Every Town - Mystery in Vermont: The HAUNTING Disappearances Of The Bennington Triangle

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

What exactly is the deal with The Bennington Triangle? Are these odd occurrences and missing people happening completely independently and it’s just a coincidence that they happen in the same place. OR is there something else to it? A darker, even paranormal explanation that this area of Vermont is somehow responsible for causing bad things to happen? 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries 🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT 💀 Exclusive Videos, Podcasts & Perks: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries  👁 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg 👁 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald 👁 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial 🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Every town has a dark side. Vermont, aka the Green Mountain State, stands year after year as one of the safest places to live in the entire U.S. of A. Vermont is known around the world for the tasty maple syrup it generates, being the home of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and more generally, people think of it as a place to live that crunchy laid-back lifestyle. Shout out to fish. But don't let that kind facade fool you because Vermont also has a weird little secret. It's a patch of land nestled in the southwestern corner of the state, but has been the side of strange occurrences and banishings, and these stories aren't just taking place in modern times.

There are tales of monsters and mountains swallowing people alive that date back in Native American folklore who believe this place was cursed. And perhaps you've heard of this area, or maybe you haven't, chances are either way you don't know the full story. This area of Vermont is called the Bennington Triangle. The name was coined by author Joseph A. Citro during a radio broadcast in 1992, which describes an area that has been the site of a number of unexplained disappearances and strange occurrences between 1945 and 1950. But, as I mentioned, there's more than just that.

And so the question then becomes, what exactly is the deal with this place? Are these odd occurrences and missing people happening completely independently, and it's just a coincidence that they occur in the same place? Or is there something else to it? A darker, even paranormal explanation. This area of Vermont is somehow responsible for causing bad things to happen. Well, according to those who have lived there, that's exactly what's going on. But yet, no one knows exactly why.

Hey guys, it's Andrew, and thanks for tuning into this week. episode of Everytown where today we're checking out the Bennington Triangle in New England that brings along with it a whole bunch of strange and scary stories. And it's interesting how throughout the world we have chosen a few relatively small areas around the globe and have attributed them with having something otherworldly going on there. Bermuda, the Alaskan Triangle, for example, and there are just one too many odd things happening in these places for them to be ignored. stuff like disappearances, strange lights in the sky, spirits, even monsters in the woods.

And we make no to them because, of course, they're interesting, but also it's a way to warn others to be aware and stay clear. One of these places that's lesser known, but has all of these strange things going on, the Bennington Triangle. So let's head up there now to Vermont to find out what's going on, because, Regardless of what you may or may not believe, there are some facts about this place that cannot be denied. This mysterious zone we're talking about, which covers roughly 100 square miles, is loosely defined by landmarks such as Glastonbury Mountain and the surrounding towns, including Bennington, Woodford, Shaftesbury, and Somerset. The allure of the Bennington Triangle isn't just coming from modern lore, but is steeped in a history that predates the term itself by centuries. This area of Vermont, defined by the rugged terrain of the green mountains, has been shrouded in mystery long before it became known for its series of disappearances. In Glastonbury Mountain, at the heart of the triangle, was considered sacred by the native peoples, specifically the Algonquin tribes who lived there.

And they revered the mountain, but also feared it. Largely due to its rough terrain and the eerie noises produced by the wind passing through the trees, sounds they attributed to see. spirits. Their legends warned of an evil stone, referring really to the mountain in totality itself, it would open up and devour anyone who dared to step in it. This was their way of describing what had happened to fellow tribes' people, who seemingly vanished without a trace. They believed this mountain to be cursed, an area where the earth would swallow men whole and spirits roam freely. Glastonbury was often described in their folklore as a liminal space, but the boundaries between the physical and spiritual worlds within. Fast forward a bit when

European settlers arrived, bringing with them their own beliefs and fears which would ultimately only add to the mountain's mystique. But at first they could care less about the stories from the Algonquins that they saw as nonsense. Mountains after all don't just devour people. And so not only did they walk all over this land, but they cut its trees down as during the 19th century, Lastinbury in the surrounding areas saw a boom and logging and industrial activity, transforming the once remote and untamed wilderness into a place to capitalize on. But word began to slowly travel among these new settlers, that maybe there was something more to this land that they really didn't understand.

