History of Maine's Forts...

Old Fort Western shares living history
BY TOM ATWELL
Blethen Maine Newspapers

First of seven parts

AUGUSTA -- Old Fort Western is more than just a fort. It's also an old-house museum and an old-store museum -- all on one attractive site on the Kennebec River.

Built in 1754, it is America's oldest surviving wooden fort. It was located at the farthest point that schooners could sail up the Kennebec. The ships would unload at the fort and their goods would be transferred to smaller boats and sent to Fort Halifax, 17 miles upriver in Winslow.

Fort Western was never attacked, although one of its soldiers was captured while journeying to Fort Halifax and held prisoner. And although the fort was an important part of the community from the time it was built, it served as a military installation for only 12 years.

Today, costumed guides conduct 45-minute tours of the fort that cover the transformation of the complex over the generations. Two blockhouses on the site have been reconstructed, and it's there guides tell visitors about the fort's military mission during what was called the Seven Years War in Europe and the French and Indian War in North America.

At the blockhouses, visitors get to see replicas of cannons and mortars, muskets, a replica of a bateau -- a six-man, flat-bottomed boat used to carry freight upriver -- and a bit of a history lesson. The 20 or so soldiers at Fort Western were led by Capt. James Howard. The boats would haul up to two tons of goods from the storehouse at Fort Western to Fort Halifax, which was manned by almost 200 soldiers. Fort Western closed in 1766, although it did serve a brief military role in 1775 when Benedict Arnold and his men -- including Revolutionary War hero and later vice president Aaron Burr -- stopped there to repair their boats on their way to invade Canada.

When the fort closed, Howard bought the site. His sons, William and Samuel Howard, ran a store out of the fort's storehouse from 1762 to 1812. The original storehouse remains and is stocked with fabric, buttons, shingles, china, pots, pans, tobacco, port, rum and almost everything else people living in the wilderness in the late 18th century would have needed.

The store portion of the tour is especially educational for children -- tour guides show tools that were used to make buttons, spoons, shingles and other housewares, and children are asked to play the parts of people delivering goods. The home part of the tour covers the most space and the most time. The barracks section of the storehouse was converted to a home for William Howard's family around 1770, and Samuel Howard moved in about 1774. The house is furnished based on a probate inventory taken at Samuel Howard's death in 1799, and includes some furnishings original to the house as well as some reproductions. The tour guide describes cooking in the Colonial period, along with what the family did for entertainment and some family history -- including how one brother, John, was kept in the house as an invalid after he accidentally killed a surveyor during a surveying expedition.

After the tour, visitors have a chance to play games that the Howard family would have played when they lived there. One room in the building is set up as a tenement, showing what life was like for workers from Augusta's shoe and woolen mills who lived in small rooms and apartments created after the Howard family left.

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Photos By Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Fort Edgecomb offers a tranquil escape
The 8-sided blockhouse on the Sheepscot River now is a place for picnics and other family outings.
By DEIRDRE FLEMING
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald

Second of seven parts

EDGECOMB — Some of the biggest battles fought at Fort Edgecomb were based on local efforts to preserve this unusually shaped fort.

Situated on three acres on the shores of the Sheepscot River, the fort was built in 1808 as a means of defense, but it saw only one notable battle, in 1864.

Despite its relative inactivity in military engagements, impassioned efforts have been taken to preserve the blockhouse and grounds throughout the years.

In 1875, local residents organized fundraisers with entertainment to save the fort. In 1908, summer residents joined the effort, according to the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands.

And in 1923, Gov. Percival Baxter purchased the fort from the federal government for $501.

"They used it like a park. It's known that plays were held there, musicals. It was a place to gather for entertainment," said bureau historian Tom Desjardin.

Today, the fort is used in a similar fashion. With its panoramic view of the Sheepscot River from the grassy hill that spills gently toward the water, it is rented for weddings and family reunions.

And the everyday family picnic is a common affair there.

The local affection makes sense. The fort is pristine, its views of lobster boats on the Sheepscot River are classic Maine, and its spacious lawn covered with picnic tables is inviting.

