Greg writes:

> In a recent off-topic thread, I had referred to a piece purported to be
>  Governor Bradford's proclamation for a day of thanksgiving, from 1623.
>  Exercising some overdue curiosity (and with it, appropriate skepticism), I
>  web-searched for keywords, and found the following site questioning its
>  validity: http://www.plimoth.org/Library/Thanksgiving/th-bradp.htm. What
>  might be of some more general interest is that plimoth.org is the site for
>  the Plimoth Plantation Museum, where they attempt to assemble primary
>  sources for this tradition, and discuss what we do and do not know about
the
>  colony and related matters. There are other links from the site given above
>  that discuss just the thanksgiving tradition.
>
>  While we've stopped in Plymouth with family on the way to Cape Cod, we've
>  never spent the time there that the museum would appear to merit. We do get
>  to read in local news that there are views to the contrary, and that
>  material can almost certainly be found on the web elsewhere.

While I'm sure that the museum is quite nice, I'm also sure that it is filled
with errors and misrepresentations, if for no other reason than the fact that
the first Thanksgiving did NOT occur in Plymouth. Rather, it occurred -- wait
for it! -- right here in Nuevo Mexico, on El Rio Bravo (the Rio Grande), near
the current site of the city of El Paso, Texas.

For more information on this rampant bit of misinformation concerning
Plymouth's claim, see:

     http://www.nmgs.org/art1stThanks.htm
     http://riceinfo.rice.edu/armadillo/Mlist/archivenov95/msg00098.html
     http://www.powells.com/biblio/125400-125600/0943173221.html

Wirt "connoisseur of turkey enchiladas" Atmar