Haunted Fort, Haunted Cemetery

 

True to my New Year’s resolution we visited Fort Knox and the town of Bucksport yesterday. This town is about half an hour from Bangor and was a very easy drive along the Penobscot River.

Fort Knox was built after the Aroostook War, a time period during which the U.S./Canadian border was highly contested. The fort never saw battle, but was manned during the Spanish-American War and the Civil War. I have a feeling that my sister Kaitlin would appreciate that the fort was supposedly confirmed as haunted by the television series Ghost Hunters.

Tours of the fort will not resume until the spring, however we were able to explore the grounds.  The grounds were wonderful. The fort was covered in snow and there was something beautifully eerie about the place.

A view of Bucksport from the fort

 One of the batteries was even open! Christopher and I had quite a bit of fun exploring. 

  
After our run around the grounds we explored the neighboring town of Bucksport. We browsed through the local bookstore BookStacks (where I befriended the owner’s cat) and Christopher finally 
 bought a pair of snow boots from winter clothing shop. 

We also visited the Buck Memorial Library which was donated in the memory of Richard Pike Buck by his wife and daughter. The Library contained original records from the town of Bucksport (established in 1763) and some fantastic old family portraits.  
 

After our rendezvous in town we searched for the supposedly cursed tomb of founder Colonel Jonathan Buck. A woman was accused of witchcraft and was brought before Colonel Buck. She was tried and sentenced (there has been debate as to whether she was hung or burned on the stake). The woman announced that if she was killed she would forever dance on the tomb of the colonel.  Colonel Buck soon died and his grave was marked by an ordinary tombstone. In 1852 his descendants decided to erect a larger granite memorial in his honor.

One morning the unmistakable mark of a leg and a foot appeared on the front of the monument. The townspeople first thought that the memorial had been vandalized. They attempted to clean the memorial, but it did not work. The memorial was replaced three times but the mark always reappeared.

Now I do not believe in ghost stories, but I was determined to find the tomb for my sister’s sake. It turns out the Bucksport has A LOT of cemeteries- a least five in town plus more on the outskirts. We went to the wrong cemetery but I was still able to capture these rather haunting photos of an old cemetery at sunset during the dead of winter. 

 Yesterday was fantastic and I am eager to explore more!