The fact that Fort Edgecomb has always served as a centerpiece for local gatherings is also fitting, since it was built by locals in remarkable fashion.

Desjardin called the craftsmanship of the Maine shipbuilders who constructed the fort "elegant," "remarkable" and "magnificent."

Because of the unusual octagonal shape of the fort, the math that went into constructing it was a little more complicated than for the usual blockhouse forts, Desjardin said. And it was all done by local boat builders.

"It is a fascinating structure, this eight-sided fort. More people knew how to build log cabins. This is just really beautiful, considering it was only meant to be a fort," Desjardin said.

"You see relatively few of these (blockhouses with eight sides). The joinery is amazing. You can see that in the cupola on the second floor."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=205261&ac=PHnws




Photos By Doug Jones/Staff Photographer

Tucked away, Fort William Henry shines
The fort is part of Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site, once the home of 300 motley English settlers.
By MEREDITH GOAD
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald

Third of seven parts

BRISTOL/NEW HARBOR — Jim Egan of Cleveland lingered at the top of Fort William Henry on a recent gloriously sunny day and pointed out boats in the harbor to his grandson, Neil, a toddler wearing a shirt covered in little lobsters.

Egan wants the boy to learn all about Maine, the home Egan left in 1989 but returns to every year.

"The view is spectacular," he said as he looked out over the harbor from his perch atop the fort, located on the Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site. "You can't get a much better view around here."

The panoramic view from the top of the fort has all the ingredients of a classic Maine vista. Lobster boats and sailboats rock gently in Pemaquid Harbor, and attractive seasonal cottages blend into the forested coastline.

But visitors to this historic site soon learn that life has not always been so serene on the Pemaquid peninsula. The earliest English settlers lived lives of isolation, uncertainty and danger.

Three forts have stood on this site, which in the 17th century was England's farthest outpost into the eastern frontier. Two were destroyed in violent attacks by American Indians, who used the land for hunting and fishing long before Europeans arrived. The Indians had help from the French, who were trying to beat back British intrusion into their territory.

"This is a very significant place in history," said Kelsie Tardif, manager of the Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site.

Many visitors to the Pemaquid area head straight to the lighthouse down the road at Pemaquid Point, where they can climb on the rocks and watch crashing waves. They may miss Colonial Pemaquid altogether, because it is tucked away off Route 130, down a curvy stretch of back roads.

"I didn't even know this was up here until today," said Jessica Raven, who lives in the Augusta area but was visiting the historic site for the first time.

Raven found the visit worth the trip. "It's pretty cool," she said. "We like the history."

One of the attractions of Colonial Pemaquid is that there is so much to do there. And unlike some other parks, it isn't gated and is basically open year-round – though the fort and other buildings are unlocked only between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

The park, a National Historic Landmark, includes a reconstructed Fort William Henry; an 18th-century residence known as the Fort House; a museum; an old graveyard where headstones date back to the early 1700s; and stone cellar holes of a 17th-century home, a tavern, a blacksmith shop and other parts of the old Pemaquid village.

Throughout the summer, there are lots of special programs that often include guides dressed in period-appropriate clothing. There are also many picnic tables scattered around the grounds.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=205417&ac=PHnws






Photos By Tim Greenway/Staff Photographer

Forts Popham, Baldwin still conjure history's magic
Situated at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Phippsburg, the two forts offer a wealth of history amid natural beauty.
By BOB KEYES
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald

Fourth of seven parts

PHIPPSBURG — On the first day of her summer vacation this year, Carole Harris of Auburn visited her youth.

She and her husband, Andrew, packed up their Subaru Forester and drove to Phippsburg to frolic at Fort Popham.

Harris' father used to bring the family there when she was a youngster in the 1960s. They would pack their Airstream trailer and spend two weeks at a nearby campground.

Her father would return to Auburn to work, leaving the family free to explore Popham Beach, the fort and all the wonders of the Popham peninsula.

