Friday, March 6, 2009

Plymouth Rockz

Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. The rock is not referred to in the Journal Of Plymouth Plantation in fact the first reference to the Pilgrims landing on a rock is found 121 years after it happened. The rock is currently located on the shore of Plymouth Harbor in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The location of the Plymouth Rock (a glacial erratic) at the foot of Cole's Hill is said to have been passed from generation to generation. When plans were started to build a wharf at the Pilgrim's landing site in 1741, a 94 year old Elder of the church named Thomas Faunce (also the town record keeper), identified the precise rock his father had told him was the first solid land the Pilgrims set foot upon.

When the townspeople of Plymouth decided to move the rock in 1774, it was split into two halves. The bottom portion was left behind at the wharf and the top half was relocated to the town's meeting-house.

No comments: