Plymouth Rock (America’s Cornerstone) located at Plymouth,
MA is the symbolic stepping stone from the old world to the new. In 1741,
Thomas Faunce, elder of the Plymouth Church, identified the Rock as the place
where the Pilgrims first landed. Elder Faunce’s father, who was a passenger on
the ship Ann in 1623, presumably heard it firsthand. In the late 1700s, the
desire to have a lasting symbol of the forefathers quickly brought the Rock to
the forefront of the popular consciousness.
Plymouth Rock became one of the earliest places of
pilgrimage for Americans. It served as the symbol of the landing, the origin of
Plymouth Colony and, by extension, the rest of New England and the entire
nation.
Situated in the portico on the waterfront, Plymouth Rock is approximately one-third its original size. Over the years the Rock has been in various locations where souvenir hunters chipped away at it. Finally, officials relocated the rock on the waterfront and provided protection for viewing . A piece of the Rock, equal in size to the piece on Plymouth’s waterfront, can be found in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.
No lighthouse,
just the rock where the Pilgrims landed. Would they have felt safer arriving at Plymouth if there had been a lighthouse to guide them? I believe it's
safe to say they and their leader, William Bradford, would have been thankful
for a lighthouse to help them navigate to shore. Instead, they landed at
Plymouth Rock without a lighthouse and established the town of Plymouth in the 1620s.
There is a lighthouse at
Plymouth, but it was not built until years after the Pilgrims landed. It is known to locals as "Gurnet
Lighthouse," and stands at the southern tip of the sandy peninsula known
since the Pilgrim days as the Gurnet. (The word Gurnet derives from a fish of
the same name and is plentiful along the Devonshire Coast of England.)
Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving.
