The Maine Department of Conservation is inviting Mainers to try out the "authentic 'baked at Fort Knox' experience" this Memorial Day weekend, according to an announcement. State officials will fire up the 148-year-old oven at the Fort Knox State Historic Site in Prospect and distribute the baked goodies to the crowds.

The oven, which is a large brick dome running 15 feet deep, 10 feet wide, and 19 inches high in the center, was built to produce 400 loaves of bread for troops stationed there during the Civil and Spanish American Wars (the fort never actually saw combat action). Built in 1863, it's the only old-school army oven left in America that can be used.

“The basic technology dates back to the ancient Romans,” said Tom Desjardin, historian for the Bureau of Parks and Lands, under the Maine Department of Conservation, “and every home had a smaller version in it during the 1700s and early 1800s.”

The oven in the Fort Knox “bake house” was used last summer and it was popular with visitors. Before that, it hadn't been used since 1898.