"There is a magic to this area," Harris said. "There just is. I love the history of the fort, I love the beach, and I love the natural environment. It's just beautiful."

Several forts were built in what is now Phippsburg from the early 1600s to the early 1900s. Two remain: Fort Popham and Fort Baldwin.

Fort Popham was built in 1862, with walls of granite 30 feet tall. Crescent-shaped, it offered fortification on three sides facing the water.

Its purpose was to protect Augusta from invasion by Confederate forces during the Civil War. Outfitted with 36 cannons on tiers of casements, it offered a formidable defense – evidenced by the fact that no enemy ever dared cross its line of fire to enter the mouth of the Kennebec River.

Although it never was completed, Fort Popham was also outfitted during the Spanish-American War and World War I.

Nearby Fort Baldwin was built from 1905 to 1912 on a bluff overlooking the Kennebec. In many ways, it is one of Maine's forgotten forts, with relatively few visitors even though it offers insight into military history and Maine's role in both world wars.

Fort Baldwin consisted of three batteries with a total of five guns, ranging in size from 3 to 6 inches in diameter. The guns were removed in the 1920s, but the fort was manned during World War II with field artillery, and the military built a concrete observatory to watch for German U-Boats.

Lookouts would search the horizon for German invaders. If spotters saw enemy submarines, they would radio their locations to other gun emplacements around Casco Bay.

"They'd just radio it in, and tell them where to fire. You could calculate the distance and fire as far away as Portland or Cape Elizabeth," said Tom Desjardin, a historian with the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=205704&ac=PHnws




Photos By Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Blockhouse pieced together after flood
Fort Halifax still stands where the Kennebec and Sebasticook rivers meet.
By MEREDITH GOAD
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald

Fifth of seven parts

WINSLOW — Last spring, when it looked as if the floodwater might overtake the Fort Kent blockhouse in Aroostook County, Tom Desjardin watched, waited and worried.

"The water was up to the bottom wall, up over the stone foundation," he recalled.

Desjardin was worried there might be a repeat of 1987, when swirling water lifted and dismantled Fort Halifax, the oldest blockhouse in the United States, and carried it downriver. The National Historic Landmark had to be reassembled piece by piece.

Fortunately for Desjardin, history did not repeat itself.

The 1987 incident was the most excitement the fort had seen in almost 250 years.

In the 18th century, Fort Halifax was at the doorstep of the Maine wilderness. The site where it was raised, at the confluence of the Kennebec and Sebasticook rivers, had long been what settlers called an "Indian fort," a trading area and rendezvous spot where people tended to gather.

"It's really the last piece of civilization, barring a couple of villages that were starting to spring up north of here," said Desjardin, a historian with the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands.

Built in 1754 during the French and Indian War, Fort Halifax was manned by Colonial militia from Massachusetts and a handful of British regulars to protect nearby settlers from brutal attacks.

It was constructed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which "had very little money to do so," Desjardin said.

"Their expenditures were pretty tight," he said.

"Establishing a fort was not an easy thing, and it took a lot of complaining from the local people from here to Phippsburg about Indian raids" to get the colony's attention.

Old Fort Western in Augusta was built to supply Fort Halifax with gunpowder, food and other essentials.

Ships sailed as far as Augusta, then supplies were offloaded and brought by oxen to Fort Halifax.

Fort Halifax originally looked a lot like Fort Western, with two blockhouses, two small guard houses, a storehouse, barracks and officers' quarters.

In Winslow, there were two more blockhouses built on a hill to help protect the area.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=205853&ac=PHnws


Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Fort McClary site is rich in history
The fortress was used to protect the approach to the Piscataqua River through several wars.
By DEIRDRE FLEMING
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald

Sixth of seven parts

KITTERY — It's almost impossible to stop at Fort McClary at the mouth of the Piscataqua River for just an hour.

Have plans in bustling southern Maine? Heading to the beach? Be warned.

This fortress, which was used to protect the approach to the Piscataqua through several wars,is scenic, well-preserved and rife with mood.

