects of life. People in historic period costumes carry out their daily tasks which would have been conducted by the occupants of the settlement. Their dialect is recreates the flavor of the period as well.
Last year the Plimoth Plantation has expanded their exhibits by adding the Nye Barn to provide visitors with an in-depth look at their Rare and Minor Breeds Animal Program. Visitors will be able to view the types of animals that would have inhabited the first European Settlement in Plymouth.
Also new, is the"Irreconcilable Differences" exhibit. Opened on JULY 29TH 1995, this exhibit concentrates on the 1620-1692 period, rather than just the 1620's decade, as do the other sites and exhibits at the Plantation.
The exhibit uses an interactive enviornment, which visitors can use to ask questions and hear first person accounts from two of the periods' inhabitants, Mary Allerton Cushman and Wampanoag Squaw Sachem Awashonks, to explore the evolution of both the colony and Native Americans in the period of expansion after the 1620's decade.
</B>The English ship the Mayflower carried the Separatist Puritans, later known as pilgrims, to Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. The 180-ton vessel was about 12 years old and had been in the wine trade. It was chartered by John Carver, a leader of the Separatist congregation at Leiden, Holland, who had gone to London to make arrangements for the voyage to America. The ship was made ready at Southampton with a passenger list that included English Separatists, hired help (among them Myles Standish, a professional soldier, and John Alden, a cooper), and other colonists who were to be taken along at the insistence of the London businessmen who were helping to finance the expedition.
In the meantime the Leiden Separatists, who had initiated the venture, sailed for Southampton on July 22, 1620, with 35 members of the congregation and their leaders William Bradford and William Brewster aboard the 60-ton Speedwell. Both the Speedwell and the Mayflower, carrying a total of about 120 passengers, sailed from Southampton on August 15, but they were twice forced back by dangerous leaks on the Speedwell. At the English port of Plymouth some of the Speedwell's passengers were regrouped on the Mayflower, and on September 16, the historic voyage began.
This time the Mayflower carried 102 passengers, only 37 of whom were from the Leiden congregation, in addition to the crew. The voyage took 65 days, during which two persons died. A boy, Oceanus Hopkins, was born at sea, and another, Peregrine White, was born as the ship lay at anchor off Cape Cod. The ship came in sight of Cape Cod on November 19 and sailed south. The colonists had been granted territory in Virginia but probably headed for a planned destination near the mouth of the Hudson River. The Mayflower turned back, however, and dropped anchor at Provincetown on November 21.
That day 41 men signed the so-called Mayflower Compact, a "plantation covenant" modeled after a Separatist church covenant, by which they agreed to establish a "Civil Body Politic" (a temporary government) and to be bound by its laws. This agreement was thought necessary because there were rumors that some of the non-Separatists, called "Strangers," among the passengers would defy the Pilgrims if they landed in a place other than that specified in the land grant they had received from the London Company. The compact became the basis of government in the Plymouth Colony. After it was signed, the Pilgrims elected John Carver their first governor.
After weeks of scouting for a suitable settlement area, the Mayflower's passengers finally landed at Plymouth on Dec. 26, 1620. Although the Mayflower's captain and part-owner, Christopher Jones, had threatened to leave the Pilgrims unless they quickly found a place to land, the ship remained at Plymouth during the first terrible winter of 1620-21, when half of the colonists died. The Mayflower left Plymouth on Apr. 15, 1621, and arrived back in England on May 16.
William Bradford's classic account of the Mayflower's voyage does not mention the ship by name, nor does it describe the vessel. In 1926, however, a model was constructed by R. C. Anderson from general information about late-16th-century merchant ships of its tonnage. This model, which is in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, gives the ship's dimensions as 90 ft (27.4 m) long, with a 64-ft (19.5-m) keel, 26-ft (7.9-m) beam,and a hold 11 ft (3.4 m) deep. In 1957 a close replica of the Mayflower, the Mayflower II, wasbuilt in 1957 by England as a gift to America and sailed from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth,Mass., where it is now on view. This is the only time that Mayflower II has sailed accross theAtlantic.
For nearly 38 years, this recreation of the Pilgrim's famous vessel has been little more than afloating museum confined to its pier near Plymouth Rock rarely leaving the dock, and when ithas, it has mainly reached its destination by tug.Modeled faithfuly after the slow andcumbersome 17th-century merchant vessels that sailed the waters between England andEurope, the Mayflower II lacks the most modern conveniences including an engine. It is hard tosteer and has an unsettling habit of rolling with sea.
In 1964 the ship went on a brief sail, and crews unfurled her sails briefly in 1990 and 1991, afterthe square-rigged ship went through major renovations to make her more seaworthy. In 1992, theMayflower II won approval to carry passengers after congress passed special legislation toloosen some of the Coast Guards strict certification guidelines. In 1992, the Mayflower II led aprocession of the Tall Ships through the Cape Cod Canal. In the end of that year, it left on a 4 month tour to Florida, however the ship was usually towed and very little sailing actually tookplace. The Plimoth Plantation which runs the Mayflower II as part of its living history exhibit hasadded radios, navigational equipment, electric bilge pumps and lifevests.
