Discover Plymouth, Mass.

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Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the Mayflower landed nearly 400 years ago, is a storied harbor town where generations of Americans have claimed and reinterpreted the Pilgrim story.

A trip to Plymouth, Mass. allows visitors a chance to peel back the layers of history in the place where the Pilgrims settled nearly 400 years ago. Among the premier attractions is Plimoth Plantation, a recreation of everyday life in the 1627 English village. Here, an actor portrays Edward Winslow in the village's streets.

Plimoth Plantation, open since 1947, features actors playing the parts of actual Pilgrim settlers. There is also a homesite for the Wampanoag, the Native American tribe that first encountered the Pilgrims.

Corn, one of the Pilgrims' staples, sits ready at Plimoth Plantation. The attraction reenacts the way the early settlers cooked, farmed, lived and gossiped.

An employee of Plimoth Plantation portraying Priscilla Alden cooks hasty pudding over a fire in a timber-frame house.

A statue of Massasoit, a leader of the Wampanoag, stands at Cole's Hill in downtown Plymouth. A ceremony is held near here each Thanksgiving to mark a "National Day of Mourning" for Native Americans.

In the harbor, you'll find a replica of the Mayflower, which carried 102 passengers across the Atlantic in 1620. The replica was built in 1957.

Pilgrim Hall, called the oldest continuously operated museum in America, houses actual artifacts from the original Pilgrim settlement.

A stained-glass window at Pilgrim Hall depicts the Pilgrims' arrival. The museum, which first opened in 1824, just completed a renovation this summer.

The Pilgrims weren't necessarily teetotalers, a fact attested to by this brown tankard (labelled 1610-1650, Baltic region) displayed at Pilgrim Hall.

Pilgrims aren't all you'll find in Plymouth. The cranberry industry is also a popular attraction. Nearby Carver is home to Flax Pond Farms, which offers daily tours.

Dot Angley, left, one of the owners of Flax Pond Farms, shows photographs to visitors Terry and Lolly Lamanna, of Dover Plains, N.Y. Commercial cultivation of cranberries began in the early 1800s.

The National Monument to the Forefathers is a grandiose granite structure adorned with figures representing such ideals as Youth, Mercy and Morality. The monument also includes depictions of the Pilgrims' history and a list of the Mayflower's passengers is carved on its side. For all of Plymouth's charms, the Pilgrims still hold the most fascination with visitors.

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A trip to Plymouth, Mass. allows visitors a chance to peel back the layers of history in the place where the Pilgrims settled nearly 400 years ago. Among the premier attractions is Plimoth Plantation, a recreation of everyday life in the 1627 English village. Here, an actor portrays Edward Winslow in the village's streets.

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