"There is so much around here -- the shopping, the beaches -- people miss it," said Steve Woodman, president of the Friends of Fort McClary.

Although Fort McClary was active from the American Revolution until World War I, it saw little conflict.

"Forts were defensive, not used to antagonize," said Ray Faulkner, a member of the Friends of Fort McCleary who helps to re-enact life during the French and Indian War at the fort.

The fort was named for Maj. Andrew McClary, one of the highest-ranking American officers to be killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the Revolution.

The fort grounds would be impressive even if they amounted to only a bunch of scattered granite blocks -- which are, well, scattered about.

The blocks were left when work on the granite wall was abandoned.

The granite blocks make great picnic benches, and many are used for just that.

The fieldstone and wooden blockhouse that was built during the 1840s is another unusual part of the fort.

The other structures seem in virtually pristine condition: a rifleman's house, a magazine built in 1808 to hold gunpowder, and a caponier, which extended outside the wall to allow gunfire.

This underground tunnel is like a circus ride for kids, a veritable haunted house that allows them to go into a cave-like dwelling with small views through gun holes.

And, of course, there's the blockhouse, built between 1844 and 1846. Its granite base matches the walls, and long wooden stairs lead up to a stone lookout tower where cannons were --and are again -- mounted.

The Friends of Fort McClary are still working on a fundraising campaign to bring a period cannon, known as a carronade, to the blockhouse from New York.

"It was the kind of gun used here," Woodman said.

While some of the fort's rich history is known -- such as the fact that Vice President Hannibal Hamlin was stationed there in 1864, during the Civil War -- much remains unknown, such as why the blockhouse was needed.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=206066&ac=PHnws




Photos By Doug Jones/Staff Photographer

Fort Knox inspires awe
While it houses no gold, it survives intact, with tunnels for exploring.
By RAY ROUTHIER
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald

Last of seven parts

PROSPECT — When the federal government began building Fort Knox in 1844, making the place child-friendly was probably not a priority.

The 252-foot-wide fortress, built of granite blocks high on a bluff near the mouth of the Penobscot River, was designed to block foreign ships from sailing upriver to the then vitally important lumber town of Bangor.

But in building the fort, the designers outfitted it with a series of long underground tunnels and isolated chambers. Dark, hidden places where troops could take cover and be protected as they battled a charging enemy.

So they not only built a strategically sound, defensive stronghold, they built a spooky, dark playground that has entertained generations of youngsters.

Like 9-year-old Ben Steele, who was touring the fort with his grandparents and sister on a recent overcast morning. He did not hesitate when asked his favorite part.

"The tunnels. They're pretty dark, but I can still see," Ben said. He liked the fact that the fort was historic as well. "We might be walking where famous people walked."

Fort Knox was never involved in a battle, so it's hard to say if famous people ever walked its tunnels. But it was named for a famous person, Henry Knox, the nation's first secretary of war, who lived in Maine later in life. (That other Fort Knox, the one with all the gold in Kentucky, was also named for him but built a little later.)

Construction on Maine's Fort Knox began in 1844. The last military presence was during the Spanish-American War in 1898. It was sold to the state of Maine in the 1920s.

The grounds include a visitors center, a gift shop, a picnic area with tables, restrooms, and lots of areas to walk along the Penobscot River.

Fort Knox inspires awe in visitors largely because it is mostly intact.

While some forts and historic sites consist only of foundations or crumbling remains, Fort Knox has all its walls, tunnels and troop quarters, standing and ready to be explored.

Once you enter the archway into the fort, you see a massive, grass-covered courtyard framed by granite walls, doorways and tunnel entrances. There are cannon holes and rifle slits, giving you views of the town of Bucksport across the river.

There are original cannons and guns to inspect, including 15-inch Rodman cannons near the river that look like something used to launch circus performers.

Once in the tunnels – there are two sets of them, and they circumnavigate the fort – one can walk briskly for 10 minutes and not be finished covering the total length.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=206197&ac=PHnws






Photos By John Patriquin/Staff Photographer