Nobody knows how this unusual rock was formed, but geologists have put forth several theories. They agree that Devils Tower is an "igneous intrusion", which is magma that hardened while still underground. This may have happened 60 million years ago, which is when the Rocky Mountains were forming too. Scientists disagree about how this magma eventually came to tower so high above its surroundings. A popular theory sets Devils Tower as the neck of an old volcano. In this theory, the rest of the mountain eroded away.

Weather continues to erode the tower. Cracks fill with ice and expand, and rocks then fall to the ground. Piles of broken lava columns at the base of the tower indicate that it used to be larger.

Native Americans also have stories to explain Devils Towers. In their stories, the tower is called Mateo Tepee, meaning Grizzly Bear Lodge. The rock's long vertical cracks reminded people of scratches that a bear might make. In a Kiowa story, for example, seven little girls were playing far from their village when bears started to chase them. The girls ran to a small rock and prayed for it to save them. The rock started to push upwards, higher and higher until the girls were out of the bears' reach. The bears scratched at the rock and broke their claws. The Kiowa say that these little girls were pushed upward to the sky; they now form a seven-star constellation. Another version of the story has little boys chased by bears, and an eagle carries them home from the tall rock.

Devils Tower appears insurmountable to many. Henry Newt, who was part of area's first geological survey, wrote in 1875: "Its summit is so entirely inaccessible that the energetic explorer… standing at its base could only look upward in despair of ever planting his feet on the top." Nonetheless, a Wyoming rancher named William Rogers ascended the tower in 1893; he climbed up with the aid of wooden pegs that he'd drive into cracks. A more professional ascent was made in 1937 by a small party representing the American Alpine Club. The climb can be made relatively easy or extremely challenging according to the path someone chooses.

The tower is still sacred to several Native American Plains tribes, including the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Kiowa. There have been conflicts between tourists who want to climb the tower and indigenous people who hold ceremonies around the monument. There is now a compromise that involves a voluntary climbing ban in June, which is when the tribes traditionally use the tower most. This compromise has not satisfied everyone, since climbers see the rock as federal land and Native Americans see ascension of the monument as desecration. About 4,000 people climb Devils Tower every year. According to a PBS documentary called In Light of Reverence, most agree not to climb during the month of ceremonies.

The region is also known for its colorful rock layers. The oldest visible rocks have been dated to the Triassic period, or about 200 million years ago. These are dark red sandstone and siltstone, colored by oxidized iron. A thin white band of Jurassic-era gypsum follows. People can also spot gray-green shale, red mudstone, and yellow sandstone.

The United States was probably first aware of Devils Tower after an 1859 Yellowstone expedition led by Captain W. F. Reynolds. In 1875 Colonel Richard Dodge led a geological survey to the rock. It was Dodge who named Devils Tower; he thought that natives called it "Bad God's Tower". Congress designated the area a US forest reserve in 1892, and by 1906 it was the country's first national monument. In addition to the tower, the park includes the Belle Fourche River and 1347 acres of pine forests and grasslands, home to deer, prairie dogs, and other animals.

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From the start, the hall's activities have been divided by floor. The first floor briefly held African sheep herded from New Hampshire; a sheep shortage soon brought that program to a halt. Since 1748, the first floor has served as a public marketplace; Peter Faneuil encouraged pushcart vendors to permanently set up shop. The second floor has long featured the meeting hall, though it was briefly converted a theater during the British occupation of 1774.

The first public meeting held at Faneuil was actually on the occasion of Peter Faneuil's death; his eulogy was read at the hall. Revolutionaries later used the site to protest King George's taxes and to pen the famous doctrine concerning "no taxation without representation". Following the Boston Massacre, the public filled the hall to capacity to discuss the event. The patriot orator Samuel Adams gave an impassioned speech, and two years later, he would there initiate the first Committee of Correspondence. That meeting of colonial representatives is commonly considered the beginning of the American Revolution. Today, a statue of Sam Adams stands outside the Hall.

As time went on, Faneuil Hall continued to be a popular political forum. Suffragist Lucy Stone and abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison drew crowds in the 1800s. In the past century, Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton have helped it maintain the "Cradle of Liberty" nickname.

