Home » News » Follow the Journey of Plymouth Rock

Plymouth Rock is perhaps the most iconic landmark on the South Shore, if not in the entirety of New England. It’s generally considered where the Pilgrims landed when they arrived in the New World in 1620 and has been a symbol of the beginning and founding of America.

20,000 years ago, Plymouth Rock was deposited onto the South Shore by glacial action. It stayed put for thousands of years, but since 1774 it’s traveled a surprising amount for a rock. It’s basically gone on tour throughout the town, visiting various locations and part of it made an appearance at the 300th Anniversary of Plymouth parade. So next time when you’re in Plymouth, why not follow the journey of Plymouth Rock?

Pilgrim Memorial State Park

79 Water Street, Plymouth

Plymouth Rock has called Pilgrim Memorial State Park home for the majority of its existence. Today it sits in the same spot as where it first was in December of 1620 when the Pilgrims showed up and history made it a celebrity and world-famous landmark.

Back in the 1600s, Plymouth Rock sat on the coastline, exposed to the elements. Now it’s housed beneath a granite canopy with columns and metal grates to protect it. Visitors can visit it and the numerous other statues and monuments in the area. From April through November, you can even talk to guides who can tell you the story of Plymouth Rock, though the park itself is open to the public year-round.

Many tourists are surprised that it’s not as big as expected. As it exists today, Plymouth Rock is estimated to be only about ½ to ⅓ of the size it was when the Pilgrims landed because time and the elements have eroded it. It’s also been broken several times when it was moved throughout Plymouth. And yet another reason is because numerous pieces of the rock have been chipped off and kept as souvenirs or sold. 

1749 Court House Museum

4 Town Square, Plymouth

Back in 1774, when the American Revolution was on the horizon, the people of Plymouth were fired up. In an act of patriotic fervor, they decided to move Plymouth Rock from its home on the shore to the center of town, in front of what is now known as the 1749 Court House Museum. The townspeople used twenty teams of oxen and attempted to hoist the boulder onto a carriage for the ride into town. Unfortunately, Plymouth Rock wasn’t handled with care, resulting in it breaking in two. Half of the rock was left where it originally belonged, while the other half was brought into town.

Today, the museum itself is free and open daily mid-June through mid-October from 10:30 am to 4 pm. It’s a great place to get an informative taste of Plymouth’s past. Highlights of the museum include a fire engine from 1828, the town hearse, and items from the Parting Ways settlement.

Pilgrim Hall Museum

75 Court Street, Plymouth

60 years later, on July 4, 1834, the town decided to move Plymouth Rock again; this time to right outside of the Pilgrim Hall Museum. Unfortunately, on the way over it had yet another accident, falling from a cart as it passed the courthouse and breaking in two on the ground. This rough ride didn’t dissuade it from making it the rest of the way to the museum, where it sat proudly in front of the museum. Being unprotected from passers by, visitors chipped away pieces of the rock as souvenirs.

Pilgrim Hall Museum is open from the beginning of March 1 through early December with periodic openings for February school vacation and special events. It has the honor of being the oldest continuously operating museum in the country, so you’re stepping inside history as you view history. Check out the world’s finest collection of early Plymouth possessions along with galleries and presentations. And for fans of the rock, Pilgrim Hall Museum even has a piece of Plymouth Rock that had been donated by the Plymouth Antiquarian Society in the 1980s.

Back Where It Belongs

In the 1880s, not long after the Civil War, the people of Plymouth felt it was time to mend Plymouth Rock and return it to its proper place. The half of the rock that had been brought all over town was at last united with the half that had been left at the beach, and the two pieces were melded together to become whole again. This is when the date “1620” was carved on the stone’s surface. Up until then, painted Roman numerals had been the only real indication of what this stone meant to the country’s history. Now it rests easy in its enclosure, where people from all over the country can come to admire it.

Still, parts of it still get out and about. During the 300th Anniversary of Plymouth, a tiny piece of the Rock was attached to the top of the parade grand marshal’s baton. This allowed the people to include it in the celebration without risking it breaking again by moving it. Pieces of Plymouth Rock can also be found in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington D.C., and Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, New York.