Metacomet of Pokonoket, called King Philip by the English and a sachem or chief of the Wampanoag people, is reported to have used this area as a stopping place. It provided a natural fortress for his many visits to the settlements of Plimouth and Taunton, both part of the Plimouth colony. Numerous Native American villages have been discovered along Winnecunnit Pond, which were then visible from this natural great hill, as was the Old Bay Path and all of the surrounding countryside. During King Philip's War from 1675 to 1676, after a raid and burning of the settlement of Taunton in June 1675 and of the nearby homestead of Sgt. William Witherell, Philip and his warriors are believed to have taken refuge here as they withdrew ahead of militia from Plimouth and Taunton under the command of Captain Benjamin Church. The cave is a natural stone formation created by the advance and withdrawal of ice sheets during the last ice age about 13,500 years ago. These glaciers were over a mile thick and hundreds of miles wide, carrying tons of soil and rock that they deposited throughout this area. The large stones and boulders that form the cave are called conglomerate or "pudding stone," glacial erratics left behind as the ice sheets melted and retreated.

Photo: Bryan Simmons

Photo: Bryan Simmons

Photo: Bryan Simmons

Taunton, Massachusetts · USA