The Bennington Triangle

By Derek Olson

To outsiders, the New England state of Vermont is probably most famous for its colorful autumn leaves, covered bridges and maple syrup. However, to the locals of the area, there is something else Vermont in known for… something more strange and mysterious… something known as the “Bennington Triangle.” This is where strange anomalies, unusual events and a string disappearances – including at least 5 people in a span of 5 years, have left locals bewildered.

Bennington County is an area situated in the southwest portion of Vermont nestled in the foothills of Glastenbury Mountain. Glastenbury was first established as a logging and mining town in the late 1700s. The mining and logging operations drew hundreds to reside in Glastenbury for a period after the Civil War. The town boasted a population that peaked at 241 people in 1880.

Today the area sits virtually abandoned. As of the 2020 census, only 9 people lived there. What happened to the town of Glastenbury? To answer this question we have to travel back in time…

Going as far back as the mid-1800s, reports of mysterious lights in the sky, sounds with no explanation, and odd odors on the mountain have predated colonial settlements.

It’s stated in Joseph Citro’s 1996 book, Passing Strange: True Tales of New England Hauntings and Horrors, that Native Americans refused to set foot on Glastenbury Mountain unless they were burying their dead.

Legend has it that the forests of Glastenbury Mountain are home to what’s referred to as the Glastenbury Monster, a hairy man-like creature who cryptozoologists believe could be one of the earliest sightings of Bigfoot. The first sighting of the beast took place in the early 19th century, when a group traveling by way of stagecoach, who were on their way to Glastenbury, found that the road had been completely washed out. As the party was preparing to turn their horses and stagecoach around to head back, they began to hear noises coming from the nearby forest. Suddenly a hairy creature emerged and attacked the stagecoach, literally knocking it over on its side before disappearing into the darkness from whence it came with a roar. The travelers were left shocked and stunned.

The year of 1867 would mark more bizarre reports coming from the Glastenbury Mountain region as numerous residents reported encountering a cave-dwelling wild man who was known to terrorize women in the towns of Bennington and Glastenbury. Dubbed the “Glastenbury Wild Man,” witnesses reported that the wild-man would often pull back his long coat exposing his nude body while waving his rifle or pistol wildly before retreating back into the forest where he supposedly lived in a cave near Somerset.

An 1879 report tells of two hunters who had an encounter with a strange creature in the mountains that appeared to look like a man with wild eyes yet was covered top to bottom with red hair. The creature began to approach the men, so they began firing at it as they ran away. Was this another sighting of the Glastenbury Wild Man several years later after he grew a bunch of hair? Might this have been another sighting of the Glastenbury Monster or another version of it? Or was this something completely different altogther?

1897, 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, which would also become known as “Hell Hollow,” in hopes of shooting 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 tree where he slowly bled out. His fully loaded rifle was found 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 further area’s slow decline and give rise to whispers that the area is cursed. The mining and timber industries began to wane, which caused many residents to move away looking for work elsewhere. An attempt was made to convert the old boarding house once used by loggers into a fancy hotel resort casino. The resort only lasted one season before a flood in 1898 destroyed the railroad tracks. Thus, Glastenbury and it’s neighboring settlements would continue to shrink and eventually turn into ruinous ghost towns. Ripley’s Believe it or Not! documented the Mattinson family in the 1930s. The three members of the family made up the entire town of Glastenbury by themselves and held every office available between them. In 1937, the town was officially unincorporated.

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 worker for the Eagle Square sawmill, John Crowley, was bludgeoned with a rock by fellow millworker Henry McDowell who said he heard voices telling him to attack. After it was discovered that Crowley was dead, McDowell jumped on a train in an attempt to flee to Canada. He would later turn himself over to 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. He escaped from the asylum and concealed 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.

