A Bostonian named Jonathan Lowder migrated to the Maine frontier in the 1760s to serve as gunnery officer at Fort Pownall on the Penobscot River. When the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, he joined the American cause and was named Truckmaster to the Penobscot Indians. A government-run Truckhouse or trading post offered services and supplies to native inhabitants to keep them friendly or at least neutral in the war with Great Britain. Lowder’s Truckhouse was built and occupied along the banks of Penobscot River near present-day Veazie and Mt. Hope, above the set of falls and rapids where the early settlement of Bangor would soon exist. For nearly three years, he worked with native groups and local settlers encountering difficulties and challenges. When the British occupied Castine in June 1779, his area of operations was effectively neutralized and the Penobscot Truckhouse facility ended. A captured POW, he was first held as a spy in Quebec, but eventually returned to Maine, where he established a family dynasty known for their ship captains and ship-builders. The Truckhouse site was discovered in the summer of 1988, while actually searching for a different colonial site. This is the story of early mid-Maine colonial history and a war-time Truckhouse right here in our backyard.
Charles H. “Chip” Lagerbom received his B.A. in History from Kansas State University and M.A. in History and Archaeology from University of Maine at Orono with the excavation and analysis of a Revolutionary War Truckhouse or trading post. He spent two field seasons in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica in the 1990s as part of a glacial geology research team from University of Maine Quaternary Institute, now Climate Change Institute. He is author of the polar biography The Fifth Man: The Life of H.R. Bowers (Caedmon of Whitby 1999), Whaling in Maine (The History Press 2020) and Maine to Cape Horn: The Most Dangerous Journey (The History Press 2021). His latest book The HERO Way: The Untamed Life and Enduring Legacy of an Iconic Antarctic Research Vessel (Seaworthy Publications) will be out this year. An avid diver, Charles has organized shipwreck surveys in Maine lakes, the 1779 Penobscot Expedition and the 17th century English galleon Angel Gabriel off Pemaquid. He is former Membership Chair of the American Polar Society and current Archivist of the Antarctican Society and holds lifetime memberships in the Old Antarctic Explorer’s Association, American Polar Society and Frederick Cook Society. A 30+ year veteran high school teacher, Charles teaches AP US History and helped form the Belfast Marine Institute (BMI) with its marine-themed educational initiative The Floating Classroom dedicated to getting students out, in, on, around and under the waters of Penobscot Bay and Waldo County. He travels to and speaks frequently on topics regarding Antarctica, Cape Horn, Maine whaling and New England colonial and maritime history. Charles lives on the coast of Maine with his wife Jennifer and can be reached at clagerbom@gmail.com.
