Plimoth Plantation

Plimoth Plantation
No this is not a spelling error that is how they spell it for the Plimoth Plantation and there is a town called Plimoth also.
We visited the Plimoth Plantation today before leaving the Plymouth area. This is a heritage park with a recreated Wampanoga Indian Village and a recreated Plymouth Village of 1627, which would be 7 years after the Pilgrims landed in 1620.
In the Indian village they were making a dugout canoe by burning the interior out of a large tree trunk and alos making their miday meal of corn, some meat from fowl and berries such as cranberry, blueberry of strawberry. All of these would have grown wild in this area and been available to them. The Indians did grow squash, corn, pumpkins and watermelons. The Pilgrims were introduced to corn by the Indians as it was not grown in the old world yet. They first stole an Indian’s corn larder to obtain it but later paid for the corn.
The Indians lived in large homes made from the bark of trees. These homes would have housed a single family and been about 20 feet long and 10-12 feet wide and surely 10 feet high. They were very substantial dwellings and could easily withstand the winters and the wind and rain.
Just as we sere there several flocks of geese came overhead and settled on the lake or pond in front of the village. One of the Indian interpreters yelled out several times “Lunch is here”.
The Pilgrim Village had interpreters in vintage garb and they lived as they would have in 1627. Logs were split into boards and these along with a clay mud were used on the inside for insulation. The roofs were of thatch so that they could withstand the rain.
No glass windows but shutters were used.
They had no horses, but did by that time have cows which were sometimes used similar to oxen. For meat they had brought chickens, and pigs. Meat from wild turkeys, ducks and geese was plentiful in the fall but it took some time for the Pilgrims to be able to hunt as successfully as the Indians for deer, bear, moose and elk. All of these were plentiful in the winter months.
They had a stockade around the village although the Pilgrims were never attacked.
Lastly we visited a crafts center where things such as carpentry, weaving and pottery were practiced. All of these skills would have been necessary to the Pilgrims of the time.
1 An Indian home
2 Pilgrim hearth
3 Pilgrim home
4 Plymouth village recreated
5 A carpenter on a leg turning lathe