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NORTON -- Today, it's regarded as the highest point in Norton, a place where people hike and occasionally gather round campfires.

But during the late 17th century, Wampanoag Chief King Philip stood in front of the outcropping of boulders on what became known as Great Rocky Hill and could see Colonial troops marshalling from nearby Taunton.

People today know little of the Native American history of the boulders, collectively referred to as King Philip's Cave, Norton Historical Commission Chairman Christopher Cox says.

The rocky pile is off Stone Run Drive, off Plain Street near Bay Road and Lake Winnecunnet.

Now, a historical marker erected in September and funded by the Colonial Dames Seventeenth Century's Olde Boston Chapter is intended to educate the public about the site's Native American roots. Seaconke Wampanoag Chief George "Silver Wolf" Jennings visited the site Thursday for the first time.

"This is why you visit things like this, so you can bring that back to everybody," he said. "I can imagine them being here back in the 1600s."

Jennings joined Cox, Colonial Dames Chapter President Ellen McGrath and Land Preservation Society of Norton Treasurer Kathleen Ebert-Zawasky at the seven-acre site, which the preservation group owns.

They were invited by Cox, whose interest in Native American history inspired the sign.

"We always get history handed down to us from the English perspective or the European perspective, and not so much from the Native American perspective," said Cox, an archaeologist and a historical re-enactor.

"These areas were used by natives for thousands of years before the Europeans and before the English," he said.

Cox said artifacts have been found in the area for the past 200 years.

Third-graders visit King Philip's Cave every year as part of their local history lessons, he said.

"As far back as the 1700s, it was known that King Philip used this place as a refuge, as well as a retreat," Cox said.

The non-profit Land Preservation Society has a hand-drawn map of the cave area on the group's Web site, www.nortonlandpreservation.org. Ebert-Zawasky said the land is significant geologically, as well as historically.

"It's a very unusual form, because we don't have anywhere else in Norton which have huge boulders like this," she said.

Ebert-Zawasky said she hopes people visit the cave, read the sign and are inspired to explore Native American history afterward.

The site was visited fairly recently, as the remnants of a campfire indicated, she said.

Ebert-Zawasky also hopes that perhaps a local Boy Scout will volunteer to help clear the path to promote use of the site.

McGrath, too, hopes the cave attracts more visitors.

"I'm very appreciative that this area is untouched. So many other places have been torn down and forgotten," she said.

The Colonial Dames donated $450 to the historical commission to erect three historical markers, including the one at King Philip's Cave.

The other two signs were put up in 2007, both on Bay Road, Cox said: one at the house of the first settler, William Wetherell; and the other at the town's first burial ground, which dates back to the 1700s.

MICHAEL GELBWASSER covers Norton for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0439 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com.