Plymouth Rock vintage view.

Oldest Tourist Attraction in America

Plymouth Rock is an American icon, the spot where the Pilgrims first set foot on America in 1620. The problem is, that story wasn't reported until 1741, long after anyone who could dismiss it as nonsense was dead. What we know today as Plymouth Rock isn't even the whole rock; it was hacked off of a larger rock in 1774, dragged to various locations for a hundred years, then brought to this site on the water's edge in 1880.

In 1921 a Greekish portico -- it looks like a scaled-down Lincoln Memorial -- was erected around it. The rock lies in the center, a gray boulder in a caged-in sand pit.

Visitors walk around the rock on an elevated platform. Not knowing what to do at an attraction that's just a rock, they throw pennies at it.

Oldest Tourist Attraction in America

Plymouth Rock

Address:: Water St., Plymouth, MA
Directions:: Hwy 3/Pilgrim Hwy to US Hwy 44/Samoset St. east to town. South on Water St. to Pilgrim Memorial State Park, and Plymouth Rock.
Admission:: The rock is free, but parking is not.

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Nearby Offbeat Places

National Monument to the Forefathers, Plymouth, MA - < 1 mi.
Peter Toth Indian Head, Plymouth, MA - 1 mi.
Sacrifice Rock, Plymouth, MA - 5 mi.
In the region: Nascent Shoe Tree?, Boston, MA - 35 mi.

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May 18, 2013