Fort Knox State Historic Site

After we ascended the Penobscot Narrows Observatory we toured the nearby Fort Knox.  Both sites are managed together and so we were able to purchase admission to both at the same time.  Interesting enough the fort was built over many years but never actually saw combat and was never actually completely finished.

Located on the west bank of the Penobscot River in Prospect, Maine, in an area known as the Penobscot Narrows, Fort Knox is one of the best-preserved military fortifications on the New England seacoast. The fort has many unique architectural features, as well as a rich history behind its walls.

During the country’s infancy, Maine was repeatedly involved in northeast border disputes with British Canada. In fact, the area between Castine and the rich lumber city of Bangor was invaded and occupied by the British during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Fort Knox was established in 1844 to protect the Penobscot River Valley against a possible future British naval incursion.

The fort was designed by Chief Engineer Joseph Totten with a number of other engineers serving as superintendents of construction from 1844 - 1869, among them Isaac Ingalls Stevens and Thomas L. Casey. The fort was named for Major General Henry Knox, America's first Secretary of War, who was born in Boston but retired to Thomaston, Maine in 1796. The fort garrisoned its first troops from 1863 to 1866. These troops were mostly volunteers undergoing training before being sent to their active posts, and included members of the celebrated 20th Maine. Troops were also briefly stationed at the fort during the Spanish-American war in 1898, but never saw military action.
--from Fort Knox Historic Site website

After someone took the above family picture at the fort's sign the girls decided to get a closer look at the cannon.

 Of course they both wanted to take a look.

We headed down a path towards the visitor center and the entrance to the fort.

 The visitor is a small building with a gift shop at one end and a large room full of signs at the other end.

Fort Knox was named after Major General Henry Knox, who served in the American Revolution.  England had actually invaded the area at least twice before construction on the fort began, but thankfully there was never another invasion and so the fort was never actually used in battle.

The fort took so long to construct (and was technically never completed) that some parts of it were obsolete before they could even be used.

This is a mine case of the type that would float in the water for protection against enemy vessels.  This model could hold 200 pounds of explosives.

After leaving the visitor center we finally headed towards the fort itself.

Outer batteries below the walls of the fort were located closer to the river.

The walls are quite impressive.

The main entrance faces towards the water.

The fort was originally conceived as part of a series of fortifications up and down the east coast that originally were to consist of as many as 115 different fortifications in the Third System though ultimately only 42 were built.  You can read about our visit to one of the other Third System forts in my series of posts about Fort Pulaski.  We have also visited Fort Monroe, but not since it became part of the National Park Service.  I look forward to going back to that fort again some day to explore further.  And of course Fort Sumter is on my short list of forts to visit.

The entryway is quite long and shows the depth of part of the walls.

Once inside you can turn to either side and see large casemates in the walls.  These areas were vitally important to the design of forts as they protected cannons and soldiers from retaliatory bombardments during battle.  They dated back centuries and also allowed several levels of cannons to be incorporated into the fort's design.

We headed up the stairs to take a look inside one of the areas.  I was reminded of the casemates we've seen in other places like Fort Pulaski, though those forts had seen battle and had actual cannons fire from inside their casemates.

Nonetheless Fort Knox does have a number of cannons so you can see how the areas would have operated during battle had the fort ever come under attack.

Some helpful signs even explained exactly how these canons would be fired.

Can you imagine how loud it would have been in a fort with multiple cannons being fired at attacking ships and the impact of shells from said ships?

While climbing on the walls was prohibited there were stairs so that you could go to the highest level of the fort.

There were emplacements for thirty cannons on the roof of the fort.  This area was covered with dirt as it was inexpensive and could absorb the impact of incoming shells.

The view from atop the fort was wonderful.

From here you could see a number of casemates.

You could also see the entire courtyard from the upper level.  If I recall there were originally plans to build a barracks building in the center of the courtyard--but nothing ever came of those plans due to the fort never actually being completed or fully utilized.  Also notice the square patches of stone in the grass?  I'll get back to those later.

Of course we had to look back and catch a glimpse of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory.

Back down on the ground level the powder magazine was quite dark (obviously as you wanted it to be a very protected area).

Inside what would have become the officer's quarters were a series of signs explaining the history of the fort and the times that it was actually used.  During the Spanish-American War some troops were quartered here, but they actually chose to camp in tents nearby.

Remember those stone spots in the grass of the courtyard?

A set of stairs leads down to a deep path alongside that spot and you can see that they were food storage bins set below the level of the courtyard to maximize storage space in the fort.

There was actually more light down there than it looks like in the above picture as you can see from the shot below taken at the bottom.

The storage pits were decent size also and would have held quite a bit of provisions.

As mentioned above there was originally a plan for a barracks in the courtyard, though it was never completed.

We headed down a set of steps in one section of the fort and actually ended up leaving the fort itself.

When we emerged back into the light we were at the lower battery closer to the river.

This was a hot shot furnace where cannon balls would have been heated red hot before being fired--the better to cause a fire when they impacted with the wooden hull of a ship.

You can see the ramps inside the furnace that the cannon balls would have rolled down as they heated up.

I'll leave you with one last cannon picture.

All of the pictures above and a good number more can be found in this album.

~Matt