PROSPECT — Now that Fort Knox has a roof over its head, organizers of the Save Fort Knox project want to make sure that more people can learn about the fort.

They’re hoping to raise $900,000 to make sure they do.

The Friends of Fort Knox is well on its way toward that goal, having collected private donations as well $125,000 that was included in the recently signed state budget.

The proposal for the fort includes lighting its riverside face, adding a visitors center and developing educational programs for visitors and local schools.

The Bureau of Public Lands, which oversees the fort and the surrounding park, has agreed to vacate the park headquarters and turn the building over to the organization for use as a visitors center, according to George MacLeod, a spokesman for Friends of Fort Knox.

The building sits about 100 yards from the far end of the fort’s parking lot, and the plan calls for the development of a trail through the surrounding woods to the visitors center.

“The building is outside the fort’s walls and was used as a torpedo storehouse,” MacLeod said. “It was built at the turn of the century and was used when they floated torpedoes in the river during the Spanish-American War.”

The plan is to gut the building to create the visitors center, which also will include a meeting area for the group and other organizations in the area. The center also will feature a gift shop, brochures for area chambers of commerce, and telephones linking visitors with other local businesses and attractions.

“About 80,000 people visit the fort each year,” MacLeod said. “We’ve been underutilizing this resource. We haven’t been taking advantage of that traffic.”

MacLeod said travelers to the area have become very “destination-oriented” and tend to travel from Boston to Acadia National Park and back again in a two- or three-day weekend.

“If we can develop other attractions that will keep them in the area for another half day or so, it would be a tremendous economic impact. Fort Knox has that potential.”

The real focus of the project, however, will be education.

The meeting space will be designed as a classroom, MacLeod said, and a committee already has started working to plan an educational program for the fort that will include a scale model of the granite operations at nearby Mount Waldo, where the granite used to build the fort was quarried.

The educational effort will describe not only why the fort was built and how it was used, but also explain the technology behind its construction, he said.

The education committee includes local educators to ensure that the fort’s program supports curriculums in the local schools.

The committee also plans to create a series of 24 plaques that will be located at each of the major facilities at the fort, so visitors will be able to take a self-guided walking tour of Fort Knox.

Perhaps the most dramatic portion of the project will be addition of lighting to the exterior of the fort. According to MacLeod, the state ran electricity to areas of the fort to provide power for heat tape on drains around the fort. While that was being done, the Friends installed additional wiring that will provide lighting on the parade ground for evening events such as concerts. In addition, the group plans to light the face of the fort, making it more visible to passers-by.

“This has been designed very carefully, ” MacLeod said. “The lights have been set in the ground and will shine straight up the walls so the details of the granite work will be visible. The idea is to make the fort really a better resource for the community.”

The lights will go on during the annual Fort Knox Bay Festival in July. MacLeod said there are fireworks planned for that celebration and once they have been completed, the lights will be turned on.

Arranging the funding has been the piece of the project that needed to be in place before the other efforts could begin. According to MacLeod, the state’s Bureau of Public Lands already has allocated $100,000 to create headquarters at a nearby site, so the torpedo storage house could be available.

The Friends of Fort Knox received an anonymous $125,000 donation that came with an invitation to return for additional money after the group matched that gift. That’s when the group turned to the Legislature. A bill to allocate the funds worked its way through various committees, supported by local legislators and given a boost by bus loads of schoolchildren who spoke before the Legislature in support of the effort. The funding was approved unanimously in committee and was included in the recently approved budget.

With those state funds as matching funds, MacLeod said, the organization plans to seek additional funding from the anonymous donor.

The group also has received a $40,000 donation from the Davis Family Foundation, a major contributor to the Save the Fort effort.

MacLeod said the organization plans to use the same strategy as it did in its campaign for a new roof for the fort. In addition to major donations, the group will try to arrange for donations of materials and discounts and then mount a volunteer fund-raising campaign for the balance.

The state already has begun site work for a new park headquarters building, and that part of the project should be completed this summer. Interior work on the new visitors center also should be completed by the end of the summer, and the educational programs and plaques should be in place for the start of the summer season next year.