Myles Standish Monument State Reservation | |
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Location | Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States |
Coordinates | 42°00′50″N70°41′11″W / 42.01389°N 70.68639°W |
Area | 30 acres (12 ha) [1] |
Elevation | 7 ft (2.1 m) [2] |
Established | 1872 |
Governing body | Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation |
Website | Myles Standish Monument State Reservation |
Myles Standish Monument State Reservation is a state-owned historic preserve and public recreation area in Duxbury, Massachusetts. The focus of the state park is a 116-foot granite shaft topped by a statue of Captain Myles Standish. Standish was military leader of Plymouth Colony. The park is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. [3]
A dedication and cornerstone-laying ceremony attended by 10,000 people took place on October 7, 1872. The monument was not completed until 1898. The monument was built on Captain's Hill, the highest point, 200 feet above sea level, on what was once Standish's farm. The monument rises 116 feet from its foundation to a small viewing parapet that offers panoramic views over the original Plymouth Colony. The 14-foot statue that surmounts the tower has Standish gazing eastward across Massachusetts Bay and holding the colony's charter. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has owned the monument and grounds since 1920. [4] The monument was refurbished in 1988. [3]
The tower's 125 steps can be climbed when open, yielding views from the top of 19th-century lighthouses, Duxbury Beach, Plymouth Harbor, and the Blue Hills to the northwest. The park offers walking trails, picnic tables, and seasonal interpretive programs. [3]
Nearby is Myles Standish Burial Ground, the final resting place for the Captain, with a second, smaller monument built over his gravesite. [5]
John Alden was a crew member on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower which brought the English settlers commonly known as Pilgrims to Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. He was hired in Southampton, England as the ship's cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels. He was a member of the ship's crew and not a settler, yet he decided to remain in Plymouth Colony when the Mayflower returned to England. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact.
Myles Standish was an English military officer and colonist. He was hired as military adviser for Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts, United States by the Pilgrims. Standish accompanied the Pilgrims on the ship Mayflower and played a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony from its foundation in 1620. On February 17, 1621, the Plymouth Colony militia elected him as its first commander and continued to re-elect him to that position for the remainder of his life. Standish served at various times as an agent of Plymouth Colony on a return trip to England, as assistant governor of the colony, and as its treasurer.
Duxbury is a historic seaside town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb located on the South Shore approximately 35 miles (56 km) to the southeast of Boston, the population was 16,090 at the 2020 census.
Plymouth is a town and county seat of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklore, and culture, and is known as "America's Hometown". Plymouth was the site of the colony founded in 1620 by the Mayflower Pilgrims, where New England was first established. It is the oldest municipality in New England and one of the oldest in the United States. The town has served as the location of several prominent events, one of the more notable being the First Thanksgiving feast. Plymouth served as the capital of Plymouth Colony from its founding in 1620 until the colony's merger with the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691. The English explorer John Smith named the area Plymouth and the region 'New England' during his voyage of 1614. It was a later coincidence that, after an aborted attempt to make the 1620 trans-Atlantic crossing from Southampton, the Mayflower finally set sail for America from Plymouth, England.
Priscilla Alden was a noted member of Massachusetts's Plymouth Colony of Pilgrims and the wife of fellow colonist John Alden. They married in 1621 in Plymouth.
Blue Hills Reservation is a 7,000-acre (2,800 ha) state park in Norfolk County, Massachusetts in the United States. Managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, it covers parts of Milton, Quincy, Braintree, Canton, Randolph, and Dedham. Located approximately ten miles south of downtown Boston, the reservation is one of the largest parcels of undeveloped conservation land within the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The park's varied terrain and scenic views make it a popular destination for hikers from the Boston area.
Mount Greylock State Reservation is public recreation and nature preservation area on and around Mount Greylock, the highest point in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The park covers some 12,000 acres (4,900 ha) in the towns of Lanesborough, North Adams, Adams, Cheshire, Williamstown and New Ashford, Massachusetts. It was created in 1898 as Massachusetts' first public land for the purpose of forest preservation.
Pilgrim Memorial State Park comprises two monuments — Plymouth Rock and the National Monument to the Forefathers — in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Closely related to these memorials is the Myles Standish Monument State Reservation which can be seen across the Plymouth Bay in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, these sites are managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Myles Standish State Forest is a state forest located in the towns of Plymouth and Carver in southeastern Massachusetts, approximately 45 miles (70 km) south of Boston. It is the largest publicly owned recreation area in this part of Massachusetts and is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).
The Mayflower Council of the Boy Scouts of America serves the MetroWest and southeastern regions of Massachusetts.
Cole's Hill is a National Historic Landmark containing the first cemetery used by the Mayflower Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. The hill is located on Carver Street near the foot of Leyden Street and across the street from Plymouth Rock. Owned since 1820 by the preservationist Pilgrim Society, it is now a public park.
The Myles Standish Burial Ground in Duxbury, Massachusetts is, according to the American Cemetery Association, the oldest maintained cemetery in the United States.
Moswetuset Hummock is a Native American site and the original name of the tribe (Mosetuset) in the region named Massachusetts after them. The wooded hummock in Squantum, Massachusetts, is formally recognized as historic by descendants of the Ponkapoag people.
Scusset Beach State Reservation is a state-operated, public recreation area located in the town of Sandwich in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, at the east end of the Cape Cod Canal on land formerly part of Sagamore Hill Military Reservation. In addition to its beach and campgrounds, prominent features of the park include Sagamore Hill, a one-time Native American meeting ground and site of World War II coastal fortifications, and a 3,000-foot (910 m) stone jetty that separates the canal and beach. Unlike most of Sandwich, this section of the town is on the mainland side of the Cape Cod Canal. The state park is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation under a lease agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Chickatawbut was the sachem, or leader, of a large group of indigenous people known as the Massachusett tribe in what is now eastern Massachusetts, United States, during the initial period of English settlement in the region in the early seventeenth century.
Quincy Shore Reservation is a public recreation area and protected shoreline on Quincy Bay, Boston Harbor, in Quincy, Massachusetts. Its primary attraction is a 2.3-mile-long (3.7 km) beach, accessible along its entire length by Quincy Shore Drive. The largest beach on Boston Harbor, it is known locally as Wollaston Beach, named for the adjacent Wollaston neighborhood.
Reverend Ichabod Wiswall (1637–1700) was the third pastor of the church in Duxbury, Plymouth Colony, British America. Though he is thought to have given the first known funeral sermon in British America at the burial of Capt. Jonathan Alden in 1697, American funeral sermons predate this event by several decades.
Halibut Point State Park and Halibut Point Reservation are adjacent parcels of conserved, oceanside land located on Cape Ann in the town of Rockport, Massachusetts. Once the Babson Farm granite quarry, the properties are cooperatively managed by the Trustees of Reservations and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation . The adjacent Sea Rocks area is owned by the town of Rockport and is also open to the public.
Myles Standish Park is a municipal park in the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. It consists of a 1-acre (0.40 ha) parcel of land encompassing the former site of the home of the early Pilgrim settler Myles Standish. The park was established in 1929 after the land was given to the town by the Myles Standish Monument Association. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.