Fort William Henry, Maine

Originally built in 1692 near the perimeter of French Acadian territory, the fort was intended to shore up the Massachusetts colony and provide a strategic point of defense along the mid-coast of Maine. When it was finished, the fort had eighteen cannons and housed sixty soldiers. Poor design, too great a distance from reinforcements, and an ambush by a joint Native American and French force just four years after it was built however led to its early destruction; while the foundations are original, the bastion tower that is on the site today is a recreation constructed in 1909. The Pemaquid area was resettled by American/Scots-English settlers around 1729 and a second fort, Fort Frederick, was built here, but ultimately dismantled when the inhabitants fled and the governor ordered the fort destroyed for fear it might fall into English hands during the years leading up to the American Revolution. The Pemaquid Colonial site also contained unexcavated foundations of 17th century but these came in the form of grass-covered depressions and mounds so I didn’t include photos of these. The accompanying displays regarding the structures was extremely informative however and illustrated very well the layout of some of the original buildings in the settlement.