BUCKSPORT, Maine (NEWS CENTER)-- Colonel Jonathan Buck is known for settling the town of Bucksport in 1763. A war hero and community leader, Colonel Buck is still well respected to this day. But there is a dark story attached to the Buck name, triggered by a tabloid tale roughly 120 years ago. That's how the legend began.
The legend says that Buck condemned a woman to burn for sorcery. It goes on to say that as she was being executed she cried out to Buck, "So long shall my curse be upon thee and my sign upon they tombstone."
It sounds far fetched... until you see Jonathan Buck's monument, bearing what appears to be ghostly image of a woman's leg.
"It goes on to say that they somehow removed the image of the leg, and it reappeared," said Ed Buck, the great, great, great, great grandson of Jonathan Buck, about the town's fabled struggle with the monument's stain. "[Then] they removed the stone entirely and replaced it with a new stone and the leg appeared exactly as before."
The legend has made Bucksport a famous attraction to those with interests in the supernatural. Over the years, it's inspired postcards, books, even the annual Jonathan Buck's Race to the Grave Coffin Race.
However, there is a lot of evidence disproving the legend.
Aside from a lack of record of the legendary execution, Colonel Buck had no authority to sentence anyone to death, and was born decades after America's notorious witch trials ended. The most obvious piece of evidence may be that Buck's monument is not his tombstone and wasn't erected until 60 years after his death.
Finally, according to the town of Bucksport, the stone of the monument is the original, and the image? A common defect in the granite caused by oxidation.
But if you happen to be traveling along Route One through Bucksport, stop and decide for yourself- creepy coincidence? Or mark of a witch's curse.