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Updated: December 14, 2009, 10:00 am	Share    Print    Email

The Plymouth Rock memorial designed by the Stanford White firm of McKim, Mead and White. Photos by Douglas Harrington

Plymouth, MA - It is that time of year again when we celebrate the uniquely American holiday called Thanksgiving. It is a holiday as rich in real history as it is in acquired myth. It represents for many the symbol of American ingenuity and survival in the wilderness of the then New World, for others it represents the start of the exploitation and demise of the native people that didn't see this land as the New World, but as their ancient home. Taking a fresh look, Hamptons.com took a road trip to the source of the story, Plymouth, Massachusetts in New England's version of the Hamptons known as Cape Cod.

A Wamponoag native descendant describes the traditional carving of a mishoonash.

When I planned my visit to the Plimouth Plantation, I expected to encounter a historical venue that I was certain would have at least some of the usual trappings of a tourist amusement park. In truth, I can best describe my experience as an illuminating visit to a living museum. By the way, although the town in Massachusetts is Plymouth, the Pilgrim's settlement village is called Plimouth, in its original 1620 spelling.

Upon arriving at the Visitors Center I was ushered into a large theater where a 15 minute primer was screened to prepare visitors regarding what they would encounter on their self-guided walking tour of this multi-acre recreation of the Pilgrim settlement. The original site of the settlement is 2.5 miles north in the town of modern Plymouth, with several historical markers noting the location of various original homes on Leyden Street. Within the Visitors Center there are also a number of exhibits, a gift shop and a cafeteria.

Leaving the center I followed the path to the Wampanoag Homesite. The Wompanoag, meaning People of the First Light, were the native people that inhabited the area prior to the arrival of the Pilgrims. It is not a native village, but the recreated homesite of Hobbamock, a native man who along with his family lived beside the original Pilgrim settlement and served as its interpreter with the Wampanoag tribe. The site consists of two wetuash (bark covered houses), a garden area with a corn-watch and an outdoor cooking arbor.

Not actors portraying native people, this site at Plimouth Plantation is staffed by native Wampanoag whose ancestors first greeted the Pilgrims. Traditional skills are practiced throughout the site, such as belt weaving, hide tanning, and the burning out of mishoonash (boats). Although attired in native deerskin clothing of their past, the native staff speaks in a modern perspective about their history and culture. Before entering the site a placard clearly and firmly explains the appropriate and respectful vernacular expected when addressing the native staff and parents are urged to make this clear to their children. Expressions like "How!" are not appreciated or tolerated.

The re-creation of the Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor.

As is true throughout Plimouth Plantation, interaction with and questions to the staffers are strongly encouraged and the Visitors Center is more than happy to provide a list of potential questions. The whole experience at this Smithsonian Affiliated institution is a highly interactive and hands-on history lesson. To that point let's address one of the myths that have been perpetuated about the first Thanksgiving over the years.

Firstly, the aforementioned First Thanksgiving in 1621 was really a celebration of the harvest and it was not a first for the native people who had a long tradition of celebrating the bounty of the earth, nor was it a first for the Pilgrims, as harvest celebrations had occurred throughout Europe since the time of the Druids. It was also not the warm and cozy gathering portrayed in paintings and history books.

There was a degree of mutual respect between the two peoples based on such things as military and trade agreements, but there was an inherent distrust that is most understandable on the part of the Wamponoag. Prior to the arrival of the Mayflower European traders, fur trappers and explorers had already discovered the land and not only brought with them disease that killed thousands of native people, but also frequently kidnapped and enslaved the Wamponoag and members of other local tribes.

A 1627 Plimouth Village staff actor explaining the process of diving wooden planks.

For their part the Pilgrims, in their writings, betray contempt for the customs, household arrangements and, most especially, the religion of the Wampanoag. Within a decade the relationship would become increasingly tense with the arrival of more English settlers and further encroachment of the Wamponoag land. By 1675 the two peoples were actually battling in what would be called King Philip's War.

After a thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating experience at the Wamponoag homesite, I followed the trial to the 1627 Pilgrim Settlement. Surrounded by a protective wooden wall that is called a palisade, I entered through the gate and was immediately transported back to the early 17th century. With the same dedication to authenticity and original craft and custom as the native homesite, I literally felt that I was standing with the Pilgrims, having arrived with them seven years earlier on the Mayflower. The two dozen structures that constitute the village are not only recreations in form and appearance, but were built with the traditional methods and tools of the original settlers.

Each home is named for a member of the colony that occupied it and tireless research has been done to recreate the village as accurately as possible. Among the many completed structures there is always a structure under construction that is used as a learning tool to explain the construction methods of the early colonists. A staffer gave me a detailed explanation of the process of splitting, called diving, the logs into the wooden planks that were used as the exterior frames of the houses.

The Wamponoag Homesite at Plimouth Plantation.

As visually impressive as the village is itself, the staffers that roam the colony are nothing short of extraordinary. These are method actors so completely immersed in their roles as the original Pilgrims, they would give Marlon Brando a run for his money. They never fall out of character and speak in the dialect of the period in every expression and explanation. The late British linguist Martyn Wakelin, an expert on Shakespearean dialects, developed accent profiles for 17 regions in England. To learn these dialects, the village staffers listen to audiotapes based on his research, study period documents and practice speaking with other role players. They study historical documents related to their individual characters specifically and those that detail the history and environment of the original Plimouth Plantation in general. The primary source for the historical recreation of this living history museum is "Of Plimouth Plantation," a 25-year recollection of the plantation written by its governor William Bradford.