Architecturally, Faneuil Hall has undergone several expansions and restorations. First, the entire building was razed in a 1761 fire. It was quickly rebuilt in time to hear early revolutionaries' speeches in 1762. Next, the building was significantly expanded in 1806. America's first native-born architect, Charles Bulfinch, doubled the hall's height and width. He added galleries around the second floor assembly room and added a third floor. Twenty years later, additional construction expanded the Quincy Market. This meat and produce market had been drawing more and more vendors and customers. By the mid-1900s, however, the building had fallen into disrepair and was losing public interest. Major restoration saved Faneuil Hall in the 1970s. This urban renewal was among the first in American cities and inspired other projects nationwide.

One architectural element that has remained constant is a 38-pound gilded copper grasshopper! It's the centerpiece of the building's weathervane. Peter Faneuil commissioned an artist to create this grasshopper; he was inspired by one that sat atop the Royal Exchange's pinnacle in London. Thus, for colonial merchants the Faneuil Hall weathervane was a symbol of Old World commerce. The grasshopper became so well-known to northerners that when someone suspected a spy during the Revolution, they'd ask, "What sits atop Faneuil Hall?" Those who didn't know were deemed likely British agents.

Today's Faneuil Hall Marketplace refers to a group of four buildings: Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, North Market and South Market. The marketplace has pubs, restaurants, and more than 125 vendors offering a wide variety of food and crafts. Each year more than 15 million people visit the market. The popular landmark is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is now part of Boston National Historical Park.

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In 1751, three men representing the Pennsylvania Assembly wrote a letter to their colonial agent in London. On the fiftieth anniversary of William Penn's Charter of Privileges, they requested a bell for Philadelphia's State House steeple. The agent arranged for casting at London's Whitechapel foundry, and the bell was delivered in 1752.

The bell was met with much excitement. First of all, it weighed an impressive 2,080 pounds! More importantly, it was a solid, solemn symbol of what the Pennsylvania Assembly hoped to uphold. William Penn had been especially progressive with religious freedom, Native American rights, and democracy overall. The bell was inscribed with a Biblical passage to capture this spirit: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

However, early on the bell cracked! Historians disagree about the source of the fissure. In any case, the London foundry set about casting another bell. Meanwhile, two Philadelphia men (John Pass and John Stow) attempted to repair the one that had cracked. They figured that the alloy had been too brittle, so they added more copper. This healed the wound, but people disliked the bell's new tone. (They were aiming for a pleasant E note.) The men tried again, and their second attempt was hung in the State House in 1753. When the re-ordered British bell arrived, it was placed elsewhere in the State House to sound the hours. Today, the State House is known as Independence Hall.

The State House bell was rung on many famous occasions in US history. It called the Assembly together and summoned townspeople for special announcements. It tolled when Benjamin Franklin headed for England to address colonists' grievances; it tolled for discussion of the Sugar Act in 1764 and again for the Stamp Act in 1765; and it rang again for the First Continental Congress in 1774. The bell continued to signal important events, and many events were deemed important during the Revolution. A group of citizens who lived near the bell actually petitioned for less tolling, stating that they were inconvenienced and stressed!

Suddenly, in 1777, the city's bells were all removed. The British would soon be occupying Philadelphia, and surely they'd melt the bells for cannon fodder. The State House bell and more than a dozen others were moved to Zion's Reformed Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania for safekeeping. They remained hidden beneath church floorboards until after the occupation in 1778. After its reemergence, the bell continued to sound for important events such as elections and the Fourth of July.

It was referred to as the Independence Bell or the Old Yankees' Bell until 1837 when abolitionists noted its relevance to slavery and freedom. The bell's Leviticus inscription can be interpreted as a call to end enslavement. For example, the entire passage from Leviticus 25:10 includes, "And ye shall… proclaim liberty throughout the land… and ye shall return every man unto his family." Abolitionists adopted the bell as their symbol, and since then it's been known as the Liberty Bell.