Stories of ghostly figures and unexplained lights became commonplace, and with each tale it added another layer to this mysterious place. There was the tale of mass. Tom, a settler who reportedly went insane from the isolation and harsh conditions on the mountain. At first, it seemed like a cautionary tale about the dangers of the wilderness. However, according to local lore, his ghosts was seen by many loggers and their families wandering the forests. And it truly terrified people to the point that many left the area for good.

And those native legends also spoke of the Bennington monster. A beast believed to roam the woods and of spirits that would cause the... those who strayed too deep into the forest to lose their way and never be found again. In this creature, akin to other regional cryptids like the Jersey Devil or Bigfoot, is said to roam the forests of Glastonbury Mountain. While descriptions vary, most accounts agree that the creature is large, hairy, and eludes human contact. Skeptics argue that the monster may be misidentified wildlife, but in the folklore of the Bennington Triangle, it serves as a personification of the unknown and unidentified.

explained phenomena that plagued the area. And all of these stories began to be shared among the workers as a means to help explain the sometimes inexplicable sounds and sights of the forest, but it had the opposite effect that it intended. Instead of calming people, and they panicked. The prosperity of the logging industry here was short-lived. The economic decline eventually forced everybody out, even behind ghost towns and abandoned logging camps, the remnants of which can still be seen in certain places today. It was this decline that set the stage for the area's modern reputation as a place of mystery and unexplained phenomenon.

As mentioned, the Bennington Triangle's allure and mystique are not unique. And similar areas around the world have captured the public's imagination due to recurring unexplained phenomena. The most famous of these is, of course, the Bermuda Triangle, an area in the Atlantic Ocean where ships and planes are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Additionally, there's the lesser-known Alaska triangle, which covers an area from Juno to Anchorage and Barrow, notorious for a high number of disappearances and paranormal reports. Each of these triangles has its own set of eerie stories and theories, and while they differ in many ways,

they're also very similar. Spanning from the southern tip of Florida to Bermuda, and down to Puerto Rico, the Bermuda triangle is perhaps the most infamous of these mysterious zones. The documented incidents date back to Christopher Columbus's logs reporting strange lights and unusual compass readings. The Bermuda Triangle's mystery is often attributed to a combination of environmental factors and human error, with theories ranging from methane gas eruptions to electronic fog that disrupts navigation systems. The scale and nature of the disappearances in this triangle are maritime and aerial, which differ quite a bit from the more terrestrial nature of the borkman.

Bennington Triangle's mysteries. Like Bennington, the Alaska Triangle features a rugged, mountainous terrain that is less traveled and poorly mapped. And since 1988, over 16,000 people have vanished in the Alaska Triangle, way above the national average, with disappearances attributed to everything

from severe weather to the landscape's natural hazards, and, of course, a range of paranormal explanations, including cryptids like Bigfoot. The Alaska Triangle shares more similarities with Bennington in terms of the environment playing a potential role in the disappearances, yet the sheer volume and frequency of cases in Alaska are much higher, suggesting a more complex interplay of natural and potentially supernatural factors. What really sets the Bennington triangle apart from its Bermudian and Alaskan counterparts

is the concentration of disappearances within such a specific and small area, and within a relatively short period of time. Unlike the vast oceanic and wilderness expanses of the other two triangles, Bennington's area is more localized. While the Bermuda Triangle's incidents can often be investigated with scientific tools that explore maritime and aerospace phenomena and Alaska's disappearances can be partly explained by extreme wilderness survival scenarios, Bennington's disappearances are surrounded by a dense fog of folklore and a lack of physical evidence, which leaves more room for supernatural and. interpretation. And the eerie reputation of the Bennington triangle truly began to get people's