More than four decades would pass with little activity in the Bennington Triangle, but then the disappearances began…

On November 12th, 1945, a 74 year old man named Middie Rivers was going hunting with his son Joseph and three other friends near Bickford Hollow, also known as “Hell Hollow.” About 7:30am that day, they leave camp to begin the hunt. The group hikes together until they reach a fork in the trail. Being an avid hunter who knows the area well, Middie tells the group that he will meet everyone back at camp for lunch and goes off on his own. However, when he doesn’t return to camp by 3pm, his son Joseph starts to worry. They search for Middie until dark, but there is no sign of him anywhere

Authorities are alerted, and by the next day they scour the forest for hours and then days but there is still no trace of Middie. Eventually the search is called off as winter sets in. Months later, a hiker found a blue hanker-chief with 30 cents wrapped inside that apparently belonged to Middie, but Middie himself is never found. The weird thing is that Middie was an experienced outdoorsman who had matches and a gun with him when he left the others. He would have known to start a fire or fire his weapon to alert rescuers.

The following year, In the winter of 1946, Paula Weldon is attending Bennington college, about a 30 minute drive from Glastenbury. She is a sophomore, who on Sunday December 1st, finishes her shift at the dining hall and returns to her dorm room. She tells her roommate that she needs a break from her studies and wants to go on a hike to get some fresh air – almost as if the mountain is calling to her. She leaves campus that afternoon wearing a red sweater, jeans and sneakers. She hitches a ride from a driver named Louis Knapp and tells him she needs a ride to Glastenbury mountain, and more specifically to the “Long Trail” hiking path. Being that Louis lives in that direction, he offers to take her as far as his house. According to Knapp she appeared to be in a good mood. When they reach his house, Paula thanked him for the ride and continued toward her destination about 3 miles away. Witnesses say they saw her later down the road approaching the trail head. By about 4pm Paula makes it to the mountain and talks to a group of hikers near Bickford Hollow, also known as “Hell Hollow,” asking for directions to the Long Trail. This is the same place Middie rivers went missing. They proceed to tell her that she’s already on the trail and that the trail goes all the way over the mountain. Paula begins her hike.

Paula Weldon is reported missing the next day and her disappearance becomes major news. Authorities mobilize a massive search and rescue mission – helicopters, blood hounds, volunteers, the national guard and even the FBI – but Paula is never found.

Exactly 3 years to the day after the disappearance of Paula, on December 1st 1949, 68 year old military vet James E. Tedford is riding on a bus from the town of St. Albins back to his home in Bennington. The bus drives along route US 7, that will take James straight through the heart of the Bennington Triangle. The bus makes several stops along the way. According to reports, at the stop right before his, James apparently sees someone he knows standing outside at the bus stop. According to witnesses, James got off the bus to talk with his friend for about a minute and then got back on the bus.

When the bus finally arrives to Bennington, every passenger gets off except for James. His suitcase was left on the bus as well as a bus schedule that was left on his seat, but James has vanished. He was last seen wearing an army overcoat and a grey suit. No one goes searching for him immediately as it took a few days for his family to realize he was missing. A search party was eventually launched which ended with no James

October 12 1950, Margaret Jepson drives her truck to the Bennington county dump where she takes care of the property’s many pigs. She brings along her eight year old son Paul. They arrive about 3pm. She tells Paul to wait in the truck while she finishes her chores. However, when she returns to the truck about 30 minutes later, Paul is gone. Margaret calls the police shortly after 5pm. A bloodhound tracks Paul’s scent from the town dump to a fork in the road not to far away, but Paul’s scent vanishes as if he had stepped into a car. Paul is never seen again. Paul’s father had stated in reports that his son had previously expressed the urge to go into the mountains – which may seem like a strange thing for an eight year old to say – almost as if the mountain itself was calling to him… Just as Paula Welden was wearing a red coat, Paul was coincidentally wearing a red coat.

On October 28th, 1950, Frieda Langer is enjoying a camping trip with her family on the eastern side of Glastenbury mountain. She is with her husband Max and her cousin Herbert. That afternoon, Frieda and Herbert decide to go on a hike. Max had stayed back as he apparently had some knee pain. Frieda and Herbert leave camp about 3pm. About 3:45, as they are hiking, Frieda slips and falls into a stream. She tells Herbert that she wants to run back to camp to get a dry set of clothes and that she will catch back up with him later. However, when Frieda doesn’t return, Herbert assumes she must have stayed back at camp. But when Herbert returns back to camp about an hour later at 4:45pm, Frieda is not there. Her husband Max states that he has not seen her either. A massive search party is launched to find Frieda starting that evening and it continued through November. What’s odd is that the Langer family had owned this camp for 10 years and spent almost every weekend there together. So how did Frieda become so lost in one hour’s time in a place that she was so familiar with? The search is eventually called off as winter sets in and her family fears the worst.

