The Mystery of the Bennington Triangle
Nestled in the foothills of Vermont’s Glastenbury Mountain sits a mysterious area known as the Bennington Triangle. Before the land was ravaged by murders, unexplained disappearances, and all manner of strange sightings, the town of Glastenbury and the surrounding settlements had been a booming logging area, sprouting up shortly after the Civil War. Now the area sits abandoned, save for a few thru-hikers and thrill seekers. What happened in the town of Glastenbury before it was forgotten and why do so many consider this land to be cursed? To answer this question we have to travel back in time.
The year 1867 would mark the first of the bizarre reports coming from the Glastenbury Mountain region. Numerous residents reported encountering a cave-dwelling “wild man” who was known to terrorize women in the towns of Bennington and Glastenbury. Witnesses reported that the man had pulled back his long coat to reveal his nude body while waving his pistol wildly before retreating back to the forest. The Glastenbury Wild Man, as he would come to be known, would only be the first of a series of unusual events that would plague the area.
In 1892, in the town of Fayville, which is considered to be the heart of what’s now known as the Bennington Triangle, a 38-year-old “jobber” for the Eagle Square sawmill, John Crowley, was bludgeoned with a rock by fellow millworker Henry McDowell. No one is certain what led to the murder, but local historians agree that the men had been drinking heavily and arguing the previous night. After it was discovered that Crowley was dead, McDowell hopped a train in an attempt to flee to Canada. He would later turn himself over to South Norwalk, Connecticut authorities and confess to the murder. McDowell was declared insane after complaining of “voices in his head” and was ordered by a judge to serve out his sentence in the Vermont State Asylum. McDowell, however, had other plans.
McDowell was able to make an escape. Concealing himself inside a train car hauling a load of coal, McDowell was never seen again. Some believe he may have made his way back to Glastenbury to roam the forests for eternity, while others believe this story may have been confused with another legend from neighboring New Hampshire concerning a distraught doctor who fled to the forests of the White Mountains in hopes of achieving immortality, only to become the embodiment of evil.
Five years after McDowell’s escape, a second murder would occur within the Bennington Triangle. It was the first day of deer season and 40-year-old John Harbour, a prominent Woodford citizen, set out to Bickford Hollow in hopes of shooting down a buck. Instead, Harbour was shot dead. When his body was discovered it appeared that he had been dragged several yards from where the shooting had taken place and left beneath a cedar tree where he slowly bled out with his fully loaded rifle beside him. Although the murder would come as a shock to the community, police never located any suspects and the unsolved murder of John Harbour would long be forgotten.
The murders of Crowley and Harbour would set the stage for the area’s slow decline and give rise to the legends the area is now known for. The logging industry had all but dried up and attempts were made to convert South Glastenbury into a resort. A boarding house once used by loggers was converted into a hotel and a derelict apartment building served as a casino. The resort only lasted one season before a flood in 1898 destroyed the railroad tracks. Thus, Glastenbury and it’s neighboring settlements would remain vacant to this day.
More than four decades would pass with little activity in the Bennington Triangle. That’s when the disappearances began.
Middie Rivers would be the first documented disappearance in the area. Rivers, an experienced mountain guide, had been leading a group on November 12, 1945 when he vanished without a trace. Witnesses claimed he was able to get ahead of the group near Long Trail Road, an area 75-year-old Rivers had been extremely familiar with. Police, with the help of volunteers, scoured the area for any sign of the man’s whereabouts only to turn up nothing.
In 1949, it was claimed that three hunters went into the woods on Glastenbury Mountain never to be seen again. This story is widely disputed since there are no reports documenting the event.
In another disputed disappearance, James E. Teford was said to have boarded a bus in St. Albans heading towards Bennington. When the bus arrived at Teford’s stop the man was nowhere to be found. Reports do indicate that Teford had been reported missing, however, whether or not the man had been within the Bennington Triangle limits at the time is a matter of conjecture.
Two disappearances would end the streak in 1950. The first would be 8-year-old Paul Jepson on October 12. Dogs were used to track the boy’s scent, but the trail ended along the highway.
Approximately two weeks later, on October 28, Frieda Lander vanished while on a camping trip. She and her cousin had split up when Lander headed back towards their camp for a fresh change of clothes after hers had gotten wet. Lander never made it back to camp and was never heard from again. Her body turned up the following May in a field that had been already been searched by police, firemen, volunteers, and even the military.
Throughout the decades there have been many terrifying theories on what happened to all of these missing people. One of the more bizarre theories includes a man-eating stone that, according to Native American legend, would swallow men whole if they happened to step on it. Even before the white settlers began moving in, the Native Americans refused to go near the mountain, claiming the top is where the four winds met and instead would only use the land for burial purposes.
Mysterious lights in the sky have been reported as far back as the mid-1800s, when the once thriving logging industry came the area. The most recent sighting of these strange lights occurred in 1984, when numerous witnesses claimed seeing silo-like lights jetting from the heavens as they were hiking through Glastenbury Mountain. Could the unfortunate souls who are forever lost in the forests of the Bennington Triangle have been abducted by extraterrestrial beings or had they met their end by some other mysterious means?
In addition to strange lights in the sky, legend has it that the forests of Glastenbury Mountain are home to the Glastenbury Monster, a hairy man-like creature who cryptozoologists believe could be Bigfoot. The first sighting of the beast took place in the early 19th century. A group traveling by way of stagecoach attempting to access the town of Glastenbury found that the road had been completely washed out. Just as the party intended to turn back they were met by a pair of glowing eyes. The creature attacked the stagecoach, knocking it over to its side before disappearing into the darkness from whence it came.
The most recent sighting of this strange, human-like creature occurred in 2003, when Ray Dufresne had been driving near Glastenbury Mountain and spotted a “black thing” along the road. Dufresne described the “thing” as being covered in black hair and appearing to be well over six feet tall. Several others reported similar sightings around the same time.
Whether these missing individuals were kidnapped by a mysterious creature, abducted by aliens, eaten by a stone, or were simply victims of a tragic misadventure is something we may never know for certain. Whatever secrets lay inside the Bennington Triangle will be forever locked away in what remains of the town of Glastenbury.
