THE STORY
Reported Haunting
A leg-shaped stain on the memorial to Bucksport founder Jonathan Buck inspired a longstanding legend that a woman condemned as a witch cursed Buck and left her mark upon his monument.
A granite monument honoring Bucksport founder Colonel Jonathan Buck stands in the historic Buck Cemetery. A conspicuous natural marking on the stone resembles the lower portion of a human leg and has inspired one of Maine's best-known curse legends. In traditional versions of the story, Buck condemned a woman accused of witchcraft, and she cursed him before her death, promising that her mark would remain on his grave. Historical evidence does not support that story. Bucksport's own published history describes the marking as a flaw in the granite and explicitly identifies the witch tale as legend. The unusual mark is real; its supernatural explanation is folklore.