Bennington Triangle is a term first used in 1992 by writer and folklorist Joseph Sitrow to refer to an area in southwestern Vermont. The exact boundaries of this anomalous zone are unknown, but it includes the cities of Glastonbury, Woodford and Somerset - once quite large industrial settlements,
In the beliefs of local Indians, this territory was always considered cursed and it was necessary to "flee without looking back" from it. For a long time to this day, unexplained disappearances of people have occurred in the Bennington Triangle, many of which have been officially confirmed.
The first documented disappearance of a person in the area occurred on November 12, 1945. On this day, 74-year-old Middie Rivers, who led a group of 4 hunters, went missing. He moved a little away from his comrades, after which no one saw him. The search group found only a rifle cartridge in a nearby stream. It may have fallen out of Middy's pocket when he bent down to the water to quench his thirst or wash his face. It was not possible to find any traces of the struggle or other objects of the man. Middie Rivers was a skilled hunter and fisherman who knew the area well and couldn't just get lost.
On December 1, 1946, an 18-year-old student, Paula Jean Welden, disappeared on a hike. She was the eldest daughter of the famous engineer, architect and designer William Archibald Welden, and her disappearance attracted a lot of public attention. The FBI got involved. Interviewing witnesses brought little results: a group of tourists saw Paula on the Long Trail in the evening. The detectives assumed that the girl crossed the forest, but with the onset of dusk she got lost. The FBI, police, and search teams scoured the entire area, but did not find even a hint of the missing student.
In 1949, veteran James Thedford, who was returning home by bus from a trip to visit relatives, disappeared in the same region. According to the testimony of witnesses, the man was last seen on the bus at the last stop in front of Bennington, but on this traces of James are lost. The transport arrived in the city with his luggage, but without him. On the seat, next to the veteran's belongings, lay an open brochure with the bus schedule where James had disappeared - a mystery.
On October 12, 1950, 8-year-old Paul Jepson, who was traveling in a truck with his mother, went missing. At one of the stops, his mother was briefly distracted, and during this time Paul disappeared. The search engines did not find any trace of the boy, although he was wearing a bright red jacket that was easy to spot. With the help of dogs, we managed to follow his trail to about the same place where Paula Welden was last seen 4 years earlier.
On October 28, 1950, the last officially confirmed disappearance of a person occurred. Freida Langer, 53, and her cousin set out on a camping trip from a camp near Somerset. After she stumbled and fell into a stream, she told her brother that she would return to camp to change. This was the last time she was seen alive - the woman never made it to the camp. In the next two weeks, 5 search expeditions were undertaken with the participation of aviation and more than 300 search engines, with no recent results. However, on May 12, 1951, the remains of Freuda Langer were found at a site that had been thoroughly examined by search engines 7 months earlier. Due to the long period of time that has elapsed since her death, the cause of this has not been established.
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The newspapers were full of headlines about missing people. A federal investigation revealed that there were several more allegations of mysterious disappearances that the police tried to hide from the public. Journalists put forward the theory of a serial killer, but there was no pattern in the choice of victims. Moreover, neither the evidence found nor the testimony of witnesses in any way confirmed the version of the journalists. This made the inhabitants of the "damned" area even more creepy.
After the decline of the forest industry and the cities were deserted in this region, only nature dominates in the Bennington Triangle. Sometimes travelers visit the mysterious zone, and according to rumors, some of them disappear here forever.