In a small cemetery in Bucksport, Maine a witch can be seen dancing on their town’s namesake’s grave.  According to legend, their founder, Colonel Jonathan Buck, was cursed, and the evidence is still visible today in this picturesque Maine town.  Jonathan Buck, who was born in Massachusetts, first came to this area of Maine as a surveyor.  Years later in 1764, he moved his family to settle what would eventually become the town of Bucksport.  By all accounts Buck was a pillar of the community.  He built the first saw mill, and bravely fought during the American Revolution in the disastrous expedition to Castine and siege of Fort George, in which the British defeated the Patriots and destroyed his beloved community.  But after fleeing to safety with his family, Jonathan Buck eventually returned to rebuild his town, and serve as it’s justice of the peace.  It is in that role, according to folklore, that he was cursed by a witch.

According to the legend, sometime in the late 1700s, Colonel Jonathan Buck sentenced a witch to death.  As the hangman was about to carry out this sentence, the nameless witch said the following curse, “Jonathan Buck, listen to these words, the last my tongue will utter. It is the spirit of the only true and living God which bids me speak them to you. You will soon die. Over your grave they will erect a stone that all may know where your bones are crumbling into dust. But listen, upon that stone the imprint of my feet will appear, and for all time, long after you and you accursed race have perished from the earth, will the people from far and wide know that you murdered a woman. Remember well, Jonathan Buck, remember well.”

Colonel Jonathan Buck passed away on March 18, 1795, and his mourning family buried him in a simple grave in the town’s cemetery.  It wasn’t until over 50 years later in 1852 that the witch’s curse came to light, when descendants wanted to honor their ancestor by erecting a much more impressive gravestone.  For you see, as the new monument weathered a mysterious foot appeared on the gave, which was no doubt the witch’s curse fulfilled!

Problem is no one in town ever heard of this curse until it was published in 1899.  Also it wasn’t published by a local Maine newspaper, but by the Haverhill Gazette, where Buck had lived as a child in Massachusetts.  In fact, up until the newspaper article no one ever thought ill of this honorable man, and his descendants threatened to sue the newspaper for slander.  However, the Haverhill Gazette quickly attributed their article to an undated edition of the Philadelphia Enquirer.  Yet despite the unknown origin of the story, the tale of the witch’s curse continues to haunt this town.

Some say the marking is just a flaw in the stone.  Stoneworkers say it is a vein of iron oxidizing with the air.  After all, in the annals of history there’s no mention of a witch living in Bucksport, never mind being hanged.  Surely something as important as that would be recorded, especially if it took place nearly a century after the infamous Salem Witch Trials.  Yet to this day, the witch’s leg can still be seen dancing on his grave, and townsfolk continue to whisper about the witch’s curse!

If you’d like to visit Colonel Jonathan Buck’s grave and decide for yourself if this tale is fact or fiction, you can find it near the center of town on busy Main Street.  But I must warn you, despite being featured on numerous urban legend and ghost shows, even the local news channel recently did an ad featuring this monument, it’s not as creepy as one would think.  It’s located across from a Hannaford grocery store, a stone’s throw from a busy intersection, and shares a parking lot with a convenience store.  In short, it is in the heart of a bustling community that would no doubt make founder Colonel Jonathan Buck very proud, witch’s curse or no witch’s curse.