Myles Standish's boots - A very weird roadside attraction

 

On a clear day with blue skies on 26 August 1922, lightning struck the statue of Captain Myles Standish on the tower in Myles Standish Monument State Reservation in Duxbury, Massachusetts.  The strange phenomenon destroyed the top half of the statue, and the arm holding his sword. Native Americans in the area considered this retribution, and gather at the site of the legs annually. 

70 years after the freak storm, in the 1990s, the legs of this statue were discovered cast aside in a granite quarry in Quincy, Massachusetts.  You can see these seven foot boots at 20 Dwight Street in Halifax, Massachusetts.  This strange landmark is located in front of the residence of Marc Valentine, a local artist, near the Monponsett Lake where Sachem Massasoit (Ousamequin) had his hunting lodge on White Island. Halifax was in the center of many of the conflicts during King Philip's War.  

One of the catalysts for King Philip's War might have been when the English at Plymouth worried that Wamsutta, Ousamequin's son, was planning an attack.  Josias Winslow went to the lodge on White Island and arrested Wamsutta.  But after a few days in custody, Wamsutta fell sick and died.  Wamsutta's brother, Metacoment (King Philip) thought he had been poisoned by Winslow.  This event was end of five decades of peace between the English and the Wampanoag peoples, drawn up by one of Ousamequin's treaties.  The resulting war (1675-1676) was one of the most deadly and destructive wars in American History. 

Captain Myles Standish

Here stand the legs of Captain Myles Standish

first military leader of the Plymouth Colony 1620 - 1642

... from atop Captains Hill in Duxbury, Struck down 

and destroyed by a "Violent Lightning Bolt"...

...taking his sword, the Charter... and his head,

August 26, 1922... known by many then and today

as a Powerful and Significant Event.

Myles Standish also owned property here in town,

the land where the Halifax Elementary School

now stands.

A 400th anniversary Salute

Monponsett

7,000 years ago, at the time

of the Great Pyramids, early

Indians camped here along the 

northern shore of the lake.

... but it wasn't until May 20, 1927

that Charles A. Lindbergh got

a "birds eye" view when he flew

directly over the town of Halifax,

and this neighborhood at 100 ft on his

historic first solo flight across the 

Atlantic.  Even today planes flying 

the North Atlantic routes to Europe

pass over head "Bearing NNE". 

The original 14 foot Myles Standish monument in Duxbury was build between 1872 and 1898, on land that was once Captain Standish's farmland.  After the 1922 lightning strike, it was replaced with an entirely new statue in 1930, carved by sculptor John Horrigan. The monument is still standing on top of a 116 foot tower in Duxbury.  Visitors can climb the 125 steps to a viewing platform on top with views of Duxbury Beach, Plymouth Harbor and the Blue Hills.  Captain Standish is buried nearby at the Myles Standish Burial Ground. 

For the truly curious:

My lineage from Myles Standish of the Mayflower:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/09/surname-saturday-standish-of-mayflower.html   

The Myles Standish Burial Ground, Duxbury, Massachusetts:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/04/tombstone-tuesday-myles-standish.html  

"How Myles Standish Lost His Head", Drew Archival Library, March 6, 2013,  https://drewarchives.org/2013/03/06/how-myles-standish-lost-his-head/  

"A New Head and Shoulders for Miles Standish Statue", The Duxbury Rural and Historical Society,  https://duxburyhistory.org/pilgrim-history-duxbury-massachusetts/coming-to-a-pilgrim-town/a-new-head-and-shoulders-for-miles-standish-statue/ 

Myles Standish Monument website:   https://www.mass.gov/locations/myles-standish-monument-state-reservation  

"The Suspicious Death of Wamsutta: Prelude to War", from the official website of the Pokanoket Tribe, https://www.pokanokettribe.org/articles/suspicious-death-of-wamsutta   

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Myles Standish's boots - A very weird roadside attraction", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 6, 2026, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/10/myles-standishs-boots-very-weird.html: accessed [access date]).