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Fort Knox - the largest historic fort and most visited historic site in the state of Maine

During your stay in Rockland, it is important to visit Fort Knox State Historic Site. It is home to the largest historic fort and most visited historic site in Maine. What may surprise people is that even with its full and rich history, it was never involved in an actual battle. The construction lasted between 1844 and 1864 and cost over $1 million although it was never fully completed. It is Maine’s first granite fort, and is New England’s most impressive unmodified example of military architecture representative of that period.

To protect the area from pending British naval attacks, it is located along the narrows of Penobscot Bay. When it was built, the initial goal was to defend Bangor, Maine (a major source of shipbuilding lumber at the time) from the British during the Maine-New Brunswick border dispute. This dispute was to resolve the border conflict that lingered after the Aroostook War. Today, it stands as a pillar and represents Maine's first struggles for freedom. While never firing a shot, it garrisoned troops for both the Spanish American War and the Civil War.

Fort Knox - honoring the late General Henry Knox

Fort Knox was named after Major General Henry Knox who was America's first Secretary of War as well as the Commander of Artillery throughout the American Revolution. He lived the last years of his life in Thomaston, Maine, which is in close proximity to the fort. In 1970, Fort Knox was designated as a National Historic Landmark

Fort Knox was originally designed to have two batteries that would face the river. Each battery was equipped with a hot shot furnace. With this in place, each cannon shot would carry enough heat to set the opponent ships on fire. While this was effective when the ships were made of wood, the technology obviously became useless and abandoned when the ships later became ironclad.

In 1923, the Federal Government labeled Fort Knox as excess property and put the fort (with its 125 acre land), up for sale. The state of Maine purchased it for a mere price of $2,121. It has proven to be a good investment for the state. Not only is it a prized historic landmark here in Maine, it is also the entry site for the Observation Tower of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, which opened in 2007.

The Fort Knox State Historic Site should be a destination for anyone visiting Rockland since it offers unique and beautifully constructed architecture, a deep insight into New England military history and military construction, as well as access to the Penobscot Narrows Observatory for some of the best views of the bay and the Midcoast Maine area.

Photo Credits (in order of appearance):
“Fort Knox hallways” by Calliope on Flickr Creative Commons
“Fort Knox Rodman Cannon” by Leonard G on Wikipedia Creative Commons