In 1741 a 94 year old man named Thomas Faunce Identified Plymouth Rock as the rock his father told him was the first solid land the pilgrims had set foot on. (not true the pilgrims first Landed on cape cod, Provincetown Today)
Theophilus Cotton and the town’s people of Plymouth decided to move Plymouth Rock in 1774 it split in two halves. When that happened they took the upper part of Plymouth rock and relocated it to Plymouth’s meeting house and then moved it again to Pilgrim Hall Museum in 1834. The bottom portion of the rock was left behind on the wharf.
It is estimated that the rock weighed 20,000 lb’s till tourist and souvenir hunters chipped away at it. Numerous pieces of the rock were taken and bought and sold. Today Approximately 1/3 of the top portion remains today.. No pieces noticeably have been removed since 1880. There is one more piece in Patent Building in Smithsonian.
Plymouth Rock has figured prominently in Native American History. Particularly as a symbol of the wars waged soon after the pilgrims landed. It has been ceremoniously buried twice by Native American rights activists, once in 1970 and again in 1995 as a part of the National Day of Mourning protests.
