Where did the pilgrims settled5/11/2023 But it's just a spectacular sight.ĪRNOLD: And it's probably no accident that you can see the monument from Plymouth, where the rock of much smaller proportions has enjoyed much more fame. People would look and say, oh my god, you can't put that up. M: It's one of those things that you'd never be able to get built today with zoning. The monument sort of looks like a giant turret from a castle but without the castle. It's the tallest all-granite structure in the United States.ĪRNOLD: That's museum director Jim Bakker again. M: We're looking up now at the monument, and it stands at 252 feet, seven and a half inches. President Theodore Roosevelt attended the laying of the cornerstone. So to commemorate that, the people of Provincetown about 100 years ago erected a massive stone monument. Museum officials here say that the signing of that document actually makes Provincetown the birthplace of American democracy. M: (Unintelligible) singing in front of town hall.ĪRNOLD: Freedom and the chance to make just and equal laws is what signing the Mayflower Compact was all about. M: They would not be dancing down the street in drag.ĪRNOLD: But customer Bob Tilton isn't so sure. M: They would not be hanging out in the gay bars. Bartender Kevin McCarthy and some customers worry that some of the Pilgrims might have a stroke if they arrived today. And there's, of course, a vibrant gay community and nightclub scene in Provincetown.ĪRNOLD: The Atlantic House is a long-standing gay bar in Provincetown. And over the years it's become a mecca for all kinds of eccentric artists and poets. Provincetown is way out at land's end at the tip of Cape Cod. And given their puritanical ways, they might well make that same decision were they to arrive in Provincetown today. But that was not for 35 days later that they landed in Plymouth.ĪRNOLD: It turns out that the Pilgrims preferred Plymouth as a place to live. They realized they needed to band together, and that's when they signed the Mayflower Compact, right here in the harbor. M: This is the spot where, known that the Pilgrims first stepped foot. M: Fifty miles east here in Provincetown, where the Pilgrims really landed first.ĪRNOLD: Jim Bakker is the executive director of the Pilgrim Monument and Museum in Provincetown. NPR's Chris Arnold reports.ĬHRIS ARNOLD: So I'm standing on the beach here where the Pilgrims, it's thought, first stepped ashore and trod their boots upon the new world. The Pilgrims first stepped off onto Plymouth Rock and started their colony. The Mayflower made landfall on the shore of Massachusetts. Many kids learn that history of the Pilgrims in school, and it's a good story. This holiday is often said to commemorate the Thanksgiving feast shared between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans who helped teach them to survive the winter. On a Thanksgiving morning it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
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