The Fort Kent Blockhouse
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Few people realize today that the United States of America once went to war with Canada over the border of what is now the northern border State of Maine, but it's true. Partisans along the various waterways in what is a heavily forested, somewhat desolate area were drawn to either British held Canada or American held Maine (which was in the process of emancipation from Massachusetts at the time), and when push came to shove, they were ready to fight over it.
Not, I would point out, that anyone actually did any fighting. The Aroostook War, as it's called, actually had no combat and no action. It had any number of lumberjacks and farmers ready to shoot each other, but no one quite got around to opening fire.
However, to ensure that if someone actually did start fighting they'd be ready, some people in a small logging community near where the Fish River flowed into the Saint John river decided to build a fort, ready to defend itself, completing the blockhouse style military post in 1839. In fact, the legend goes that said Fort saw the only violence in the war, when rustling in the bushes outside the stockade led to a hale of gunfire and a formerly lost, now very dead cow. This might be apocryphal, but it certainly underscores the nature of the Fort.
The Aroostook War (generally referred to these days as the Bloodless Aroostook War and named after Aroostook County, the largest in Maine) was settled by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842, which made the Saint John River itself the border between Canadian land and American land.
Today, the Blockhouse is maintained in good condition by the Fort Kent Chamber of Commerce and is a recognized Historical Landmark. The Boy Scouts of America, Troop 189, meets in the Blockhouse and maintains the grounds, which typically means the historic landmark bears the initals of every Boy Scout the troup has had since 1970 somewhere in its brown timbered walls. In the summertime, said Boy Scouts act as guides for the grounds. The upper floor of the Blockhouse has been made into an Acadian and logging museum, with various woodcutting saws and axes, traps and other artifacts from the era. The building has a certain musty smell, born of hundreds of slightly mildewed American flags that are stored on the first floor in chests, brought out for appropriate patriotic holidays, and inevitably are stored wet.
Near where the Blockhouse lies is a hill that leads down to a small campground and canoe landing on the Fish. Given the current of the Fish, one can land there from upriver, or launch there and canoe out into the Saint John, but one shouldn't park their car there and expect to return to it later. There are nominal fees for camping that generally are ignored by campers. There is also a medium sized field where the scouts play Pom Pom Pullaway and Capture the Flag and the like, when meetings go a bit short during the summer, and a tourist information center with information on Fort Kent, the Blockhouse, and the Saint John Valley in general. Evergreen trees bracket the grounds, lending a slight pastoral element to the area until the fire brigade, located on the other side of the trees, goes blaring out to put out one of the inevitable Fort Kent chimney fires, and serving to remind visitors that the Blockhouse is in the center of town.
Not, I would point out, that anyone actually did any fighting. The Aroostook War, as it's called, actually had no combat and no action. It had any number of lumberjacks and farmers ready to shoot each other, but no one quite got around to opening fire.
However, to ensure that if someone actually did start fighting they'd be ready, some people in a small logging community near where the Fish River flowed into the Saint John river decided to build a fort, ready to defend itself, completing the blockhouse style military post in 1839. In fact, the legend goes that said Fort saw the only violence in the war, when rustling in the bushes outside the stockade led to a hale of gunfire and a formerly lost, now very dead cow. This might be apocryphal, but it certainly underscores the nature of the Fort.
The Aroostook War (generally referred to these days as the Bloodless Aroostook War and named after Aroostook County, the largest in Maine) was settled by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842, which made the Saint John River itself the border between Canadian land and American land.
Today, the Blockhouse is maintained in good condition by the Fort Kent Chamber of Commerce and is a recognized Historical Landmark. The Boy Scouts of America, Troop 189, meets in the Blockhouse and maintains the grounds, which typically means the historic landmark bears the initals of every Boy Scout the troup has had since 1970 somewhere in its brown timbered walls. In the summertime, said Boy Scouts act as guides for the grounds. The upper floor of the Blockhouse has been made into an Acadian and logging museum, with various woodcutting saws and axes, traps and other artifacts from the era. The building has a certain musty smell, born of hundreds of slightly mildewed American flags that are stored on the first floor in chests, brought out for appropriate patriotic holidays, and inevitably are stored wet.
Near where the Blockhouse lies is a hill that leads down to a small campground and canoe landing on the Fish. Given the current of the Fish, one can land there from upriver, or launch there and canoe out into the Saint John, but one shouldn't park their car there and expect to return to it later. There are nominal fees for camping that generally are ignored by campers. There is also a medium sized field where the scouts play Pom Pom Pullaway and Capture the Flag and the like, when meetings go a bit short during the summer, and a tourist information center with information on Fort Kent, the Blockhouse, and the Saint John Valley in general. Evergreen trees bracket the grounds, lending a slight pastoral element to the area until the fire brigade, located on the other side of the trees, goes blaring out to put out one of the inevitable Fort Kent chimney fires, and serving to remind visitors that the Blockhouse is in the center of town.
