First Encounter Monument
(erected 1920)
First Encounter Plaque
ON THIS SPOT
HOSTILE INDIANS
HAD THEIR
FIRST ENCOUNTER
DECEMBER 8, 1620
old style
WITH
MYLES STANDISH JOHN CARVER
WILLIAM BRADFORD JOHN TILLEY
EDWARD WINSLOW JOHN HOWLAND
EDWARD TILLEY RICHARD WARREN
STEPHEN HOPKINS EDWARD DOTEY
JOHN ALLERTON THOMAS ENGLISH
MASTER MATE CLARK MASTER
GUNNER COPIN AND THREE SAILORS
OF THE MAYFLOWER COMPANY
PROVINCETOWN TERCENTENARY
1620 COMMISSION 1920
John F Paramino Sculp. 1922 Boston, Ma.
The First Encounter Monument is located at the end of Samoset Road at First Encounter Beach on Cape Cod Bay.
A second First Encounter Plaque was erected at First Encounter Beach in 2001. It reads as follows:
NEAR THIS SITE
THE NAUSET TRIBE
OF THE
WAMPANOAG NATION
SEEKING TO PROTECT THEMSELVES
AND THEIR CULTURE
HAD THEIR
FIRST ENCOUNTER
8 DECEMBER 1620
WITH
MYLES STANDISH, JOHN CARVER,
WILLIAM BRADFORD,
EDWARD WINSLOW, JOHN TILLEY,
EDWARD TILLEY,
JOHN HOWLAND, RICHARD WARREN,
STEPHEN HOPKINS,
EDWARD DOTEY, JOHN ALLERTON,
THOMAS ENGLISH,
MASTER MATE CLARK,
MASTER GUNNER COPIN
AND THREE SAILORS
OF THE MAYFLOWER COMPANY.
THIS TABLET IS PLACED IN 2001 BY THE SOCIETY OF COLONIAL WARS
IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
The path up the dune to the original 1920 monument is not maintained. It is filled in with sand and overgrown with brambles and poison ivy. The 2001 monument is readily accesible at the edge of the First Encounter Beach parking lot. Guess which monument most people visit,