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DISCOVER AMERICA’S FIRST FORT KNOX

The Fort Knox that’s famous for gold bullion, and that’s an active Army base...that’s not our Fort Knox. That one’s in Kentucky.

Maine’s Fort Knox is the first one, built in Prospect, on the narrows of the Penob-scot River in the mid-1800s. It was constructed to defend the river from another British invasion. Eastern Maine had been attacked and defeated by the British in both land and naval battles during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

Designed in the shape of a pentagon, with the capacity for more than 130 cannons, the fort’s armaments were aimed at both sides of the river. Despite a lengthy construction period, the fort was never