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State Symbols

The official state symbols represent the cultural heritage and natural treasures of each state or the entire United States

Massachusetts Symbols

Massachusetts Symbols

Beans, Berry, Beverage, Bird, Building & Monument Stone, Cat, Ceremonial March, Children's Author and Illustrator, Children's Book, Citizenry, Cookie, Dessert, Dog, Donut, Explorer Rock, Fish, Flag, Flower or Floral Emblem, Folk Dance, Folk Hero, Folk Song, Fossil, Fruit, Game Bird, Gem, Glee Club Song, Heroine, Historical Rock, Horse, Insect, Marine Mammal, Mineral, Motto, Muffin, Nicknames, Ode of the Commonwealth, Patriotic Song, Poem, Polka, Rock, Seal, Shell, Soil, Song, Tree, Veterans of Southwest, Asia War Monument, Vietnam War Memorial

Massachusetts State Historical Rock

Plymouth Rock

Adopted in 1983

Plymouth Rock. Although the Pilgrims did not actually land on it, its historical significance led the Legislature to commemorate it in 1983.

Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony, in what would become the United States. There is no contemporary reference to it, and it is not referred to in Bradford's journal Of Plymouth Plantation or in Mourt's Relation. The first reference to the Pilgrims landing on a rock is found one hundred years after they landed in 1620.

The location of Plymouth Rock, a boulder of granite (more specifically, Dedham granodiorite, a glacial erratic), at the foot of Cole's Hill is said to have been passed from generation to generation. In 1741, when plans were afoot to build a wharf at the site, a nonagenarian, Thomas Faunce, Elder of the church, pointed out the precise rock his father had told him was the first solid land on which the Pilgrims set foot upon their arrival in the New World. (The Pilgrims had landed first near the site of modern Truro on the tip of Cape Cod in November 1620 before disembarking to stay at Plymouth). Elder Faunce had been the town record keeper for most of his adult life and was 95 years old when he made the identification of Plymouth Rock. The rock is located about 650 feet from where it is generally accepted that the initial settlement was built.

Massachusetts Legislature
CHAPTER 2. ARMS, GREAT SEAL AND OTHER EMBLEMS OF THE COMMONWEALTH
Section 23 Historical rock of commonwealth
Section 23. Plymouth Rock, located in the town of Plymouth, shall be the historical rock of the commonwealth.

State Symbols

State symbols represent things that are special to a particular state.

symbol \ˈsim-bəl\
noun

Etymology:
in sense 1, from Late Latin symbolum, from Late Greek symbolon, from Greek, token, sign; in other senses from Latin symbolum token, sign, symbol, from Greek symbolon, literally, token of identity verified by comparing its other half, from symballein to throw together, compare, from syn- + ballein to throw — more at devil
Date: 15th century

1: Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible.