Soon, though, the rock began taking on symbolic meaning more compelling than any fact attached to it. In 1774, with revolutionary fervor boiling in New England, some zealots in Plymouth decided to move the rock to a spot in town, where they hoped, it would stir up patriotic passions.
They accidentally cracked the rock in two, and while the lower half remained at the beach, the upper half found its way to a number of sites in Plymouth over the years.
The two halves were later mended and enshrined under a beachside temple, though the rock was trimmed to fit. Over the years it has been carved up so often that it is estimated to be only a third of its original size.
But it remains an outsize American icon -- important not for who did or didn't step on it, but, as National Museum of American History curator Larry Bird has noted, "because of what people have turned it into."
--Cooter
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