.......The Pilgrim Monument Is located in Province Town Massachusetts at the top of High pole hill. The Monument is 252 feet tall and is the highest solid granite structure in the United States. The ground breaking for the building of the foundation was started on June 19, 1907. President Theodore Roosevelt attended the official Masonic ceremony the setting of the corner stone on August 20,1907. The construction continued until the last block was set on August 21, 1909 and the interior system of steps and ramps was completed on march 29, 1910.

President William H, Taft was at the official grand opening and dedication ceremony of the monument on August 5 1910, along with the governor of Massachusetts Eban Drape and the President of the Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial Association Captain J. Henry Sears. Captain Sears gave the opening address with the US Navy's Atlantic fleet in Province Town harbor and three thousand people in the specially built stands.

The Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial Association raised money for the construction of the Monument. The Monument was built to honor the Pilgrims Arrival in Provence Town Harbor on November 11,1620.

To enter the Pilgrim Tower you must pay a small fee and walk into the museum. The museum has exhibits display of local history. You can stop and look around or just walk right through to the outside and up a small set of stairs that lead you to the front of the monument.

A large Oak doorway at the base is where you enter. As you walk into the monument you can feel the cold granite and hear the echoe of people ascending to the top. The stairs are a combination of 60 ramps and 116 Steps that spiral around the inside of the tower to make a gradual assent to the top observation deck.
The climb to the top takes about 15 min.'s with two or three stops on the way up. If you look over the stair wall and down the center of the tower you can see people circling around the stairs gradually making there way up. (Pretty cool). At the top of the steps there is a small hallway that lead to the observation platform.

When you walk out on to the observation deck you can feel the cool New England sea breeze and smell the salt air. To see out you have look threw 2 foot by 4 foot opening's in the granite wall that surrounds the observation platform.

The sight is wonderful. You can see for miles on a clear day. The harbor looks so small. People walking on the pier look like ants and the fishing boats look like little toy models. The entire Harbor of p-town can be seen with all the house's on the beach and the sail boats playing in the harbor. ''its a great view''.

The historic buildings and church's stand out with their steeples and widow watch's visibly higher then the tops of other buildings.
If you walk to the other side of the tower the old grave yard and the massive dune's come into view along with the beautiful landscape and the quaint neighborhoods.

The monument attracts many visitors during the summer season. I met a nice family from Colorado in front of the museum enjoying the warm sunny day and waiting to climb to the top of the monument. We had a pleasant Conversation about P-Town and all the different sights to see.

The monument is a nice place to visit, I had a great time walking up the steps to the top. As you walk up you can read the granite blocks that have different names carved into them to honor people and place's of the area.

Inside the Monument you can here a hollow echo of people talking and kids laughing. Every one has their own pace of making it to the top. Some walk slow and steady, some fast and furious to be the first to the top. Kids have the most fun they run up the stairs then run down a little then run up a little more then maybe look down the center then run up a little more and keep doing this till they make it to the top. I notice this phenomenon as I was making my way slowly to the top reading the names on the stones. Looking down the center of the stairs at the top is cool. From the top of the main stairs you can see down 200 feet to the base of the monument. The view can make you dizzy if you don't turn your head and look away once in awhile. This view also makes a great photograph.

In 1852 a bill was put through Massachusetts State Senate asking for 3,000 dollars for the construction of a monument on the top of High Pole Hill to honor the arrival of the Pilgrims in Provence Town.

That bill did not pass and it was not until almost 50 years later that a successful attempt was made to raise money. On Feb. 1892 a newly formed non-profit origination called the Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial Association was founded. This group of dedicated citizens was organized to raise money for the construction of a monument to honor the Pilgrims.The Pilgrims first arrived in P-Town in 1620 and then move in land.

The land at High Pole Hill was donated and money was raised with great effort from many people. The state had granted some money and the then congress finally passed a bill matching the funds already raised. The construction began almost immediately and took little more then three years to finish.