Fort Knox State Historic Site
Routes 1 and 174 Prospect, Maine
The towns at the head of Penobscot Bay in the 19th Century had a well-earned fear of British invasion. Both in 1779, during the Revolutionary War, and during the War of 1812, His Majesty’s ships came marauding through the area, occupying Castine, terrifying Bucksport and Hampden, and threatening Bangor itself.
So when war with the British loomed once more, in 1839’s “Great Aroostook Bloodless War,” Washington dusted off plans first made in 1825 for a fort at the mouth of the Penobscot River, to protect all the towns upriver. As it happened, no battles were waged to rearrange the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick—the cause of the “war”--and the dispute was settled by treaty in 1842. But in 1844 the first earth finally was turned in Prospect at the site of what was to become Fort Knox, named in honor of Major General Henry Knox, America’s first Secretary of War and a resident of Thomaston, Maine, in his retirement.
Built with granite from Mount Waldo in nearby Frankfort, Fort Knox is among the world’s most impressive examples of craftsmanship in stone. And in its day, it was a formidable military presence. Alas, that day was short. When, after 25 years of construction, work was stopped in 1869, Fort Knox already was obsolete. No battles were fought in Prospect, no great moments of history recorded, but the Fort had accomplished its mission: no invaders dared sail past its cannons.
Fort Knox State Historic Site is administered by the Maine Department of Conservation and is managed by its Bureau of Parks and Lands. A nonprofit community organization, the Friends of Fort Knox, staffs the admission gate, operates a gift shop, provides interpretive guided tours, and produces a number of special events during summer and fall weekends, including Civil War reenactments. The Fort is open to the public every day from 8:30 am until sunset, May 1 until November 1.
Fort Knox is located near the junction of Routes 1 and 174, at the western end of the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory, and visitors to the Observatory will access the tower through the Fort campus, beginning in May 2007.
Friends of Fort Knox
P.O. Box 456
Bucksport ME 04416
207-469-6553
ffriends@midcoast.com
fortknox.maineguide.com