From Maine to California and all the way from Australia, Haskell descendants came to Massachusetts on a beautiful weekend in late September, where they followed in the footsteps of the Pilgrims, from where the Pilgrims’ first landed on the tip of Cape Cod on November 11, 1620, to Corn Hill, where the Pilgrims first discovered corn buried by the Indians on November 16, 1620, to First Encounter Beach, where the first armed skirmish with the Indians took place on December 8, 1620, to where the Pilgrims finally landed in Plymouth on December 21, 1620 and established their permanent colony.

Most participants arrived at the John Carver Inn and Spa late Thursday afternoon, September 19, 2019, checked out the town that evening and prepared for an early 8:30 AM departure the following morning for a bus tour to Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod. Our guide on the bus tour, Nancy Hennigan, grew up on Cape Cod and had lived there all her life, making her the ideal person to tell inside stories of what it is like to live on this sixty mile peninsula, extending out into the Atlantic Ocean like a bent a Our guide on the bus tour, Nancy Hennigan, grew up on Cape Cod and had lived there all her life, making her the ideal person to tell inside stories of what it is like to live on this sixty mile peninsula, extending out into the Atlantic Ocean like a bent arm.rm. At the tip of this peninsula is Provincetown, whose year-round population of just under 3000 grows to as much as twenty times that size in the summer, where visitors and summer residents are attracted by the many beaches and art festivals.

About ten miles south of Provincetown, we spotted Corn Hill Road on the left and headed up looking for a plaque commemorating the spot where a group of pilgrims discovered a stash of Indian corn. Our guide, Nancy, had not been there in many years and was uncertain exactly where the plaque was. At the end of the road was a large parking lot serving Corn Hill Beach. Our bus driver drove around the nearly empty parking lot, while we all looked, unsuccessfully, for any sign of a plaque. Just as the bus driver was pulling out of the parking lot, Wiskers, sitting in the back of the bus noticed an American flag on top of a tall flagpole just beyond the far end of the parking lot. Sure enough, at the foot of the flagpole were two plaques, one stating that sixteen pilgrims led by Myles Standish, William Bradford, Stephen Hopkins and Edward Tilly found the precious Indian corn on this spot, which they called corn Hill, on November 16, 1620. The second plaque commemorated Ralph S. Barnaby, who was the first American to win an international soaring certificate for a flight from Corn Hill of 15 minutes, 6 seconds, which exceeded the American record for motorless flight of 9 minutes, 45 seconds, set by Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on October 24, 1911. After taking many pictures, we headed for Provincetown.

As our bus came over the hill, Provincetown stretched out in the distance, surrounded by water, the 250-foot granite Pilgrim Monument pointing to the sky. We headed first to the Pilgrims’ First Landing Park at the very end of Provincetown, took our first group picture and viewed a plaque that stood near the spot where the pilgrims first touched foot on American soil. After being dropped off in the center of Provincetown, we had free time to explore the town, eat our box lunch, walk up the hill to the Pilgrim Monument, and for some of us, climb the 116 steps and 60 ramps to the top of the tower, from which, on a clear day, you can see Boston. While Boston was not visible to us in the distant haze, the sunny day still provided spectacular views of Provincetown and the tip of Cape Cod. President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Pilgrim Monument on August 20, 1907, and President William Howard Taft led the dedication ceremony on August 5, 1910. At the base of the monument, the Provincetown Museum hosts a variety of exhibits, including the stories of the Pilgrim’s arrival and the rich maritime history of Provincetown. By 230 in the afternoon, we were back on the bus, heading back to Plymouth, but not before a stop at First Encounter Beach in Eastham, near the elbow of Cape Cod. This time, it didn’t take long to find the plaque.

Back of the John Carver Inn by 4:30 gave us a couple of hours before the Friday night banquet at the Inn. At everyone’s place at the table, was a gift bag prepared by Kathy and Bob Haskell, containing a variety of Haskell memorabilia, including matted photographs, refrigerator magnets, key chains, boxes, and Haskell stands. Many thanks to Kathy and Bob for an extraordinary accomplishment. Our after-dinner speaker Friday night was Leo Martin, a Plymouth original, who would also lead us on a 90-minute walking tour of Plymouth on Saturday morning. Leo and his wife Nancy run the Jenney Museum, directly across the street from the John Carver Inn. Leo had previously run the Jenney Grist Mill, directly behind the Jenny Museum.

At 9 o'clock Saturday morning, Leo led the group from the Jenney Museum down the path behind the Jenney Grist Mill along Town Brook, with a stop at Brewster Gardens before making our way to Plymouth Rock. Along the way, Leo told interesting stories about the early Pilgrim settlement. Just before reaching Plymouth Rock, we took another group picture in front of the statue of William Bradford, Governor and Historian of the Plymouth Colony (see cover photo of this issue). Across the street from Plymouth Rock, we took another group picture in front of the Pilgrim Mother Statue and the Fountain to the Pilgrim Mothers of the Mayflower. This statue was a gift from the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1921. On the shaft of the fountain behind the statue, are listed the names of all of the women who came on the Mayflower. We stopped at the statue of Massasoit, the great Sachem of the Wampanoags, and then moved on to the stone sarcophagus containing the remains found on Coles Hill in 1921. On the side of the sarcophagus are engraved the names of the nearly half of the Mayflower passengers who died during the first year. Leo ended his tour inside the 1749 Court House Museum on Town Square, where we were able to sit down and listen to Leo’s final stories.

Waiting outside the Court House was Lea Filson of the Mayflower Society, who took us on a tour inside the First Parish Plymouth Church, now known as the National Pilgrim Memorial Meetinghouse. This building was completed in 1899 and is the fourth meetinghouse located on this site, dating back to the time of the Mayflower Pilgrims. It was recently taken over by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants and is currently undergoing much-needed major restorations. The current Unitarian Universalist congregation will be able to continue using the building for Sunday services, but the Mayflower Society plans to use the new meetinghouse for its own purposes, including its national conventions.

On Saturday afternoon, following lunch on our own, we could use our tickets to Plimoth Plantation and the Jenney Grist Mill at any time. Some of us were lucky enough to observe the Grist Mill in operation, grinding corn into cornmeal using a pair of huge 200-year-old millstones, rotated by the large waterwheel on the side of the building, powered by water from Town Brook. The current mill is a reproduction of a grist mill operated on this site by Colonist John Jenney starting in 1636. The Plimoth Plantation, located about 2 1/2 miles from our hotel, is an outdoor living museum that tells the story of both the Wampanoag natives and the English colonists.

The Surfside Smokehouse, located directly on Plymouth Harbor, proved to be an ideal venue for our farewell barbecue buffet dinner Saturday night. We all enjoyed a pre-meal reception in our own second floor room, with its own private bar and a two-sided balcony overlooking the harbor. We had packed a lot of walking into the past two days, and it was good to be able to relax, chat with new and old friends, and make plans for the next reunion, hopefully in two years, somewhere in England.