By 1846, the Liberty Bell had developed a thin crack that was affecting its sound. It was repaired in time for George Washington's birthday that year, but when rung on his birthday, it cracked severely. A replica "Centennial Ball" was given to the city in 1876. The original bell is now on display in a new pavilion, the Liberty Bell Center. The Centennial replica is hung in the steeple of Independence Hall, and a third bell – the "Bicentennial Ball" granted by Queen Elizabeth — hangs in a nearby tower. The original bell is still rung, though gently, every July 4th. Young descendents of famous revolutionaries are invited to tap the bell thirteen times in celebration of the original thirteen states.

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Mount Rushmore was conceived by the South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson in 1923. He had learned of a similar project underway in the southern US. Just east of Atlanta, the sculptor Gutzon Borglum had been commissioned to carve into Stone Mountain the likeness of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and a column of soldiers. The historian thought a similar undertaking by Borglum could draw tourists' dollars to the Black Hills region.

To help maximize tourism interest, Borglum suggested that South Dakota choose a theme of national significance. The men settled upon the first 150 years of United States history, with four presidents being selected to represent the nation's development. These include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Collectively, these men symbolized the country's founding, expansion, and unity. The project received approval from Congress and President Calvin Coolidge.

As the project began in 1927, Lakota Sioux people and their supporters opposed the undertaking. Traditionally, they had called the mountain Six Grandfathers Mountain and traveled it for spiritual journeys. Following the Black Hills War of 1876-1877, the Treaty of Fort Laramie granted the land to the Lakota in perpetuity. Now, the land had again been taken. Furthermore, the creation of 60-foot faces of United States presidents, symbols of their oppression, would forever mar the sacred landscape. The fact that Borglum was a Ku Klux Klan member added to the insult!

Six Grandfathers was first informally called Mount Rushmore during an 1885 expedition. Charles Rushmore, a wealthy New York lawyer and prospector, suggested giving the mountain his name. However, it was also known to white Americans as Cougar Mountain, Sugarloaf Mountain, Slaughterhouse Mountain, and Keystone Cliffs. The United States Board of Geographic Names officially named Mount Rushmore in 1930.

Borglum chose this particular mountain for two reasons. First, its face met with sunlight for most of the day. Second, it was composed of smooth granite. The rock would be conducive to carving, and the material erodes very slowly (about an inch every 10,000 years). Nonetheless, over fourteen years of labor the faces suffered minor cracks. Fractures were sealed with pegmatite and are evident in lighter streaks on the presidents' foreheads.

As the project went on, some people continued to question what the faces were symbolizing, and whether the monument should be considered racist given the history of US expansion through native lands. In 1937, before the project was finished, a bill in US Congress proposed adding the face of Susan B. Anthony, a symbol for civil rights. However, federal funds were ultimately refused.

Members of the American Indian Movement occupied the monument in 1971. The Lakota holy man John Fire Lame Deer said that the protestors formed a symbolic shroud over the presidents' faces, "which shall remain dirty until the treaties concerning the Black Hills are fulfilled". (A monument to the Native American leader Crazy Horse, first proposed in 1939, is being constructed eight miles away. It is also controversial.)

Of some solace to opponents is that the monument, already six stories tall, was intended to be much larger but lacked funding. The original project cost just under $1 million during the Great Depression. (The largest single donation came from Charles Rushmore himself, who gave $5,000.) Borglum had hoped to depict the presidents from head to waist.

The artist also intended to chisel an expansive panel in the shape of the Louisiana Purchase. This would include gilded words commemorating founding documents and territorial expansion; imagine the golden 8-foot tall letters "U. S. Constitution" carved into a mountainside. Instead, similar information is now engraved on porcelain panels inside a vault installed behind the faces in 1998. The engravings include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, biographies of the four presidents, and a history of the United States.

A 1998 update to the Visitor Center cost $58 million. The renovation added the porcelain panels, expanded visitor parking, and created a Lincoln Borglum Museum.

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When George Washington died in 1799, Congress praised him as "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen." Politicians proposed a Washington monument in the early 1800s, but they disagreed about details. For example, should the monument include Washington's tomb? Would it be appropriate to depict him in ancient Greek style? When a statue was eventually presented, people objected to the half-clad classical Greek sort of George. Congressional quibbling ultimately led to the creation of a private monument foundation.