There is one thing that sets Frieda’s case apart from the rest. Less than a year later on May 12th 1951, two fisherman find Frieda Langer’s body near the damn at the Somerrset reservoir about 4 miles from where she was last seen. It turns out that 18 months before she disappeared, Frieda had an operation to have a brain tumor removed which had caused her to occasionally black out. Is this what happened again? On her way back to the stream, did she black out, slip again and fall into a deep water hole and have an accidental drowning? What is really strange though, is that the search parties had already searched this area extensively the year prior.

In 1950, Vermont state attorney Edward A John stated “5 persons in 5 years, mysteriously missing, not knowing whether they are dead or alive is not a record for the state, county or any town to be proud of. Everyone is watching to see what Vermont will do. If this isn’t solved, it will be a disgrace”

There’s been a lot of speculation regarding the mysterious events surrounding the Bennington Triangle. Of these most famous disappearances, all 5 people disappeared within a 6 mile radius of each other and all 5 went missing in late fall/ early winter. Most of them disappeared between 3-4pm, and each one seemed to vanish into thin air…

As stated prior, mysterious lights in the sky have been reported as far back as the mid-1800s in the area of Bennington county. 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. Another report claims that a farmer who lived near the Green Mountains arrived to find 23 of his 25 cows either dead near the barn or in the barn. The dead ones were arranged in a circle, and the 2 living cows were acting as if nothing ever happened. A veterinarian determined that the dead cows had all been electrocuted, yet the barn showed no sign of damage. Two witness reported seeing a UFO that night.

Unbeknownst to most, large, mysterious artificial stone mounds known as “Cairns” are located on the top of Mount Glastonbury. These are pre-colonial and appear to even be prehistoric.

Approximately 20 years ago an archaeologist by the name of David Lacy with the green Mountain national Forest in Vermont was up, checking the status of an old fire tower on Glastenbury Mountain’s Summit, and he discovered several of these Cairns literally just right off the legendary long trail. In his report about them David wrote “at the summit of Glastonbury Mountain And within the Appalachian Trail corridor, are at least three stone Cairns who’s cultural origins are uncertain, but which could well be prehistoric. I think these are very old. I have never seen any colonial stone piles generated in the late 1700s and early 1800s that have vegetated growth like this on them. Moss coverage is one thing but this structure has succeeded to club moss and herbaceous coverage.”

I believe that it is likely that these cairns are so old that they predate everything else. They are also believed by many to have an ancient ritualistic purpose, and here they are located at the top of Glastenbury mountain which overlooks the infamous Bennington triangle. Whats more? According to Native American legend, there is an enchanted stone among the cairns on top of the mountain that could swallow a man whole and they would never be heard from again.

Did these cairns play a part in activating this area in a strange paranormal way that links to all of the strange anomalies we’ve covered? Is there a connection between these mysterious cairns on top of the mountain and the bizarre events that have taken place in the Bennington triangle?

As recently as October 4th 2024, the Bennington Examiner published an article titled “Lost in Glastenbury,” where it documented the recent experience of Robert Singley, who serves as the Bennington College music teacher. Robert went out for a day hike on the Sunday prior to Harbour Road in Woodford Hollow, the exact same place where Paula Welden was lost. He stated “Right before I lost the trail, everything like crescendoed into this weird sort of dizzying confusion, it just suddenly got dark, and then I was like, ‘Where am I?’ ‘What’s going on?’ I was totally lost.” Wet & cold, he took shelter under a large maple tree for the night. The next morning he attempted to find his way back and stated “I thought I was camped about a quarter-mile from my car, and, instead, I woke up totally on the other end of this ridge, literally six or seven miles away from where I thought I was. It didn’t make any logical sense at all.” He was eventually found by the Vermont State Police

Is the Bennington triangle just a series of strange coincidences or was there something strangely sinister happening in Vermont?

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