Plymouth Rock
41.958039°N 70.662153°W

6/20/2012 3:51:44 PM

Plymouth Rock Memorial
41.957950°N 70.662458°W

6/20/2012 3:52:43 PM

Plymouth Rock is supposedly the place where the pilgrims first stepped foot on America. Unfortunately, there is no mention of landing on a rock at Plymouth by any of those that lived in Plymouth Colony and later wrote of their experiences. However, it has come to be a symbol of the founding of Plymouth Colony and settlement in America.

Puritans (which later became the Congregational Church) along with English wishing to settle in America, collectively termed the pilgrims, sailed on the Mayflower and landed in what is now Plymouth, MA, on November 20, 1620. Realizing that they were from diverse backgrounds, the pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact which was used to govern the colony. The pilgrims established a community near Plymouth Rock on nearby Cole’s Hill and along Leyden St. up to Fort Hill during the first years of the settlement.

Plymouth Rock

Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. It is an important symbol in American history. There are no contemporaneous references to the Pilgrims' landing on a rock at Plymouth, and it is not referred to in Edward Winslow's Mourt's Relation (1620–21) or in Bradford's journal Of Plymouth Plantation (1620–47). The first written reference to the Pilgrims landing on a rock is found 121 years after they landed. The Rock, or one traditionally identified as it, has long been memorialized on the shore of Plymouth Harbor in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth Rock
• Philbrick, N., 2006, Mayflower: Penguin Books, New York, 463p.