Fort Knox

Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. The 109,000 acre (170 sq mi, 441 km²) base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. It currently holds the Army human resources Center of Excellence to include the Army Human Resources Command, United States Army Cadet Command and the United States Army Accessions Command.

For 60 years, Fort Knox was the home of the U.S. Army Armor Center and the U.S. Army Armor School (now moved to Fort Benning, Georgia as a result of BRAC action), and was used by both the Army and the Marine Corps to train crews on the M1 Abrams main battle tank. The history of the U.S. Army's Cavalry and Armored forces, and of General George S. Patton's career, can be found at the General George Patton Museum on the grounds of Fort Knox.

The fort is best known as the site of the United States Bullion Depository, which is used to house a large portion of the United States official gold reserves.

Bullion Depository

Fort Knox (Maine)

Fort Knox, now Fort Knox State Park or Fort Knox State Historic Site, is located on the western bank of the Penobscot River in the town of Prospect, Maine, about 5 miles (8.0 km) from the mouth of the river. Built between 1844 and 1869, it was the first fort in Maine built of granite (instead of wood). It is named after Major General Henry Knox, the first U.S. Secretary of War and Commander of Artillery during the American Revolutionary War, who at the end of his life lived not far away in Thomaston. The fort was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970, as a virtually intact example of a mid-19th century granite coastal fortification. Fort Knox also serves as the entry site for the observation tower of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge that opened to the public on May 19, 2007.

Background

Local memory of the humiliation of Maine at the hands of the British during the American Revolution and again during the War of 1812 contributed to subsequent anti-British feeling in Eastern Maine. The Penobscot Expedition of 1779 aimed to force the British from Castine, but ended in a debacle. The Americans lost 43 ships and suffered approximately 500 casualties in the worst naval defeat for the United States prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Then in autumn 1814, during the War of 1812, a British naval force and soldiers sailed up the Penobscot and defeated an outnumbered American force in the Battle of Hampden. The British followed their victory by looting both Hampden and Bangor. The American defeat contributed to the post-war movement for Maine's statehood, which occurred in 1820, as Massachusetts had failed to protect the region.

Fort Knox (disambiguation)

Fort Knox may refer to:

Forts of Vincennes, Indiana

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the French, British and American nations built and occupied a number of forts at Vincennes, Indiana. These outposts commanded a strategic position on the Wabash River.

Original Trading Post

The first trading post on the Wabash River was established by the Sieur Juchereau, Lieutenant General of Montreal. He, with 34 Canadians, founded the company post 28 October 1702 for the purpose of trading buffalo hides. The post was evidently a success; in the first three years, they collected over 13,000 buffalo hides. When Juchereau died, the post was abandoned, and the settlers left what they considered hostile territory for Mobile, the capital of Louisiana. The exact location of Juchereau's trading post is not known, but because of the crossing of the Buffalo Trace across the Wabash at Vincennes, it is thought by some to have been at or near the modern city of Vincennes. Some other historians place the post 50 miles further south.

Fort Knox (comic strip)

Fort Knox is a nationally syndicated comic strip written and drawn by Paul Jon Boscacci. It centers on the life of the Knox family: Major Joe Knox, his wife Jane Knox and his two sons, Donald and Wesley. The family has moved to fictional Fort Lincoln, where they must adjust to a new base, a new town and a new school.

The strip was picked up for syndication by the Washington Post Writers Group in October 2009. The strip's art has been used by the USO for a CARE package coloring contest and has been featured on the US Army website as well.

Characters and story

References

External links