Fort Knox, Prospect: The Haunted Granite Fort on the Penobscot

Fort Knox sits on the west bank of the Penobscot River in Prospect, opposite the town of Bucksport and right beside the tall towers of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. Built from 1844 to 1869 out of granite quarried a few miles upriver, it was meant to guard Bangor and the rich lumber trade of the Penobscot valley. It is the best-preserved fort of its kind in New England, and it is huge: two levels of vaulted casemates, a parade ground, spiral granite staircases and long, unlit passages where you will want a flashlight.

It is also where most Maine ghost stories end up. Staff and visitors describe cold spots, hair pulling, taps on the shoulder, voices and a silent shadow figure in the upper corridor. Ghost Hunters filmed here in 2011, and the Friends of Fort Knox, the nonprofit that runs the site, now offers its own ghost tours and overnight Ghost Camp. This guide covers the real history, the stories people tell, and how to see the fort after dark.

History of Fort Knox

Maine’s long border with British New Brunswick was still disputed in the 1830s, and when the quarrel flared into the bloodless Aroostook War of 1838 and 1839, it revived old fears that a British fleet could sail up the Penobscot unopposed. Washington decided the river needed a proper fort. It was added to the Third System of coastal defenses, and the site chosen was the narrows at Prospect, where any warship heading for Bangor would have to pass under its guns.

Colonel Joseph G. Totten of the Army Corps of Engineers drew up the design, and work began in 1844, first under engineer Isaac Ingalls Stevens and later under Thomas L. Casey. It was the first fort in Maine built entirely of granite, quarried about five miles upriver at Mount Waldo in Frankfort. Congress paid for it in fits and starts, and although about a million dollars was spent, masonry funding stopped in 1869 with the upper gun emplacements never finished. The fort was named for Henry Knox, the Revolutionary War general and first Secretary of War.

Fort Knox never saw battle. During the Civil War it was manned mostly by Maine volunteers in training, while Casey adapted its batteries for the big Rodman guns. In the Spanish-American War of 1898 a Connecticut regiment was stationed here and a controlled minefield was laid in the river. After that the garrison shrank to a single caretaker, known as the Keeper of the Fort. One long-serving soldier, Sgt. Leopold Hegyi, kept watch here for years and died in a house across the road, and his name would later turn up in the ghost stories.

In 1923 the federal government declared the fort surplus, and the State of Maine bought it for $2,121. It has been a state historic site since 1943. Since April 2012 the nonprofit Friends of Fort Knox has run the site day to day under the state, raising money with events from Civil War encampments and Shakespeare under the stars to the Halloween Fright at the Fort. In 2007 the Penobscot Narrows Observatory opened at the top of the new bridge’s west tower, reached by an elevator from the fort grounds, with views across Penobscot Bay from 420 feet up.

The ghosts of Fort Knox

The shadow in Two Step Alley

The best first-hand account comes from Teddy Cooke, a 19-year-old gate attendant working the 2008 Fright at the Fort. He told the Bangor Daily News he saw a figure walking along the upper corridor known as Two Step Alley, a “solid shadow” that made no sound and did not answer when he called out. He looked away for a moment and it was gone, and when he checked behind the pillars there was nobody there. “I don’t know what it was,” he said.

Hats taken, hair pulled, shoulders tapped

Leon Seymour, who led the Friends of Fort Knox for years, said he had heard “hundreds of stories” from visitors and staff, including people having hats taken off their heads and being pushed. His successor Dean Martin told the Boston Globe in 2024 that visitors describe cold spots, hair pulling, shoulder tapping, unknown sounds, voices and “literal hair-raising situations.” One visitor on a 2011 ghost tour said something grabbed her elbow as she left the officers’ quarters, though no one was behind her.

The soldier at the edge of the tour

Sky Taylor of the Down East Paranormal Society suggested in 2008 that some of the fort’s spirits may be soldiers with strong ties to it, such as Sgt. Leopold Hegyi. A guide from the 1980s told of a soldier in uniform standing at the edge of her tour group on a day with no reenactors on site; when she later saw a photograph of Hegyi, she said the soldier looked like him. That is one person’s story, but it is the closest Fort Knox has to a named ghost.