The National Monument Society was formed in 1833. The members raised a considerable amount of money within a few years, and in 1836 they announced a design competition for the memorial.

An artist named Robert Mills submitted the winning design. He proposed a 600-foot obelisk that would protrude from a circular base. The base and obelisk would be decorated with statues and frescoes of national heroes, including a toga-clad George Washington in a horse-drawn chariot. In the end, however, the obelisk would be a bit shorter, and the artist's plan for statues and frescoes would not be realized.

The monument's cornerstone was laid amid great celebration in 1848. Ceremonially, the National Monument Society ensured that the stone was set with the same trowel George Washington had used when setting the Capitol's cornerstone years earlier. The city celebrated that night with fireworks.

With the cornerstone set, the National Monument Society increased its efforts to fund the project. Ordinary citizens were urged to pledge $1 each. Businesses, professional organizations, foreign governments and Native American tribes contributed stones. Sometimes the stone donations were engraved with messages that didn't speak to the theme of George Washington; one block of stone read, "We will not buy, sell, or use as a beverage, any spiritous or malt liquors, Wine, Cider, or any other Alcoholic Liquor." Engraved stones make up interior walls of the hollow monument.

Scandal erupted around a stone donation in 1854, and the entire project came to a halt. The anti-Catholic Know-Nothing Party stole and smashed a donation made by Pope Pius IX. They dumped the stone chips into the Potomac River. This resulted in Congress rescinding an approval for $200,000 in memorial funds. The Know-Nothings then assumed management of the monument society, but their legacy is unimpressive. Everything they added to the monument was eventually removed, and no real progress was made until after the Civil War.

Because of the cut in funding, the monument ended up being shorter than originally planned, and without the statues envisioned by Mills. A lag in construction time also led to stone being sourced from different quarry layers, so the coloring of the monument is not uniform.

Work was finally completed in 1884. The monument, though short of its goal, was the largest structure in the world until the Eiffel Tower was completed five years later. It was much larger than the Egyptian obelisks that inspired it; these are typically about 100 feet tall. The walls were made fifteen feet thick at the base and narrowed to 18 inches near the top. The monument was capped with a 100-ounce aluminum pyramid. At the time, aluminum was scarce and was valued like silver. This was the largest cast-aluminum item in the world.

Starting in 1888, adult male visitors were allowed to travel up the Washington Monument in a twenty-minute steam-powered elevator ride. Somehow the ride was deemed too risky for women and children; they would have to climb the 800 stairs for a view! Progressively speedier elevators were installed since then, and for safety reasons people are now forbidden to use the stairs.

From the top of the Washington Monument, tourists can see most of Washington, D.C. as well as parts of Maryland and Virginia. In March and April, flowering cherry trees can be spotted in West Potomac Park below.

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The Empire State Building was erected as part of a worldwide race to build the tallest structure. The United States previously held the record with the 555-foot Washington Monument, but then France built the 984-foot Eiffel Tower in 1889. By the early 20th century, architects across America tried to set new records.

The Metropolitan Life Tower signaled a start to the race in 1909; the building rose 700 feet and 50 stories. The 57-story Woolworth Building followed in 1913, and the 71-story Bank of Manhattan was completed in 1929. (Of course, since this was the Depression, there was ironically little demand for office space!)

Competition then intensified within New York State. Three skyscrapers were underway simultaneously: the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and 40 Wall Street. The Empire State Building's rental manager, Hamilton Weber, described the architectural contest:

We thought we would be the tallest at 80 stories. Then the Chrysler went higher, so we lifted the Empire State to 85 stories, but only four feet taller than the Chrysler. Raskob [the financer] was worried that Walter Chrysler would pull a trick — like hiding a rod in the spire and then sticking it up at the last minute.

The Empire State Building architects decided to affix something to the top of the building for even more height. This led to a dirigible (blimp) docking station. However, the docking station did not last long. The building itself created powerful updrafts that made docking dangerous! The mooring devices are still in place, but the building's current height (1,453 feet) comes from a large broadcast antennae added in 1952.

