Fort Knox (Maine)
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Fort Knox
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Fort Knox, Maine painting by Seth Eastman done between 1870 and 1875
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| Location | Prospect, Maine |
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| Coordinates | 44°33′58.3″N 68°48′8.7″W / 44.566194°N 68.802417°WCoordinates: 44°33′58.3″N 68°48′8.7″W / 44.566194°N 68.802417°W |
| Area | 124 acres (50 ha) |
| Built | 1844 |
| Architect | Colonel Joseph G. Totten, US Army Corps of Engineers |
| NRHP Reference # | 69000023 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 01, 1969 |
| Designated NHL | December 30, 1970 |
Fort Knox, now Fort Knox State Park or Fort Knox State Historic Site, is located on the western bank of the Penobscot River in the town of Prospect, Maine, about 5 miles (8.0 km) from the mouth of the river. Built between 1844 and 1869, it was the first fort in Maine built entirely of granite; most previous forts used wood, earth, and stone. It is named after Major General Henry Knox, the first U.S. Secretary of War and Commander of Artillery during the American Revolutionary War, who at the end of his life lived not far away in Thomaston. The fort was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970, as a virtually intact example of a mid-19th century granite coastal fortification. Fort Knox also serves as the entry site for the observation tower of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge that opened to the public on 19 May 2007.
Local memory of the humiliation of Maine at the hands of the British during the American Revolution and again during the War of 1812 contributed to subsequent anti-British feeling in Eastern Maine. The Penobscot Expedition of 1779 aimed to force the British from Castine, but ended in a debacle. The Americans lost 43 ships and suffered approximately 500 casualties in the worst naval defeat for the United States prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Then in autumn 1814, during the War of 1812, a British naval force and soldiers sailed up the Penobscot and defeated an outnumbered American force in the Battle of Hampden. The British followed their victory by looting both Hampden and Bangor. The American defeat contributed to the post-war movement for Maine's statehood, which occurred in 1820, as Massachusetts had failed to protect the region.
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