After exploring the inner shoreline of Cape Cod, the colonists chose to settle in Plymouth.
The site offered a good harbor, several fresh water springs, and a large hill overlooking the harbor (which they would later name Burial Hill) suitable for a fort.
A tribe known as the Patuxet (part of the Wampanoag peoples) had settled the site and cleared a large area of land for planting corn.
By the time the Mayflower arrived, the Patuxet tribe had been wiped out by plagues, likely as a result of contact with English fishermen.

During their first winter in Plymouth, most of the settlers fell ill and half died of disease.
Priscilla Mullins (John Alden's future wife) lost her entire family—her father William, her mother Alice, and her brother Joseph.
The fifty colonists who survived began building a fort atop Burial Hill and small wooden houses on either side of a "street" now known as Leyden Street, named in 1823 after the town in Holland where the Pilgrims lived for several years.
A small plot of land at the foot of Burial Hill near the top of the street was designated for John Alden.
He built a primitive house in this location and lived there for about seven years with his wife Priscilla and his growing family.
The site of Alden's first house in Plymouth was marked in 1930 with a boulder and bronze plaque placed by the Alden Kindred of America.
A recreation of this house stands today at Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum which replicates the original Pilgrim settlement.
After exploring the inner shoreline of Cape Cod, the colonists chose to settle in Plymouth. The site offered a good harbor, several fresh water springs, and a large hill overlooking the harbor (which they would later name Burial Hill) suitable for a fort. A tribe known as the Patuxet (part of the Wampanoag peoples) had settled the site and cleared a large area of land for planting corn. By the time the Mayflower arrived, the Patuxet tribe had been wiped out by plagues, likely as a result of contact with English fishermen.
During their first winter in Plymouth, most of the settlers fell ill and half died of disease. Priscilla Mullins (John Alden's future wife) lost her entire family—her father William, her mother Alice, and her brother Joseph. The fifty colonists who survived began building a fort atop Burial Hill and small wooden houses on either side of a "street" now known as Leyden Street, named in 1823 after the town in Holland where the Pilgrims lived for several years. A small plot of land at the foot of Burial Hill near the top of the street was designated for John Alden. He built a primitive house in this location and lived there for about seven years with his wife Priscilla and his growing family. The site of Alden's first house in Plymouth was marked in 1930 with a boulder and bronze plaque placed by the Alden Kindred of America. A recreation of this house stands today at Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum which replicates the original Pilgrim settlement.
John Alden