attention and solidify in the mid-20th century, which is marked by a series of strange disappearances, five in fact that occurred between 1945 and 1950. It all began with the disappearance of Middy Rivers in 1945. Middy was a 74-year-old experienced woodsman out in these parts. He knew the place like the back of his hand, and he was leading a hunter. party near Long Trail Road by Route 9. He moved ahead of the group rounding a bend. Just moments later, when the hunters turned the corner, well, there was no more Middy. He was gone, and no sign of him has been found since. A single rifle cartridge of his was discovered in a nearby stream when they looked for him, but that was the only clue left behind.

Given Rivers' familiarity with the terrain, his disappearance prompted speculation about unnatural forces at play here. One that was very reminiscent of what the natives talked about when they spoke of the mountain eating people whole. In 1946, 18-year-old Paula Jean Weldon, a student at Bennington College set out for a hike on a long trail one December afternoon during Christmas break. The art student left at 2.30 p.m. wearing a red parka with fur trim and blue jeans, underdress for the cold weather, really. Motorists and fellow hikers saw her hitchhiking from the Bennington campus. And the driver that picked her up said she told him she was heading to the long trail off

Route 9 close to Glastonbury Mountain. Once on the trail, several people confirmed seeing her. At 4 p.m. Walden spoke to a man on the trail, asking how far it extended. He told her that it went all the way to Canada. By 5 p.m., the sun had said, and then a few hours after that, the snow began. in the fall. Weldon's roommate at the dorm woke up the next day and realized her friend hadn't come home from the night before. She told school authorities and they immediately launched a search. Her family and the police were then informed. A search was underway but it proved difficult

because the trail was so big. A middle-aged couple then came forward saying they were walking behind the young girl at about 100 yards away that day. They could see her ahead but she disappeared from view when she rounded a rocky outcropping. When the couple reached the corner themselves, they were surprised to find that Paula was nowhere to be seen. It was close to where Midia disappeared, and, just like him, Paula was never seen again. James Tedford's disappearance in 1949 was perhaps the most perplexing one of them all.

Returning to Bennington from a trip to St. Albans, Tedford was reported missing after failing to disembark a crowded bus at its final stop. He was sitting on it with 14 other passengers who testified to seeing him there. When the bus reached its destination, Tetford was just gone. His items still sat on the luggage rack, and the bus schedule lay open on his seat, but he was never seen or heard from again as well. And then in mid-October, 1950, an eight-year-old boy, Paul Jepson, vanished as his mother tended to her farm animals nearby. She had told the boy to stay close, but when she returned a short time later, she couldn't find him.

And then 16 days after Jepsen vanished, 53-year-old, Frieda Langer, disappeared too. She was hiking with her cousin when she accidentally fell into a stream. She told her cousin to wait while she headed back to camp to change clothes. When it took a while, her cousin decided to return to the campsite, but was told Langer had not arrived there and nobody saw her prior to them leaving. It wasn't until a year after, May of 1951 when her body was found near the Somerset Reservoir, a place that was searched extensively months prior. Either way, a cause of death was never determined. It was these cases that put the Bennington Triangle on the map.

Not only did these people disappear, but it was just so strange in how it all went down. No bodies, except for that one case. No belongings, no clear motives, just people who say. seem to vanish without a trace. In an attempt to explain this myriad of mysteries, and people have dug deep in a search for answers. But the problem is there's not one single explanation that fits all the stories, and so a variety of theories have been proposed,

ranging from the scientific to, of course, the supernatural. Geologists and environmental scientists have pointed out that the rugged, mountainous terrain of the area, combined with its dense forests, can easily disorient even experienced hikers. The sudden changes in weather can make navigation difficult. It may lead people to getting lost and then getting hypothermia and passing away somewhere out in the middle of the woods never to be found. And swampy areas, to which there are many around the mountain, could potentially create natural traps that might cause someone to become stuck and subsequently covered by fast-growing