The photograph and the TV crews

In 2011 an East Coast Ghost Trackers investigator took a photograph at about 3 a.m. in the entryway that the group said showed a girl in a bonnet, a caped figure and a small boy. Seymour called it interesting and noted, with a smile, that paranormal interest is a niche the fort serves well. The same year the Ghost Hunters team spent most of a week here, interviewing locals who had reported apparitions. The fort has since appeared on the Travel Channel’s Most Terrifying Places in America in 2018 and on Destination Fear in 2021.

What to make of it

Nobody died in battle at Fort Knox, and no tragedy is recorded inside its walls, which surprises people who expect a haunted fort to have a bloody past. Believers point to the soldiers who lived and trained here and to the granite itself; skeptics point to the echoes, drafts and darkness of the passages. Either way the stories come from named staff, visitors and investigators, and the fort welcomes them.

Where to look

• Two Step Alley: the upper corridor where the 2008 shadow figure was seen.
• The officers' quarters: where a tour guest felt her elbow grabbed.
• The entryway and sally port: where the 2011 photograph was taken at 3 a.m.
• The casemate passages: long, unlit vaulted galleries where visitors report voices and cold spots; bring a flashlight.
• The spiral staircases: granite stairs between the levels, dark and echoing.

Visiting Fort Knox

Fort Knox is on Route 174 just off U.S. Route 1 in Prospect, at the west end of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, about 25 miles south of Bangor. The fort and observatory open on May 1 and close for the season at the end of October; from November to April the grounds stay open from 9 a.m. to sunset, but the fort itself is closed. Tickets are sold only at the gate. In 2026 fort admission was $8 for non-resident adults and $6 for Maine residents, with a combined ticket for the observatory elevator.

For ghosts, time your visit for one of the Friends’ events. In 2026 the calendar included Ghosts of Fort Knox guided tours on set Saturdays from May to October, a kids’ edition in June, a two-day Ghost Camp in July and Halloween events in October. Check the Friends of Fort Knox event list for dates, and book early. Outside those events you can explore by day at your own pace.

• Visiting Open daily May 1 to October 31; grounds open 9 am to sunset in the off-season
• Tours Ghosts of Fort Knox guided tours on set dates, a summer Ghost Camp overnight and Halloween events, all run by the Friends of Fort Knox
• Tickets Fort and park $8 for non-resident adults in 2026; sold at the gate only
• Ghost hunting Only on the Friends’ own ghost tours and Ghost Camp nights

Tips for your visit

• Bring a good flashlight: many passages have no lights at all.
• Go late in the day in September or October, when the fort closes shortly before sunset and the passages are at their darkest.
• Book a Ghosts of Fort Knox tour or Ghost Camp night for after-dark access.
• Ride the observatory elevator for the view, then cross the bridge to see Colonel Buck’s cursed memorial in Bucksport.
• Wear sturdy shoes: the granite floors and stairs are uneven.

More haunted places nearby

• Colonel Buck's cursed memorial, Bucksport: the witch’s leg legend, just across the bridge
• The Lucerne Inn, Dedham: a haunted inn to stay the night, about 40 minutes away
• Haunted places in Bangor: Mount Hope Cemetery, the Bangor Opera House and more, 30 minutes north
• Haunted places in Maine

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• Wikipedia: Fort Knox (Maine)
• Fort Knox Historic Site and Penobscot Narrows Observatory (official)
• Friends of Fort Knox: event list
• Bangor Daily News: Worker creeped out by fright at Fort Knox (2008)
• Bangor Daily News: Ghost Hunters wraps up at Fort Knox (2011)
• Bangor Daily News: Ghost activity heats up at Fort Knox (2011)
• Boston Globe: Maine ghost stories and tours (2024)
• NewsCenter Maine: Fright at the Fort returns