On July, 23, 1995, The Mayflower set sail again to commemorate the 375th anniversary of the original Mayflower's arrival to the new World.
"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" This legendary order has come to symbolize the conviction and determination of the ill-equipped American colonists facing powerful British forces during the famous battle fought on this site on June 17, 1775. The battle is popularly known as "The Battle of Bunker Hill" although most of the fighting actually took place on Breed's Hill, the site of the existing monument and exhibit lodge. Today, a 221-foot granite obelisk marks the site of the first major battle of the American Revolution.
The Battle of Bunker Hill pitted a newly-formed and inexperienced colonial army against the more highly trained and better-equipped British. Despite the colonial army's shortcomings, it was led by such capable men as Colonel William Prescott, Colonel John Stark and General Israel Putnam, who had experience fighting alongside the British in the French and Indian War. Although the British Army ultimately prevailed in the battle, the colonists greatly surprised the British by repelling two major assaults and inflicting great casualties. Out of the 2,200 British ground forces and artillery engaged at the battle, almost half (1,034) were counted afterwards as casualties (both killed and wounded). The colonists lost between 400 and 600 combined casualties, including popular patriot leader and newly-elected Major-General Dr. Joseph Warren, who was killed during the third and final assault.
The first monument on the site was an 18-foot wooden pillar with a gilt urn erected in 1794 by King Solomon's Lodge of Masons to honor fallen patriot and mason, Dr. Joseph Warren. In 1823, a group of prominent citizens formed the Bunker Hill Monument Association to construct a more permanent and significant monument to commemorate the famous battle. The existing monument was finally completed in 1842 and dedicated on June 17, 1843, in a major national ceremony. The exhibit lodge was built in the late nineteenth century to house a statue of Dr. Warren. Hours Admission: Free
I need to go back and read the one about the 'witch house.' It should bring back memories of being in Arthur Miller's play 'The Crucible,' about the sales witch trials, in college.
That would sure be neat to see.
FRUS to YOU and the other STUS will be here to give them, too!
THANK YOU!
Glad you like!!
I absolutely love the witch house.. it's very intriguing to me! I used to do reports on it for school
Fenway Park: Home of the Red Sox
Though generations have come and gone, Fenway Park remains, much like it did the day it opened on April 20, 1912.
The home of the Boston Red Sox resounds with the echoes of great baseball players: Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Jimmy Collins, Duffy Lewis, Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, Joe Cronin, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, Ted Williams, Jimmie Foxx, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski, to name just a few.
Fenway Park is actually the second home for the Sox. In 1901, the Boston Americans became one of the charter members of the fledgling American League. The Americans played ball at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, now a part of Northeastern University's campus.
Boston Globe owner General Charles Henry Taylor, a Civil War veteran, bought the team for his son John I. Taylor in 1904. At various times were called the Puritans, Pilgrims and Plymouth Rocks. In 1907, owner Taylor changed the club's name from the Pilgrims to the Red Sox. In 1910, tired of the leasing arrangement for the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Taylor announced that he would build a ballpark for his Red Sox. Taylor dubbed the new ballpark Fenway Park because of its location in the Fenway section of Boston.
Boston Duck Tours You've never toured Boston in anything that comes close to Boston Duck Tours! The fun begins as soon as you board your "DUCK", an authentic, renovated World War II amphibious landing vehicle. First, you'll be greeted by one of their legendary tour ConDUCKtors, who'll be narrating your tour. Then you're off on a journey like you've never had before.
You'll cruise by all the places that make Boston the birthplace of freedom and a city of firsts, from the golden-domed State House to Bunker Hill and the Fleet Center, Boston Common and Copley Square to the Big Dig, Government Center to fashionable Newbury Street, Quincy Market to the Prudential Tower, and more. And, as the best of Boston unfolds before your eyes, your ConDUCKtor will be giving you lots of little known facts and interesting insights about our unique and wonderful city.
And just when you think you've seen it all, there's more. It's time for "Splashdown" as your ConDUCKtor splashes your DUCK right into the Charles River for a breathtaking view of the Boston and Cambridge skylines, the kind of view you just won't get anywhere else.
So take the ride of your life. Hop on a Boston Duck Tour! This tour is seasonal and only operates from March through to November.
Very welcome.. It's fun when you've visited these places already My husband did the duck tours with the scouts and they LOVED it!!! It's the coolest thing!
Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers
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Places Of Interest In And Around Boston :)
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Plimoth (Plymouth) Plantation was the first permanent European settlement in southern New England (AD 1620). Today, this area is the site of a living museum, dedicated to recreating 17th - century lifeways in the New World. 
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