DIGHTON ROCK, MASSACHUSSETS Dighton Rock is a mysterious tide-washed boulder that jutted up out of the Taunton River at Assonet Neck, just across from the town of Dighton, Mass., and the Dighton Yacht Club. Today the rock can be seen in Dighton Rock Museum. Its carvings attest to the presence there of Portuguese explorer Miguel Corte-Real by 1511. |
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IMAGE COLLECTION Horatio B. King, 1853 (Getty) Davis, 1893 (Wikimedia Commons) Edmund Delabarre, 1918 (Wikimedia Commons) Jarett Kobek, 2009 (blog.kobek.com)
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SOURCES OF INFORMATION Dighton Rock, and the surrounding 101 acres, (same size as the Vatican ), became a State Park in 1954. In 1963, Dighton Rock was removed from the water, raised 11 feet to a cofferdam but retaining its original orientation, and protected by a chain link fence. To ensure protection for the rock, a glass enclosure and an eight-sided pavilion were built around it in 1973. In 1974 the Massachusetts Legislature approved an Act (Chapter 501, House Bill No. 5475) to create the Dighton Rock Museum. More…
Further study thereafter enabled Delabarre to decipher, along with the date, the emblazoned shield, or quinas, of the Kingdom of Portugal, and these graven letters: MIGUEL CORTEREAL; V. DEI HIC DUX IND. Even a first-year Latin student could puzzle out the meaning: “Miguel Cortereal, by the will of God, here leader of the Indians.” More…
The Dighton Rock is a 40-ton boulder, originally located in the riverbed of the Taunton River at Berkley, Massachusetts (formerly part of the town of Dighton). The rock is noted for its petroglyphs, carved designs of ancient and uncertain origin, and the controversy about their creators. In 1963, during construction of a coffer dam, state officials removed the rock from the river for preservation. It was installed in a museum in a nearby park, Dighton Rock State Park. In 1980 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). More…
An 11-foot-high "glacial erratic" boulder known as Dighton Rock once rested on the shore of the Taunton River adjacent to this park. Covered with petroglyphs, carved designs of ancient and uncertain origin, the rock is now installed in a small museum. The museum (open by appointment) exhibits several explanations of the carvings, which range from Portuguese explorers to Native Americans. More…
The mystery of the missing Corte Real brothers resounds to this day. In 1918 a stone which had been submerged by water for many years was discovered by Professor Edmund Delabarre of the Brown University. It is called the Dighton Rock, after its location near Dighton, Massachusetts. The Dighton Rock is made of sandstone, weighs 40 tons and measures ten foot by four foot. The Professor identified many important inscriptions on this stone. One of the inscriptions bears the date 1511, together with the Portuguese Coat of Arms and name "Miguel Corte Real“. More...
In 1500-1501, Gaspar Corte Real, Joao Corte Real's son, sailed to Greenland and Labrador, and then down the New England coast. There were two ships in the voyage, one commanded by Gaspar and another commanded by his brother Miguel. The ships got separated, and Gaspar's ship was never seen again. In 1502, Miguel returned to find his brother, but to confound history, he disappeared too. Years later near Dighton, Massachusetts, an inscription was found… More…
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