The Empire State Building houses 85 stories of commercial and office space totaling more than two million square feet. With 1,000 businesses inside, the building has its own zip code! The top 16 stories comprise the art deco tower, with observatories located on the 86th and 102nd floors. (High-powered binoculars are available for rent.) The skyscraper has 72 elevators, 70 miles of piping, and 2.5 million feet of electrical wiring. The entire building weighs an estimated 370,000 tons and cost $40 million to construct.

Colored floodlights were added to the building's tower in 1964. These are used to mark seasonal events like Christmas and tragedies like the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. Following September 11, 2001, the floodlights were kept red, white, and blue for several months. Blue lights were used on Frank Sinatra's 80th birthday and when he died. (This was a reference to his nickname, Ol' Blue Eyes.) Sports events are also represented by lights; for example, a combination of orange, blue, and white signifies a New York Knicks home game. The Empire State Building was bathed in a royal purple to honor the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. This was a sign of thanks from the New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg after the UK supported the United States in the aftermath of September 11th. The floodlights first celebrated a Muslim holiday in 2007 with green lights for Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan.

When the Empire State Building opened on May 1, 1931, it was the tallest building in the world at 1,250 feet high. Towering over the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street, it became an instant icon of New York City. The building remained the world's tallest until the World Trade Center's North Tower was erected in 1972. The Sears Tower in Chicago surpassed both in 1973. After the September 11th attacks in New York, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in the state, and the second-tallest in the country. The United Arab Emirates set the world record in 2007 while building the Burj Dubai skyscraper.

Although "superskyscrapers" are now being constructed worldwide, the Empire State Building made achievements that prompted the American Society of Civil Engineers to name it one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

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Some say that the grandeur of Abraham Lincoln's memorial does not suit his style; he was a modest man – why immortalize him in a 99-foot tall Greek temple? But supporters celebrate his grand achievements. Shortly after Abraham Lincoln became US President, several states seceded from the Union. Before his presidency ended, Lincoln saw his country through civil war, preserved its union, and passed the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.

The President was assassinated in 1865 just six days after the Confederate General Lee surrendered. Congress formed the Lincoln Monument Association two years later. However, they did not choose the site in West Potomac Park until 1901. It was 1911 before they appropriated funds; President Taft approved a bill for $2 million. (The memorial's final cost was $1 million more.) In February of 1914, on Lincoln's birthday, the first stones were set. The white marble memorial was completed in 1922. It was dedicated on Memorial Day that year, 57 years after the president's death. Tens of thousands of people were in attendance, including many veterans from the Civil War.

The work was the collective effort of an architect and several artists. The New York architect named Henry Bacon designed the building. He chose a Doric Greek style, much like the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, Greece, complete with the traditional 36 columns. After constructing the columns, he realized that there had also been 36 states in the nation at the time of Lincoln's death. He then had each column engraved with a state name, and added above them the names of all 48 states that existed by 1922. (Alaska and Hawaii were later mentioned on an inscription leading to the memorial.) The building is massive, with each column measuring more than 23 feet around its base.

From inside the stone building, Lincoln gazes out over the Reflecting Pool and toward the Washington Monument. His larger-than-life figure appears to be a continuous piece of marble, but it's actually made of 28 interlocking blocks carved by the artist Daniel French. Several types of marble are used throughout the monument, perhaps to symbolize Lincoln's force for unity; stone is used from Indiana, Colorado, Georgia and Tennessee. One marble wall features an inscription of the President's famous Gettysburg Address. Another displays his second inaugural speech. The memorial also has murals entitled "Emancipation" and "Union" by Jules Guerin. Ernest Bairstow and Evelyn Longman also contributed to the memorial's carvings.

The building has been used as a backdrop for events related to civil rights. In 1939, the African American singer Marian Anderson was told by the Daughters of the American Revolution that she would not sing to an integrated crowd at Washington, D.C.'s Confederate Hall. Eleanor Roosevelt, who immediately resigned her own DAR membership, suggested the Lincoln Memorial as a stage. Anderson opened her act with "My Country 'Tis of Thee". Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. This was also the scene of Vietnam protests and the Million Man March.

