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AMC Outdoors
For as long as people have ventured into the New England woods, certain spots have raised prickles on the backs of their necks. Some places are rumored to be blessed. Others are haunted by their tragic pasts.
Triangle of Doom: Bennington, Vt.
On picturesque Glastenbury Mountain, near Bennington, Vt., five people vanished on the Long Trail between 1945 and 1950. Middie Rivers, a 74-year-old hunting and fishing guide, walked into the woods in 1945 and was never found. Paula Welden, 18, a sophomore at Bennington College, disappeared on a solo dayhike in 1946. James Tedford, 68, who passed through the area on a bus, vanished three years to the day after Welden. Eight-year-old Paul Jepson evanesced from his mother's truck in 1950. Only one missing person was ever recovered. The body of 53-year-old Frieda Langer was discovered three days after she vanished in 1950, remarkably in a spot that had been searched several times before.
Some blame the disappearances on the Bennington Monster, a Bigfoot-like beast that hikers, cyclists, and drivers have reported seeing for more than 100 years. Writer Joe Durwin has a book in the works, In the Shadow of Glastenbury: The Complete Guide to the Bennington Triangle, and maintains the Bennington Triangle blog at www.bennington-triangle.blogspot.com. He says he's interviewed several people who saw the beast. These witnesses include a woman who said the monster stalked her, and a man who spent a night in a cellar hole hiding from the same predator. Other theories pin the missing-persons cases on UFO abductions, or to an apparent interdimensional trapdoor. Writer and storyteller Joe Citro coined the term "Bennington Triangle" in 1992, and points out that Native Americans once feared the mountain because all four winds met on its top. They would only use the summit as a burial site.
A more mundane explanation is troubling nonetheless: a serial killer who managed to evade detection. The fact that most of the disappearances took place in the fall supports this theory, because the perpetrator could have been someone who visited the area on a consistent schedule--a hunter, or a holiday visitor with family nearby. But what about the widely varying ages and genders of the victims? As crime readers know, most serial killers exhibit a more consistent pattern in their choices. Without evidence, we may never know.
Proof of Ancient Life? Salem, N.H.
In a 30-acre site in the woods outside Salem, N.H., a mysterious congregation of rocks and stones is a litmus test for those who visit. Is it a formation placed here by European visitors before Columbus? Is it a record of 18th century farming technology? Or is it simply a marketing gimmick to attract visitors and tourists?
The site's most prolific speculators point to stones--which pre-date the arrival of Columbus--embedded in trees. Inscriptions of Celtic and Phoenician origin have been found in the rocks, and carbon dating puts some of the pieces at 4,000 years old. Some also believe that a group of stones near the entrance to the site align with the sun on solstices and equinoxes, just like the monoliths at Stonehenge.
Doubters, meanwhile, point out that much of the site has been disturbed by inferior excavation. This includes work done by William Goodwin, who purchased the site in 1936 and believed that Irish monks called the Culdees once lived there. Goodwin apparently was willing to move things around to make his theory fit, destroying pieces of archaelogical evidence in the process. Also, one of the "experts" who identified some of the ancient writings was a marine biologist by training, casting doubt on his authority. Other archaeologists say that farmers simply put the stones there during the course of normal work. Regardless of what you think, $9 gets you in the door, where you can buy postcards and crystals in the gift shop and pet the tame alpacas kept by the current owners of the site. Most formations are still accessible to the public.
Strange Energies: Rangeley, ME
Appalachian Trail thru-hikers may feel a surge of energy as they pass through the stretch of forest near Rangeley, Maine. But it may not be from the approaching end of their journey at Katahdin.
Rogue psychologist Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) is arguably Rangeley's most famous resident. Trained as a doctor and psychotherapist, he had a long history of clashes with authority, including Sigmund Freud, whom he worked with in his early career. Energy fascinated Reich, particularly how it was manifested in the human body. He developed the theory that something called "orgone energy" was present in all life forms and could be channeled and moved around, a panacea for all sorts of physical and mental problems.
Reich ended up in Rangeley in the summer of 1940. According to his biographer, Myron Sharaf, he and his wife were vacationing in New Hampshire that summer before falling prey to a common vacation-killer: a leaky tent. So the couple drove to Maine and rented a cabin on Mooselookmeguntic Lake, near Rangeley.
