Description

Fort William Henry in New Harbor, Maine once stood in the large rectangular area defined today by low stone walls and the tall stone tower, or bastion, seen here. The stone bastion was built in 1908 as a replica of that feature of the fort.

Before Fort William Henry was built in 1692, the Pemaquid settlement and a previous fort, Fort Charles, had been captured by the French and their Indian allies, driving the English to abandon much of the nearby coastal area. By 1691, the English regained authority over the region and built Fort William Henry.

With the construction of Fort William Henry in 1692, England sought to fortify the frontiers of its Massachusetts colony. Pemaquid lay on the northeastern edge of English influence and, as such, occupied a very strategic location.

The fort built here was extraordinary for its time. Massachusetts Governor Sir William Phips spent two-thirds of the colony's budget (£20,000) to construct it. Workers used 2,000 cartloads of stone to buil