Show A monument of folly much has been written about the abandoned farms of new england but her abandoned forts are not so BO well known of all of these obsolete strongholds strong holds none la Is more Inte interesting rUng than fort knox on the of the penobscot rI river verat i at prospect maine this fori which derived its name from the fact that it was built on land once owned by byI Henry lenry knox knor the boston bookseller who became Ing tons chief of artillery in the revolution and the first secretary of war tor for the united states was begun in the early forties to protect the shipbuilding and commerce of the penobscot which was then at its height work hail had progressed far enough at the outbreak of the civil war to en able the war department to uso use fort knox as a training school for many of the artillery officers who served in the union army amy this ahls was the nearest t that port fort I 1 knox nax ever came to a war record however for li it never heard the shot of a hostile gun and in 1860 after construction had been in 1 progress for 20 years work vork on it was abandoned costing about a million dollars it stands a monument mor ament of human folly writes one historian the recent advance in the science of war Is such that fort knox would be scarcely more effective in time of danger than an ancient feudal castle of the middle ages monument of folly though fort knox may be it Is also a monument to the days when masonry was a fine art huge white slabs of granite quarried from blount waldo a few miles north and floated down the river in scows are set in its walls ails edge on edge with beautiful precision and a great circular staircase of solid pieces of granite Is 13 the crowning piece of f workmanship near the chore batteries can still be seen the brick ovens where the 42 pound cannon balls were heated but nearly all of the artillery placed in the fort during the civil war has been removed to adorn adom parks armories and other public places in new england designed DL signed to be the fenest fortress on the atlantic coast fort knox Is now abandoned ind it Is one of the several forts whose sale has been authorized by dongress congress within recent years although it lacks the historic background of many other forts there are few which are ara as picturesque as this gan old monument of folly which stands guard over an unfulfilled hope on the banks of the athine of amer lea im tho the penobscot river |