First Family Trip of the Summer- Part 1

 

 

Our first Field Trip of the year was to Fort Knox. I have been their as a child, but honestly don’t remember it. So it was nice to go with the kids and experience again. Monkey Man being my history buff was right in there listening to all they had to say. Plus he has to write a paper for me about it, since he has to take a semester of Maine Studies this year!

 

A little background for those of you that have never heard of Fort Knox. In 1812 the American Revolution and the war brought enemy British ships to the Penobscot River. By 1825 the nation’s defense plans included the fort. However, no funds were actually provided for construction until nearly 2 decades later. Lieutenant Isaac Stevens, a young West Point graduate was placed in charge of this massive project, and so construction began in 1844. The first thing they built was the gun batteries, and then in 1853 they started excavation for the main fort. From 20 to 54 troops were garrisoned to the fort during the Civil War. Since at the time the fort was still under construction they lived temporally in wooden buildings behind the fort’s granite structure. No actually war was ever seen at the Fort. It took nearly one-million dollars to build Fort Knox, and it is still not complete. Construction finally stopped in 1869.

 

Here are a few shots from our day!