10/13 Cape Cod and Plymouth

We went to Cape Cod, Mass. This is where the U.S. Coast Guard was started.

Cape Cod is a end moraine for a continental ice sheet that existed 15,000 year ago. It was formed by the constant melting and regrowing of a glacier’s lobe. Constant currents are moving the sand northward into a hook. When whaling was important for getting oil lamps, it was very dangerous to go out and go whaling. The local residents decided that the coasts should be watched for shipwrecks on the rocks so the US Life Saving Service was formed. The people who run this job were volunteers. The job was passed from father to son. The job needed tools to help saving people. The most important was the boat and there was cannons that shot rope across the ocean to create a zip line although this happened once they had to know how to do it.

We also went to Plylmouth, Mass. This is were the colonists made their village.

The Plymouth Rock is the legendary place that they thought that they landed, but actually they landed on the tip of Cape Cod in 1620. Then some people went to present day Plymouth. This the place of the first substantial village in the New England. To get there the Pilgrims had to sail 66 days to get there on the Mayflower there were 126 people including the crew. Of the 126, 102 decided to stay in the new world. The reason being that the people who went to the new world were protestants and used a different Bible than Church of England. After the first winter only 45 remanded then they the gained the trust of the Wampanoags. They helped make the colony successful. The Wampanoags showed them how to plant the corn they stole. Then one of the Wampanoag leaders brought his warriors and stayed for three days feasting and celebrating. T Plimoth Village, we saw to the recreation of the 1627 English Village. The houses were small and fires in every room to keep it warm. The house had tops of cattails and were insulated by mud and stone. Thanksgiving was a holiday to celebrate the first year that the Pilgrims survived because of the native peoples help. Then the first official Thanksgiving was the established by Abraham Lincoln. Right after the Battle of Gettysburg he thought that this is a day of blessings.