Reserve a hotel or Inn, or ski lodge
in Vermont at Discount Web Rates

Vermont Ghost Stories & Legends - The "Bennington Triangle"

The term "Bennington Triangle" was coined by New England author Joseph A. Citro during a public radio broadcast in 1992 to denote an area of southwestern Vermont within which a number of persons went missing between 1920 and 1950.
Bennington is located in southern Vermont and the third largest town in the state. Primarily known for the Battle of Bennington, the region is rich in historical events dating back to the 1700’s. Bennington is fertile ground for ghostly events, folklore and supernatural occurrences. The region is often referred to as the “Bennington Triangle” due to the many odd, unexplained happenings within its surroundings, buildings and nearby mountains. Native Americans consider Glastonbury Mountain "cursed" and used it strictly for burying their dead. Locals believe that Native Americans regarded Glastenbury as "cursed" and avoided it, as well as tales of hairy "wild men" and other strange beasts in the woods. They believed the land to be cursed because all four winds met in that spot. There is also mention in native American folklore of an enchanted stone which is said to swallow anything that steps on it.
Over the years there have been between 30-40 unexplained disappearances on the mountain. It is known for certain that at least five persons from this area went missing, some of them on Glastenbury Mountain itself, between 1945 and 1950. These include 74 year-old Middie Rivers, 68 year-old James Tedford, 8 year-old Paul Jepson, 18 year-old Paula Welden, and 53 year-old Frieda Langer. Of these, remains of only one was found, that of Frieda Langer.
Most reports on the subject view the circumstances as mysterious, as her body turned up in some tall grasses in an area that had been searched extensively a number of times in the seven months between her disappearance and the discovery of the corpse in an area that had been searched many times, making it unlikely that the search teams had simply missed her. There were several strange circumstances surrounding these disappearances.
In 1892, a millworker named Henry MacDowell killed his co-worker, Jim Crowley in a drunken fight. He was sentenced to life in an asylum, but escaped, never to be seen again.
75 year old Middie Rivers lived in the region all his life, and was with a group of four hunters. When the group was returning to camp, near Long Trail Road and Route 9, he got slightly ahead of them, and no one ever saw him again. Volunteers searched the area for the experienced woodsman but he was never found. The only remaining clue was a single bullet which his friends speculated might have fallen out of his belt when Rivers took a drink of water.
On December 1, 1946, Paula Welden an 18 year old sophomore at Bennington College, went on what was supposed to be a short hike on the Long Trail but vanished without a trace. She hitched a ride to the Long Trail and several witnesses confirmed seeing her on the trail, but after not returning to school, a search was conducted. Despite a 5,000 dollar reward, Paula Welden was never seen again.
Jim Tedford was on a bus that he had boarded in St. Albans with other people. No one saw him get off at the Bennington Soldiers Home where he lived. He was simply gone. Hs presence on the bus was confirmed at the stop before Bennington, but he was not on the bus when it reached Bennington. None of the passengers, including the driver, had any idea what happened to him. Jim's disappearance was also on the third anniversary of Paula Welden's disappearance.
On October 12, 1950, 8-year old Paul Jepson became another probable victim of the Bennington Triangle. His mother was tending to some pigs, leaving Paul unattended for no more than an hour, only to find him gone, without a trace. According to the boy’s father, Paul had a strange compulsion to go into the mountains on occasion. Paul was wearing a red jacket, which would have made him more visible, but thorough search parties found nothing. Blood hounds traced his scent to a highway and suddenly lost it, suggesting that Paul was picked up, or simply vanished, never to be found.
Two weeks after Paul disappeared on October 28th, Freida Langer disappeared. She was hiking with her cousin, and simply walked just out of sight to change her clothes after falling into a stream. When she didn't return, her cousin went back to camp only to discover that she had never arrived, and nobody saw her leave the woods. Freida Langer was an experienced woodsman and gun handler. She knew the area well and was unlikely to get lost, especially since it was still broad daylight. Search teams scoured the area on foot, by plane, and helicopter and found nothing. Another search on November 5 and 7 turned up nothing at all. And on November 11 and 12, 300 military, police, firemen, sportsmen, and volunteers also came up empty handed. On May 12, 1951, Langer's body did turn up, in an open area where she would not have been missed during the search. The cause of death was unknown.
Frances Christman vanished on half-mile hike to a friend's house. Because of the wide ranges of age and gender of the missing persons, it is thought that the possibility of them being victims of a serial killer is unlikely. This, combined with a lack of any evidence to offer support for any more prosaic explanation, has led many to speculate on possible paranormal causes, including abduction by UFO occupants, "cross dimensional wormholes", or attack by the "Bennington Monster."
The trails stop partially up the mountain, suggesting that no one goes up there. When you walk into the woodlands of Glastenbury Mountain you don't hear anything living, it's as though even the animals don't dare to venture there.