The memorial is staffed from 8 a.m. to midnight every day but Christmas. The lower level of the monument houses a bookstore, restrooms, and the Lincoln Museum, which was funded with pennies from schoolchildren. At night, spotlights illuminate the outside of the Lincoln Memorial. The lights seep inside and cast shadows across Lincoln's face for a spectacular view.

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Death Valley measures approximately 3,000 square miles. It spans the border of California and Nevada and is the principal feature of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve, which is devoted to ecological conservation. The diverse landscape features desert sand dunes, snow-capped mountains, and a vast expanse of multi-hued rock. It is also home to uniquely adapted plants and animals. Among the mammals, for example, are the black-tailed jackrabbit, the long-tailed pocket mouse, and the chisel-toothed kangaroo rat!

Death Valley is surrounded by several mountain ranges, including the Sierra Nevadas, the Amargosa Range, the Panamint Range, and the Sylvania and Owlshead Mountains. Encircled by peaks, the valley has the lowest dry elevation in North America at 282 feet below sea level. (The continent's lowest point overall can be found at the bottom of Lake Superior, but Death Valley contains the lowest spot on dry land.)

The valley is especially noted for its geologic splendor. The cliffs reveal rock layers spanning from Precambrian to modern times. By studying the layers, geologists learn about the earth's condition in the distant past. For example, layers from the late Pleistocene reveal that the valley was once filled by a freshwater lake, now dubbed Lake Manly. The valley was partly filled again during flash flooding of 2004 and 2005. Still, at that time the water was only two feet deep; before the last ice age, it measured 800 feet!

The 19th century saw many mining camps set up when rock layers revealed valuable minerals. Men were drawn to gold and silver discoveries in the 1850s, and they mined Borax in the 1880s. They gave their camps names like Chloride City, Skidoo, and Panamint City. The mining camps usually became ghost towns within a few years.

In most cases, little remains of these Death Valley mining towns besides stories about their lively inhabitants. Skidoo, for example, is marked only by a sign. It once had a population of 700 and is infamous for having the only hanging in the valley. The hanged man was Hootch Simpson, a down-on-his-luck saloon owner who tried to rob the town bank. He was foiled and later returned to kill an employee! The townspeople hanged Hootch that night. In fact, according to legend he was hanged twice: once for real and once again for the benefit of photographers.

Visitors to Death Valley can ssee a few ghost town ruins, such as those of Panamint City. Panamint was reputedly the roughest town in America! Its founders were outlaws hiding from law enforcement. Although 2,000 people eventually resided there, Wells Fargo refused to open a Panamint bank because of the inhabitants' lawless reputations.

Although prospectors left the valley when mining became unprofitable, Native Americans have lived in Death Valley for more than 1,000 years. Timbisha families, who are part of the Shoshone tribe, still reside at Furnace Creek. They received 7,500 acres of ancestral homeland with the Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act of 2000. As of 2000, only 31 people lived at Furnace Creek, setting the record for lowest census in the nation.

Death Valley National Park is open year-round, but considering the summer heat, most people find the valley's winter climate more comfortable.Since 1933 Death Valley National Park has offered extensive public works for visitors' comfort. These include developments such as campgrounds, picnic facilities, and hundreds of miles of paved roads.

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Measuring approximately 1900 feet long, 800 feet wide, and 130 feet tall, the massive granite outcropping is hard to miss. The distance around its base measures 5,900 feet, or more than a mile. Some say it looks like a giant whale emerging from the plateau. The rock is now believed to have been carved by glaciers during the last ice age.

It's believed that the first white people to pass the rock were fur trappers working under General William Ashley. Some of these men were famous adventurers, including Jedediah Smith. They would have passed by in 1823. Legend says that in 1830, another group of fur traders reached the rock in time for a Fourth of July celebration. This occasion supposedly lent Independence Rock its current name. In a competing theory, however, it's said that people leaving the Missouri River in early spring would use the rock as a benchmark; if they reached it by July 4th, then they knew they were on schedule to evade winter snowstorms in the mountains.

