Whether they stepped on an actual rock is open to question. The pilgrims don’t mention it, nor does anyone else until 1715. The specific rock we venerate today was first identified in 1741. That was when 94-year-old Thomas Faunce declared he knew the exact boulder on which the Mayflower pilgrims had stepped. Faunce had grown up in Plymouth and his father had landed there in 1623, three years after the pilgrims arrived. Faunce insisted his father and original Mayflower passengers had pointed out the rock to him when he was a boy. With most of the town watching, Faunce was carried in a chair to the shore. He began to cry at the sight of the rock, certain it would be the last time he would see it.
In any case, whichever rock he identified now remains enshrined and separated from its brethren.
2 comments:
i distinctly recall being a very young lad on a field trip from school.....we visited plimouth plantation & the rock. i remember looking down at that puny stone & remarking how little it was.
I have a similar memory. I think every child raised in new England experiences the same disappointment
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