Myles Standish's Missing Body

The past 100 years have been one wild ride for the statue of Myles Standish. After first suffering a direct strike by lightning, then getting cut in half at the waist, and finally being discarded as rubble in a local quarry, only half of his body can be accounted for today. But before we can tell you about Myles Standish the statue, we first have to tell you about Myles Standish the man.

This story begins in 1620 with the Mayflower's voyage to America, in which Standish was a passenger. He had been hired as militia commander for colonists of the new world, something he would continue to be elected to for the remainder of his life. He fought many battles against Native American tribes as the colonists struggled to survive in those harsh, early years, and his reputation grew as both skilled in battle and brutal toward his enemies. He was known for using mutilation as a way to inflict fear, and it's for this reason that certain groups find it fitting his statue be in the condition it is today. Others look upon Standish with admiration, however, and it's one of those groups who banded together in 1872 to construct this 116 foot tower in honor of him. The process did not go smoothly, but after a 26-year period of stop and go funding the tower was completed in 1898.

Although worthwhile seeing it from the outside, the main appeal for visiting the tower is to be able to climb it. The tower is only open Saturdays and Sundays during the summer season, however, which this year began on May 27th. And the day I started writing about our visit to the tower? You guessed it, May 28th, the very next day.

Inside the tower is a single, continuous spiral staircase to the top. Only one platform exists about a quarter of the way up, however the circular protective cage that was added in later years prevents you from walking onto it. This means that once you start up these 125 steps there's no stopping, unless it's to let people coming down have the right of way, one of the tower's rules. I was on light duty and using my cane that day, and with those metal steps in that tight, echoey chamber you can bet there were some people at the top wondering what was coming clicking up the stairs after them.

At the top you'll find yourself standing on a platform that could fit maybe two dozen people, with four small windows facing in each direction and offering a limited view. Prior to this I'd had it in my head that climbing the tower meant we'd actually be right on top of the thing shaking hands with Standish himself, but access to the statue is possible only through this small trapdoor in the ceiling.

Having completed the first part of that day's adventure in climbing the tower, it was now on to part two. The statue that stands up there today is not the first one to adorn this tower. In 1922 a lightning strike partially destroyed the original one, decapitating Standish and sending his head toppling to the ground. Workers cut the statue clean at the waist in an effort to install a new body, but after a crack was discovered above the right knee that raised concerns, the remains were discarded and a new statue built from scratch.

Fast-forward 60 years to those legs being a long gone memory, when in 1990 they were discovered at a local quarry in Quincy Massachusetts. They were retrieved and given to the group that oversees the tower, and today can be seen standing at the house of the Myles Standish Monument Director, in nearby Halifax Massachusetts.

Our intention was to drive to the house for a quick picture to complete our story, but when we pulled up a friendly man came out and we spent the next half-hour listening in fascination to the history of Myles Standish, his statue, and what they all mean to people in that area today. Marc, the monument's director, even pointed out the crack that caused this statue to be discarded 100 years ago, which if your eyes are better than mine you can see in this picture below.

One question remains when Marc considers the statue today, though - what ever happened to the top of it? Although broken off in the lightning strike and falling over 100 feet, the head never shattered. It survived, but was never found discarded with the rest of the statue years later. He's still looking for it to this day, and recently he was given a clue.

A picture surfaced that seems to show the original head, with a young girl leaning against it in what looks to be a private garden. Could someone have scooped it from that quarry many years ago and brought it home as a curious showpiece for their backyard? Marc thinks it's possible, and I like to think so, too. I hope someday he finds it, and I look forward to writing a follow-up to this story when he does.

Links:
Myles Standish Monument State Reservation