It is November 11, 1620. The Mayflower has anchored in the harbor at today’s Provincetown, Massachusetts. The passengers and crew of the Mayflower had been stuffed into the small ship for at least ten weeks, and for those who didn’t go ashore in England longer than that. They were eager to get off the ship, explore the region, and find a permanent place to settle. That would prove to be more difficult than they expected, in no small part because winter in New England was much colder than at the corresponding latitude in Europe. Nevertheless, after three dramatic expeditions along Cape Cod, they found a place to call home. Unfortunately, winter was coming, and hard.

If you are looking at these show notes on the website, the credit for the featured photograph for the episode, the marker at Pilgrim Spring, belongs to listener Adam Page. Thank you!

Link to more of Adam’s photos of Pilgrim Spring as it is today.

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Selected references for this episode

Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War

John G. Turner, They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty

William Bradford and Edmund Winslow (presumed), Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth