Profile Rock

Located in Freetown State Park in Massachusetts the silhouette of what had come to be known as Profile Rock looked like the craggy visage of a man’s face, and once upon a time, it was thought to be that of the Wampanoag Chief Massasoit Sachem.

The face in the rock had not always been there and appears to have come into existence sometime in the mid-1800s, likely the result of dynamite. Nonetheless, the face became revered among the local tribes who thought it was the face of the great leader Sachem, father of Philip of King Philip’s War that would later take place. Some believe Philip spent the night beneath the rock the evening before he died. While the rock definitely looks like a face, it is unknown whether it looks like Massasoit Sachem.

Profile Rock was also known as the “Old Man of Joshua’s Mountain,” taking a name from  Joshua Tisdale, a settler that once owned a deed to the land. But no matter what you call it, the rock had garnered an air of the supernatural with local legends of ghosts, satanic cults, and murder surrounding the site. Although this is somewhat understandable considering how uncanny the profile is.

Although the rock had been considered sacred to many, given its association with a famous chief, the rock became a frequent target for graffiti in the modern day. 

Update June 2019: On June 19, 2019, after a report of recent damages to the historic rock formation, park officials discovered that a large portion of the rock formation had broken off.