Day 4  Plymouth Historic Walking Tour

I apologize for yesterday's messy post.. I took pictures in the Jenney Museum and some of the pictures I took of the exhibits cut off information and you weren't able to zoom in (on your smart phones) to read it.  I will repost new pictures of the exhibits tomorrow.  Too fascinating (and important!) to leave out.

Today we had a walking tour with Leo Martin of Plymouth where the Pilgrims first settled. --  I told him that we should clone him and put him in history classes all over the country.  To teach our children the true history of the founding of our country -- in an interesting and entertaining way!  We all would be fans of history if we had had teachers like him!

We started out at the Jenney Museum where they have excellent exhibits and a video that explains much about the Pilgrims from their 'separatist' beginnings in England to their dangerous voyage on the Mayflower to their efforts to establish a land of people who are governed by God's laws and values.

Jenney Museum was named for a man named John Jenney -- one of the first settlers who happened to be a great entrepreneur.  In 1636 he built the country's first water powered grist mill to grind corn.  A recreation of this mill is located just behind the Jenney Museum pictured here.  

As an exhibit in the museum explains, he also was one of the judges who upheld the treaty that the pilgrims made with the Wampanoag Indians (which lasted 55 years -- the longest Indian treaty in the history of our country) by voting -- along with 2 other judges -- to sentence a pilgrim to death for killing an Indian.  This cemented a lasting trust and bond between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians. 

Leo said he earned his reputation as a great entrepreneur by asking the local governing leaders if he could mine the salt on a nearby island.  Then asked if he could cut down the trees on the island to use for building projects.  He got permission for this too.  Then as the island was now cleared, he asked if he could farm it.  He got permission for that too!

Between the wall of the grist mill and the land wall is a 'fish ladder' that the river herring climb to get to the still water above the dam where they spawn yearly.  The fish counters last year counted between 100,000 and 200,000 river herring that made it.  This is due to ongoing conservation efforts.

This river "Town Brook" is the reason that the Pilgrims chose to settle in Plymouth.  The herring which may have been in the millions back then were used to fertilize the corn.

Of the 104 passengers on the Mayflower who reached Plymouth, only 51 survived the first winter.  This is stone structure which holds their bones lists those who died the first winter.

The Pilgrim Mother Fountain.  The Daughters of the American Revolution commemorates it: "the statue depicts a Pilgrim woman of mature age.  The figure is strong, yet modest; is sweet and gentle, but also vigorous and has a spiritual quality such as the heroic women of the Mayflower must have had.  It expresses faith, devotion and strength of endurance in a great cause and for a great principle.  It is clothed in the usual Pilgrim costume, based on the models in the Metropolitan Museum of Art".

It is said that they knew that these women must preserve their children for this great endeavor in the new world.  So they would lie over their children at night to keep them from freezing and sacrificed for them in other ways.  Of the 18 married women to make the voyage, 14 died the first winter.

Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe. The plaque says "protector and preserver of the pilgrims".  According to Leo's research, Thanksgiving really happened after the harvest the first year with the 51 surviving pilgrims.  Their purpose was to give thanks to God for His provision.  Massasoit was invited along with his family.  He said that Massasoit assumed that it was extended family.  90 braves showed up.  But they brought 5 deer and other food to share.

Walking toward the Plymouth Rock Monument with the bay at Plymouth in the background.  The pilgrims landed first on the sandy shore at the end of Cape Cod where Provincetown is situated now.  Then they scouted around to find a suitable place to settle and then took a smaller boat and landed in Plymouth.  As they stepped off the boat they set their foot on the rock that is called Plymouth rock.

Plymouth Rock.  Leo tells the story of a man (one of the first settlers of Plymouth) who walked 3 miles to see this rock.  He says that this doesn't sound like an exceptional story except that he was 95 years old and he walked this distance to see this rock for the last time to say goodbye. 

Leo says that in these tours that he has taken people on for years, he tells people of the sacrifices and hardships of the pilgrims and gets asked this question a lot:  "Why did they do it?"  He tells them that the settlers (all men) of Jamestown, VA (in 1607 -- before the pilgrims arrived) came over to strike it rich.  The pilgrims came to create a society.

Cormorants sunning themselves on the bay.

Vernon and Renie sunning themselves at the bay.  We had a wonderful day with our friends, Jerry and Kathy.