Recently I made a trip out to Plymouth Massachusetts home of Plymouth rock and of the very famous site of the cordage Company from the 1800s
Now in military time Plymouth rock is marked with what would be the real “420” as waking up for 420am(16:20) would be violently extreme for most users, however observation of 04:20 may serve as a clever form of “night capping”.
The Plymouth site of the Mayflower is significant for hemp. First of all, the hemp powered ships were after all, hemp powered, meaning they were powered by hemp derived sails, not to mention the cordage part, as in all those ropes.
And of course, on board with them was all of the hemp seed that they had needed to bring with them to plant and cultivate. In those days, it was illegal to not grow hemp, so they needed seeds and whatever other hemp derived things that they would have relied on.
Cordage Park now is a shadow of it’s former self. Basically it is an apartment complex except for the remaining small museum in its grand entrance.
At one time there was one of the last remaining rope walks of the era, which they have moved over to the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, where it currently is on display.
The Plymouth Cordage Company is an amazing project from about 1850 or so, they built a factory there, but there weren’t any places for the workers to live so they built them housing.
People who had worked there came from all over the world, as this was during the time of the great Ellis Island immigration to the United States. In addition to work, The folks who lived there, learned languages from each other, participated in daily activities and grew their own food together.
When you read the anecdotal writings of the cordage company’s inhabitants who had lived there, it seemed to be a sort of utopia, until it closed the doors and about 1950 or until it was sold to a company in New York .
While the Cordage Park Hemp Museum is beautiful, wonderfully kept, well curated and clean. Much of the grounds of the former cordage company are seaside ruins, some are available for a little exploring.
The place is open a few days a week with somewhat limited hours and is accessible by the MBTA (Plymouth), and it is amazing piece of hemp history, here in New England, and specifically Plymouth.
Obviously the original New England Town is exceedingly significant, not just for the New England colonies and what would become the 13 colonies and eventually the continental United States but also seafood
It’s amazing the significance hemp had here historically and that we’ve almost completely forgotten it, not just that but because we have forgotten that, our planet is in a terrible shape.
You can exactly trace the removal of hemp from our daily lives, and then the substitution by petroleum products poisons pharmaceuticals and deforestation as having had done more damage to our planet,
than any of the ideas presented by those pushing the conspiracy theory of CO2 as a destructive element.
Plymouth Harbor and it’s Cordage Company Museum … …..highly recommended