Each staffer is, of course, costumed in the clothing of the era and they seem to let their beards and hair grow in the un-manicured manner of the original inhabitants of the village. They do not stand around and wait to be questioned, but carry out the day-to-day responsibilities and tasks that occurred within the life of the plantation. They re-thatch roofs, milk cows, tend gardens, converse with neighbors, cook and often eat the traditional dishes that sustained the early Pilgrims. They bid you "Good Day" as they pass you, but continue there reliving of the past as if it were the present.

The interior of one of the 1627 village houses with costumed staff members.

There are no velvet ropes that prevent visitors from truly experiencing the artifacts and living conditions depicted in this sprawling, hands-on museum. I walked through each of the houses, all period furnished and many with fires blazing in the hearths. I sat in the chairs, looked in drawers and handled tools, decorations and elements of the Pilgrims' lives. Plimouth Village is a real time immersion into history that I recommend to every Hamptonian, particular parents with school age children. Southampton itself, as the first English settlement in New York State, was founded only 20 years after the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth. Our connection to this incredible village is nothing short of indelible.

To continue with the myth correcting illumination of the many one might experience at Plimouth Plantation is the notion that the Pilgrims were Puritans. In truth, at the time of the voyage of the Mayflower, there were two factions that opposed the degree of reformation of the Church of England, as many felt that the separation from the ritual and iconic ceremony of the Roman Church was still too prevalent in the Anglican Communion. The factions were Puritans that wanted to remain, but purify the English church, and separatists that wanted to separate from the church entirely and form their own Protestant denomination. In truth the Pilgrims, like most English would not actually admit to either in public pronouncement. However, based on the fact that they had already left England and settled in Holland for a decade before the journey to Plimouth, it is at least my conclusion, based on what I discovered at Plimouth, that they were more likely separatists and certainly not Puritans.

The last stop at Plimouth Plantation is a visit at the Craft Center. Crafts from woodwork to pottery to period tailoring are created on site by artisans versed in and dedicated to preserving the art reflected in the era of the Pilgrims. The artisans are on hand to explain their crafts, their learned historic skills and answer questions. These crafts can be purchased at very reasonable prices at the gift shop.

Pilgrim's Hall, the oldest museum in America.

As much as a day at Plimouth Plantation is more than enough and an extraordinary historical experience relating to our forefathers and women that forged the genesis of Thanksgiving, a short drive north brings you to three other venues that should not be missed. A trip to the modern day town of Plymouth affords you the opportunity to see Plymouth Rock, the recreated Mayflower ship that brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth and America's oldest museum dedicated to New England's founding colonists.

In truth the Pilgrims did not first land on a rock in Plymouth, they first landed in what is today Provincetown, Massachusetts on the tip of Cape Cod and there is a memorial there to the landing. After a month's stay, less than welcomed by the local native peoples who had been previously abused by Europeans, they set out for the mouth of the Hudson River, our New York City. After it was determined that the trip was more than the vessel and ocean weary Pilgrims could accomplish, the Mayflower turned back and landed at Plymouth.

The Plimouth Plantation village.

Whether William Bradford and his fellow English travelers actually landed on the presently designated Plymouth Rock is left to conjecture, as the location was actually generational, family folklore passed down for 120 years. It was officially noted, 650 feet from the acknowledged original settlement, as the landing point of the Pilgrims in 1741. It has been moved, broken and half of the original rock had a found a home in the Plymouth Meeting Hall. In 1880 the halves were rejoined and the date 1620 was carved into the stone. The present elaborate canopy that covers the rock was designed by the firm of renowned architect Stanford White, of McKim, Mead and White, which has left their mark on the East End in several mansions along the dunes of Montauk and across Long Island in homes like Boxwood in Saint James.

Located in Plymouth Harbor is the floating museum that is a re-creation of the Mayflower that brought the Pilgrims from Leiden, Holland to what is now called America. The ship was built in Europe and actually made an unaccompanied 55-day voyage across the Atlantic in 1957. This ship, like the Plymouth Plantation, is staffed with an extraordinary team of passionately devoted and well versed specialists in the history of the Pilgrims and their journey to America.

Besides being a beautiful, historic harbor town Plymouth is also home to America's oldest continuously operated public museum, Pilgrim's Hall. It was founded in 1824 and although, in my opinion, a bit too caught up in the venerated myths of the Pilgrim's landing and Thanksgiving, the museum does house William Bradford's bible, Miles Standish's sword and the only portrait of a Pilgrim painted from life, Edward Winslow. There are many other artifacts that relate to the history of Plymouth and the first European settlers of New England.

The Plimouth Plantation and its associated attractions are opened throughout the year and give us an extraordinary window to our past, a past that is equally reflected in the deep British history of the Hamptons and our own impact on the creation of the nation. Start in Plymouth and follow the trail to Southampton, it will lead you to the rich historical landmarks and events that permeate the East End. We may have less celebrated, historical tourist attractions, but just like Plymouth, we certainly have the history. Think about that rich history as you carve the turkey this Thanksgiving.