Standing 252 feet above a 100 foot high hill in the center of Provincetown is the Pilgrim Memorial Monument. It dominates the Provincetown skyline and offers views of Cape Cod Bay, Provincetown Harbor, and the sand dunes at the National Seashore. It resembles the pillar style similar to the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. The tower was built almost 100 years ago to commerate the first landfall touched by the Pilgrims in 1620 in the New World. It was here that the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact. When the Pilgrims discovered that there was no water readily available on this stretch of land, a peninsula jutting into the Cape Cod Bay, they again set sail for a site that could sustain them. That site was across the bay at Plymouth Rock, which gets the credit for that first landing.
After your climb to the top of the monument for an awesome view out to sea, visit the Provincetown Museum on ground level. Here are permanently displayed artifacts and exhibits from the Pilgrims, maritime history of the community, and the beginnings of modern American theater through plays by the hometown boy made good, Eugene O'Neill and the Provincetown Players.
It is open 9 to 4:15 daily and closes for the winter season. Fees are $6 for adults and $3 for children to enter both the museum and monument. Parking is free.
An annual lighting of the tower monument occurs the week of Thanksgiving commemorating the 11/11/1620 landing of the pilgrims on this peninsula. Historically, this monument was begun in 1907 when President Theodore Roosevelt laid the corner stone and President William Taft dedicated it upon completion.
If you're traveling to Provincetown in October, weekends at the monument offer free Tea and History lectures as part of the towns Fall Arts Festival. There is even a paper model of the tower that can be purchased for the children to occupy their time in building the monument in "10 easy steps".
For more information you can call 508/487-1310 or send an email to webmaster @pilgrim-monument.org.
There are many steps to get to the top of the tower and might not be an activity for all in your group. Children will love the climb, though once you reach the top there's not much to do but see the sites below, while the older adults can peruse the museum's offerings.