Henry Knox Trail Marker at Spencer, MA (MA-14)
Next to 117 Main Street
Main Street, between Pleasant Street and Mechanic Street
Spencer, MA 01562
United States
The Henry Knox Trail, also known as the Knox Cannon Trail, is a network of roads and paths that traces the route of Colonel Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" from Crown Point, New York, to the Continental Army camp outside Boston, Massachusetts, in the American Revolutionary War. George Washington commanded Henry Knox in 1775 to transport 59 cannons (weighing over 60 tons) from captured forts on Lake Champlain, 30 from Fort Ticonderoga, and 29 from Crown Point to the army camp outside Boston to aid the war effort against British forces. They included forty-three heavy brass and iron cannons, six coehorns, eight mortars, and two howitzers.
The marker is located on Main Street, between Pleasant Street and Mechanic Street. In 1784, Spencer was a stop on the Old Boston Post Road's stage route between Boston and Hartford, and eventually on to New York. The top of the marker contains a bas-relief bronze plaque depicting Gen. Knox overseeing a train of ox-drawn sleds.
Learn about Revolutionary War Combat Strategy. Watch the Revolutionary War Animated Map.