Once pioneers arrived at the rock, they could rest, camp, and let their animals drink from the Sweetwater River. Arrival usually included a celebration with gunfire, drink, and dancing. The pioneer Rachel Simmons wrote, "We heard so much of Independence Rock long before we got there. They said we should have a dance on top of it, as we had many a dance while on the plains." Sometimes campground revelry got out of hand. Traveler Samuel Smith wrote in his diary, "The evening of our arrival I went up to the top of the Rock to hear the Band play, and also to sing several hymns; while here, one of the company's cows was poisoned by drinking below." Other people wrote of using Independence Rock as an area for recuperation and buffalo hunting. Some stayed to build transitory communities nearby, but most people stayed for only a night or two and then followed the Sweetwater westward.

Thousands of people left their names and messages on the surface of Independence Rock. Some painted with buffalo oil or grease from their wagon wheels' axels. Others etched their names with tools carried for wagon repair. Professional stonecutters even stationed themselves at the rock and charged per carving. Considering all the signatures, a Jesuit missionary dubbed the rock the "Great Register of the Desert". Many names have eroded away or are covered with lichen, but thousands are still visible. In order to preserve the historic messages and signatures, further writing on the rock is prohibited.

Before white pioneers took interest in the rock, it was an important meeting ground for Native Americans such as the Shoshone and Ute. They also carved into the rock, and the granite outcropping appears in many traditional legends.

Today the rock is part of Independence Rock State Historic Site. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961. Wagon ruts left by the early pioneers are still visible, but today tt can be accessed by Wyoming Highway 220.

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Although the rock has much historical significance, evidently none of the Pilgrims mentioned it in their writings. Knowledge of its location was traditionally passed from parents to their children. In 1741, the 94-year-old Elder Faunce identified Plymouth Rock as the stone his father had pointed out years earlier. Faunce was a somewhat credible source; he had been Plymouth's record keeper for many decades. Still, his father had not been among the original Plymouth settlers; he'd arrived three years later in 1623 and heard the Plymouth Rock story from others. Nevertheless, people accepted Faunce's story and the identified rock took on great patriotic significance.

It's estimated that the rock weighed about 20,000 pounds when Bradford and 101 other Mayflower passengers left their ship in 1620. Since then, the rock has lost many sections to souvenir-hunters. It's also been accidentally split in two and eventually reunited.

How did Plymouth Rock become split? In 1774, as the Revolutionary spirit took over in Massachusetts Bay Colony, a group of people "animated by the glorious spirit of liberty" intended to move the entire rock to the Plymouth Meeting House. Colonel Theopolis Cotton and a group of "Liberty Boys" prepared a carriage drawn by oxen. As they pulled the rock from the ground, it was unintentionally cracked it in two!

Superstitious townspeople believed the divided rock was symbolic of the British Empire. They left the "British half" of the rock in the water. Only the top "liberty half" of the rock was then moved. It soon rested beneath a Meeting House flagpole and a flag that declared "Liberty or Death". The remainder of the rock stayed embedded in the wharf. The next year, a colonial revolutionary would capture British soldiers and, for his amusement, have them step onto Plymouth Rock, a symbol of American independence.

The two parts of the rock have experienced a few changes since the 1774 division. In 1834, the top section of the rock was removed to Pilgrim Hall (a museum) and put under the auspices of the historical Pilgrim Society. In 1859, the Pilgrim Society began building a Victorian canopy to cover the piece of rock left at the wharf. The canopy was completed in 1867. Since many bits of the rock were being taken by travelers and shopkeepers for profit, an iron gate was soon erected. In 1880 the top of the rock was moved back to shore and affixed to the bottom portion with cement. At this time, the landing date 1620 was carved.

In 1920 the rock was moved yet again. In honor of the 300th anniversary of the Plymouth Rock landing, the entire Plymouth waterfront was redesigned with a promenade and seawall. The cemented rock was moved to the waterfront and a portico was erected for viewers. Today the rock is managed as part of Pilgrim Memorial State Park. Tourists can visit the rock for free year-round. From May through Thanksgiving, staff members are on hand to tell visitors about Plymouth Rock's history.

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