The Other Fort Knox :: Personal Narrative Papers

The Other Fort Knox The first Wednesday in July found me crammed into a fourteen-passenger van with enough adolescents to fill it to capacity. Actually, it was only four girls and three boys, plus the three other leaders, but stuffed in the very back with three smelly boys – Jonathan, Andrew, and Aaron – it seemed like the van was about to burst. They could have had more room if they had chosen to spread out, but then they would have been forced to occupy seats adjacent to girls, a horrible situation for any ten year old boy. We were headed to Bucksport, Maine, a two-hour trip from my house, to tour and explore Fort Knox. It is probably not the Fort Knox that one immediately thinks of; there are actually two Fort Knox’s in the United States. James Bond was never at this Fort Knox, nor was any gold. Just in case, though, I told the boys that I would give my car to anyone who found gold. This would have been a threat to person over the age of eighteen, but their eyes got quite large at the prospect of winning something that had four tires. This Fort Knox was built for protecting the independence newly won from the British in the mid nineteenth century. Located at the mouth of the Penobscot River, Fort Knox is a heavily fortified defensive point. The fort boasts of remarkable engineering and a fascinating labyrinth of passageways. With thirty foot high walls of huge granite blocks, and cannons that could fire a four hundred and fifty pound ball a distance of three miles, Fort Knox would have been a brutal foe for the British navy. When we arrived, two of the group leaders, Sarah and Josh, went to go set up lunch, while my wife, Mary Ella, and I took the kids on a brief pre-tour. Since it was only half an hour before lunch, we decided to go down to explore one of the batteries. A battery is a small point outside the fort for artillery. Fort Knox is on a large hill overlooking the mouth of the river. At Fort Knox, there are two batteries located a little way down the hill from the fort. This allows the fort to fire on an enemy from multiple locations, and it allows for more artillery than the fort alone could hold.