Plymouth: Massachusetts town teaches lessons in history

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Everyone knows the story of the Pilgrims — the little band of people seeking religious freedom who ended up on the Massachusetts shore (they were headed for Virginia) in 1620. And how the gratitude of those who survived the first, harsh year (only half) led to a feast that we honor as the root of our modern-day Thanksgiving.

That story comes alive in today's Plymouth.

But one of the first things you learn here is that there are Pilgrims — and there are Pilgrims. There are the historic folks who arrived on the Mayflower and did their best to scratch out a living in a foreign land, sometimes in accord and sometimes in conflict with their new Wampanoag neighbors.

And there are the romanticized Pilgrims, the heroic Founding Fathers who embody the values and traditions we have come to hold dear.

You find them both here — as you should, because you wouldn't really want one without the other. That delightful mix of history and legend makes Plymouth so enjoyable.

Consider, for example, the Rock.

Legend has it that the first folks to alight from the Mayflower rowed ashore and stepped down onto a solid chunk of granite. You can see Plymouth Rock now, under a granite canopy at the waterfront. Is this, in fact, the very rock those first feet stepped on?

In 1741, 95-year-old Thomas Faunce said it was; and he said he heard stories in his youth about that very rock — and it has been celebrated as such ever since.

It has moved around a bit, though. In 1775, it was dug up and hauled to the Town Square — but it broke in two as the team of oxen tried to pull it out. The biggest part remained in the center of town until 1834, then was moved to Pilgrim's Hall. The other section stayed at the waterfront, where in 1849 the first canopy was erected over it.

In 1880, the two pieces were reunited at the waterfront and cemented together. The present canopy was erected in 1920, to mark 300 years since the landing.

So, original or not, Plymouth Rock has a storied history. We liked the approach that Plymouth historian Rose T. Briggs takes: "It is the fact that they landed — and remained — that matters, not where they landed. Yet it is not a bad thing for a nation to be founded on a rock."

Anchored at the waterfront is a ship called Mayflower II. Although not an exact copy, it is a full-scale replica of the type of ship that brought the Pilgrims in 1620, crafted using the same skills, materials and processes as those earlier ships employed.