Reich saw that the sky above the lake displayed a strange and inexplicable pattern of flickering light in between stars. Orgone energy, he theorized, was the source. His research center--Orgonon, where he carried out experiments with orgone manipulation--soon followed. Reich had deep affection for the region, describing Orgonon in postcard terms: "A hundred-and-sixty acres of land on a soft incline facing south and east, six hundred meters above sea level, covered with a young pine forest, a lake in front and mountains on the horizon. Here truth shall be sought and protected from the plague, here sickness and misery shall be understood and ways discovered for conquering them."
Reich began to build devices, including orgone accumulators, which he believed would redirect a person's orgone energy. (William S. Burroughs and Norman Mailer both underwent this therapy.) Another Reich invention, the cloudbuster, was meant to channel orgone energy in the atmosphere to create rain. These devices would eventually be Reich's downfall. The FDA and government officials investigated him, designated the accumulators as fraudulent pseudo-medical (read: quack) devices and forbade Reich to sell them. In a form of civil disobedience, he refused to desist, and ended up in prison where he eventually died. (The Kate Bush song Cloudbusting is based on a book written by Reich's son, Peter, about his father's arrest.)
The Presence: Mount Washington, N.H.
The summit of Mount Washington combines several elements of a good haunting. The mountain has claimed 135 lives. There are old, creaky buildings like the Tip-Top House. And people stay on the summit in all seasons, sometimes in quite lonely conditions. It'd be a surprise if there weren't reports of hauntings coming from the buildings withstanding the famous gusts of the Northeast's tallest peak. Enter: The Presence.
This poltergeist has been reported to manifest itself in the form of creakings, uneasy feelings, elevator doors opening and closing on their own, footsteps, or toilets flushing. Some of the more wild stories correlate The Presence's activity with disastrous events on the mountain. After the Cog Railway crashed in 1967, killing eight people, people began reporting mysterious movement and activity. Eventually the disturbances culminated in a knock on the observatory door late at night. When employees opened it, they found a bronze plaque on the doorstep--one usually affixed to a monument for a fallen hiker, located about a mile away.
Observatory staff and other visitors have gone on record as saying The Presence exists. Others, such as the observatory's Peter Crane, are more skeptical. Crane points out that people have spent winters on the summit and time alone at Lakes of the Clouds Hut without ever experiencing anything like The Presence. Crane however does admit to seeing "corner cats"--cat apparitions out of the corner of his eye--in deserted corridors on the summit. "I think it's a psychological phenomenon," he says. "Even the most sober of people, if they're near one of the summit buildings, and they're by themselves on a stormy night, could have thoughts like this passing through their mind." Thoughts? Or The Presence?
Blessed Peak: Mount Adams, N.H.
Anyone who's climbed the rocky pile of Mount Adams would agree that reaching the summit feels like a weight has been lifted off the shoulders. But another group of people from around the world come to scramble on Adams' boulders each year in search of a spiritual force field. One they believe exists in only a few other places on Earth.
The Aetherians, like the Raelians and the Scientologists, have beliefs that are decidedly out there. Briton George King, who claimed a group called the Cosmic Masters contacted him, founded the Aetherians in 1954. Noteworthy past members include the "Master Aetherius," Jesus, Buddha, and a being called "Mars Sector Six." King and his followers believed extraterrestrials watch the planet and help people channel good spiritual energy in order to save humanity from its own self-destructive impulses. They also believe it's possible to charge spiritual "radiators" through prayer, and to deploy these batteries when needed.
So what does Mount Adams have to do with all of this? Between 1958 and 1961, King says he was directed to Adams and 18 other mountains around the world--peaks the Cosmic Masters would bless with positive energy if he'd visit them and serve as their conduit. Other blessed peaks include California's Mount Baldy; Castle Peak in Colorado; Kilimanjaro; and some lesser-known mountains in England, Scotland, New Zealand, Wales, Switzerland, and France.
The Aetherians believe the mountains are spiritual energy batteries. "Unlike electrical batteries, these batteries cannot be discharged," their website states. "In fact, for certain metaphysical reasons, the more they are used the more powerful they become." Hence, Aetherians' pilgramages to the sacred mountains where they meet to pray and recharge. Hey, there are times when we can all use a little boost.
October 2006
AMC Outdoors
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