On December 1,1946, eighteen year old college sophomore, Paula Welden, went for a late afternoon walk on the Long Trail. The path juts by Glastenbury Mountain. Welden was reported to be one hundred yards ahead of a hiking couple. The young lady, who resembled actress Elizabeth Montgomery, rounded a rock outcropping and ceased to exist. It was as if, one of the rocks in the formation absorbed Welden, as she walked out of sight of the shadowing couple. Was Welden really last seen by two hikers or were tall tales added to the disappearance?
The local authorities and FBI hunted for the college student, who was the daughter of prominent industrialist, William Archibald Welden. The young lady had vanished into the December air. Her disappearance was never solved. With or without exaggerations, Welden’s vanishing is beyond belief.
Three years to the day of Welden’s disappearance, sixty eight year old James Tedford, vaporized while riding in the back of a bus. Tedford, a skeptical ex-serviceman, rode a bus from St. Albans to the town of Bennnington where he lived. Tedford was last seen asleep in the back of the transport five minutes before the bus’s scheduled Bennington stop.
Fourteen people rode the bus with Tedford. Upon reaching Bennington, there was no trace of the elderly man. Tedford’s belongings were above his seat in the luggage rack, a paper timetable lay on his bench. This 1949 mystery was never unraveled. Tedford’s evanescence happened so suddenly, he was not able to yell or signal to one of the fellow riders that he needed assistance.
On October 12, 1950 eight-year-old Paul Criston Jepson rode with his mother in their pickup truck to the Bennington dump. Jepson’s mother was checking on her corralled pigs that lived off the ground’s garbage.
Young Jepson was told to stay in the truck. Chores done, his mother returned to the parked vehicle. Jepson was missing; there was no sign of a struggle. A massive search was instituted, sadly the boy was never found. Eerily, Jepson’s father had noticed how his son was enthralled and seemed pulled to Glastenbury Mountain.
Sixteen days later, on October 28, 1950; Frieda Langer, age fifty-three, disappeared on the other side of Glastenbury Mountain, near the Somerset Reservoir. Frieda an avid hiker and shooter went camping with her husband Max and cousin Herbert Elsner.
Frieda and Elsner went hunting for partridge around 3 PM; her husband tended to the camp. Around 3:45 PM, Frieda slipped on some rocks and fell into a brook.
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With the autumn night approaching, Frieda decided to change her clothes at the bivouac and not risk catching a cold. Elsner escorted Frieda to within one hundred and fifty yards of the encampment. Satisfied Frieda was safe, Elsner went back into the forest in pursuit of game.
At 5 PM, Elsner returned to the tent area. Husband Max inquired about his wife? Information was exchanged; Frieda had not reached the camp. The police were notified, a massive search was undertaken, Frieda was not found.
Had Frieda met with foul play at the hand’s of her husband and cousin? Both men took polygraph tests. They were found innocent of any crime.
Seven months later, two hunters found the decomposing corpse of Frieda in a swampy meadow area, which had been repeatedly searched. Frieda’s right hand was missing. Her head was now a skull; her body was deemed to be waterlogged. Due to blundering by the authorities, an autopsy was not done on the corpse.
Some pseudo detectives dismiss the ideas of a dimension portal being located in the Bennington Triangle. The victims, according to the sleuths, were taken unaware by a panther or kidnapped.
In some instances, the missing fell into a well or were murdered. A few of the missing became ill with a seizure and wandered into the woods in a delirium, where they died.
According to the rationalists, Rivers had a stroke. The confused old man wandered into the wilds, became dizzy and fell into a well.
A rapist-murderer accosted Welden. Her body is buried near the trail or under a picnic area building.
Tedford had a stroke. The confused veteran got off the bus without anybody noticing and wandered into the forest where he died.
Young Jepson was a victim of a kidnapping.
Frieda had a seizure. The vibrant woman wandered into a brook and drowned. Her hand was gnawed off by a panther. Two years previous to her disappearance, Frieda had undergone surgery in Boston for the removal of a brain tumor.
Paranormalists reject these assumptions. Why were no remains except that of Frieda’s ever recovered? Why was Frieda’s body found in the area, which had been successively scoured? Did her body rematerialize from another dimension? Why were none of the vanished clothes ever found? Why did cadaver dogs fail in locating any of the missing?
During American Revolutionary days, the local Indians used to believe a Sasquatch-like creature lived on Glastenbury Mountain. Did these missing people encounter this mythical murderous ape beast?
More sinister is the Indian legend of a rock like monster that dwells in the Bennington Triangle. I first heard of this tale in 1965. Lore attests, a moving rock travels around Glastenbury Mountain. The boulder changes shape from flat, to cube, to spherical. If one steps on this strange granite or leans against it; the rock absorbs the person in seconds.
Was this rock the way Indians would describe a portal to another dimension? Or are these legendary tales of monsters and rocks, just rattlings of superstitious minds of centuries gone by?
One thing is certain, if I lived in the Bennington Triangle, I would sleep with the lights on! Wink, wink. (7)
WHERE DID EVERYBODY GO?
(GHOST SHIP)
The Mary Celeste, a one hundred and fifty-three foot cargo ship; was found adrift in the middle of the Atlantic by the crew of the Dei Gratia, on December 4, 1872. The cutter’s jib and two small sails were unfurled and tattered. The Mary Celeste would speed up and then slow. It took two hours for the Dei Gratia to close on what seemed to be a ghost ship.
No distress signals flew from the Mary Celeste’s mast. Hails for the ship’s crew were answered with eerie silence. The Mary Celeste was boarded; the transport’s compliment had vanished. Nothing made sense; there was no evidence of mutiny or attack. An auxiliary crew from the Dei Gratia commandeered the eleven-year-old, Canadian built vessel. The mystery ship was sailed to Gibraltar.
Upon reaching Gibraltar, the Dei Gratia crew claimed salvage rights to the Mary Celeste. A naval court of inquiry was convened to find out what happened to the sailors of the merchantman? Records were impounded on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Mary Celeste left New York on November 7, 1872; its destination was Genoa Italy. The ship’s Captain was Bostonian sea dog, Benjamin Spooner Briggs. Sailing with Briggs was his wife, Sarah, and two year old daughter, Sophia. First Mate Albert Richardson, who commanded a crew of seven, headed the ship’s compliment. The ships’ cargo consisted of one thousand, seven hundred barrels of industrial alcohol.
When the windjammer was searched, it was noted that one of the Mary Celeste’s cargo holds was slightly opened. All the barrels were secured inside the compartment, but nine barrels were empty. No lifeboat was found topside. It was not determined if the cargo carrier had a fifteen or twenty foot yawl, if any?
A three-inch rope was found severed and dragging in the water from the ship’s side. In the kitchen, the stove had been knocked out of place along with a lot of the scullery. The derelict’s hallways and rooms were thoroughly wet, personal belongings in the crew compartments were in place. The Captain’s quarters