Bucksport, Maine – seen from Fort Knox State Park across the Penobscot River – is a small town of about 5,000 people. Its fascinating history dates back 5,000 years. The first settlers were the Red Paint People. This Indigenous tribe lived in present-day New England from 3000 to 1000 BC. Colonel Johnathan Buck was the first person from Massachusetts to build a plantation here in 1775. His name was honored when Bucksport was incorporated in 1792. This shoreline is best remembered for the worst naval defeat in American history until Pearl Harbor. In 1779, during the American Revolution, the British sunk 44 American ships and killed 474 sailors during a battle called the Penobscot Expedition.