foliage and water, concealing any trace of an accident. And for those a bit more inclined towards the paranormal, though. Theories here include everything from energy vortexes and dimensional portals to alien abductions. Some paranormal researchers claim that the triangle sits on a confluence of laylines, which are hypothetical alignments here on Earth. There are straight lines that, when drawn around the globe, connect places of geographical and historical significance, like the Great Pyramids and Stonehenge. The idea is that ancient people built on these lines because of the energy that ran along them coming directly from the earth, an energy that some believed allowed for a greater chance of supernatural occurrences to happen.

Local psychics have weighed in on this with claims of strong psychic energy in the area, which they believe could affect sensitive individuals by disorienting them or even pulling them into another dimension altogether. While scientists typically offer natural explanations for the phenomena associated with the Bennington Triangle, Local experts and historians often embrace a blend of the natural and supernatural, suggesting that while some disappearances can be explained, others remain a profound mystery. Although the allure of such places tends to bring tourists around to check it up themselves, and so that should be taken with a grain of salt. The money might be the main motive there. Despite the majority of the famous disappearances occurring in the mid-20th century, and this place continues to be a source of

intrigue and occasional modern reports of strange occurrences. People certainly do go up there looking for their own experience. These incidents keep the area's eerie reputation alive, while also further complicating the already mysterious history. Because if you specifically go out to hunt a ghost or see a UFO, well, that drastically increases your chances of finding what you want because everybody wants a good story to tell. In recent years, locals and visitors have reported.

ordered a range of unusual things. These include sightings of unexplained lights in the sky, odd noises heard from the woods, and even brief glimpses of figures that vanish when approached. For example, a group of hikers in 2012 reported seeing a series of strange, synchronized lights moving through the trees on Glastonbury Mountain. These weren't like UFOs high up in the sky. They were in the tree lines, and just as fast as they showed, they moved on, and no real explanation was ever given. Another story was from 2008. The crew was hired to rebuild an old fire tower in the area, and it was so remote that they spent the nights camping there. One of the men, Dave, a regular down-to-earth type of guy, as it's been told, was seen by the other workers in the

middle of the night, sitting up and laughing uncontrollably in his sleep, before laying back down. Dave doesn't remember this. He'd never been told by anyone he had done this before or after, and so he figured they were just goofing on him. But they swore it was real, and to prove it, they filmed him. Showed it to him one morning, he couldn't believe it. You ask anyone around these parts really about strange occurrences, and they either have a story to tell themselves or have definitely heard one secondhand at the very least.

Does this make them real? No. But it doesn't mean they're all made up either. Annual events, storytelling nights, and guides. guided tours capitalize on the region's spooky reputation. Tourism provides a steady stream of visitors which helps support local businesses such as Inns, restaurants, and tour companies. The fascination with the paranormal and unexplained has made this region a niche travel destination for adventure seekers and some weird people like you and I. The Bennington Triangle, any way you look

at it, remains a captivating mystery. Its blend of natural beauty and strange lore creates a unique topic of discussion for both skeptics and believers. Whether you think this is all just a snowball effect of people telling stories to create intrigue and maybe generate some cash, or you think that it all makes sense. Now, there are places and things in this world that we just don't fully understand and never will. Well, you're all a part of keeping the ideas and debates alive. And we all want answers.

There's no doubt that people have disappeared in this place under strange circumstances. And so the next time you head out to New England, maybe consider taking a look around Glastonbury Mountain and the Bennington Triangle. You can let us know what you saw and experienced. That is, if you do, make it back. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Hope you all enjoyed it.

If you liked the podcast we're putting out, there's a lot more content we have for you to listen to. Go check out our other podcast called Scary Mysteries. And for exclusive podcasts, each and every week, plus other perks, go check us out on patreon.com slash scary mysteries where we get into some even darker content. Thanks for tuning in today. Remember to come back next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.