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By Larry Grard
WINSLOW — Re-enactments and other historical displays marked the fourth annual Fort Halifax days Saturday, June 23 at scenic Fort Halifx Park
Local people played the parts of musicians, 18th century soldiers, cooks, seamstresses and more — all the while raising funds for improvements at Fort Halifax, once the site of a British colonial outpost on the banks of the Sebasticook River, just above its mouth at the Kennebec.
The fort was built in 1754, during the French and Indian War. Only a the blockhouse survives.
Fred Clark of Winslow, a member of the Fort Halifax Improvement Project, explained the committee wants granite markers placed to mark out the perimeter of the original fort, and ground markers where the buildings once stood.
“The whole thing is to generate interest in the park, and to gain funds for the master plan,” Clark said. “All parking spaces have been moved to get them out of the footprint. Picnic tables are out of the perimeter. An architect has drawn the master plan.”
Stephanie Thibodeau of Fairfield sat at one table, sewing a pin cushion filled with wool and dried rosemary.
“The homespun art work was woven by the school children who go to Fort Western in Augusta to do school history programming,” Thibodeau said. Roger Collins, a member of Howard’s Company of Fort Western for 18 years, said it is important to get the Fort Halifax artifact, located in the middle of town, more notice.
“People don’t realize the impact it had,” Collins said. “This local history is going to help the kids understand.”
In 1755, commanding officer Capt. William Lithgow discontinued Major-General John Winslow’s original plan for the fort, citing limited manpower and expense. The fort was made smaller and more defensible, and was completed in 1756.
The Canadians and natives immediately made plans to destroy the fort. In May 1756, the natives attacked soldiers from the fort, and later that year, near Topshee, Col. Lithgow and a party of eight men were ambushed by 17 natives, both sides suffering the loss of two men. The natives later killed two more white men in the area.
Abandoned in 1766, the fort was sold into private hands but continued to have a role in American history. In 1775, Fort Halifax hosted troops under Col. Benedict Arnold on their expedition to Quebec City. At the end of the American Revolution, most of Fort Halifax was dismantled. By the early 19th century, only the blockhouse on the Sebasticook remained standing.
PHOTO: People danced as they would have in the 1700s, as music played on the stage at Fort Halifax Park, during Fort Halifax Days on June 23 in Winslow. (Larry Grard photo)
