The Bennington Triangle

You’ve heard of the Bermuda Triangle and maybe even the Bridgewater Triangle but what about the Bennington Triangle? This rugged wilderness in a remote area of Vermont has been the setting of several disturbing missing persons cases as well as sightings of other paranormal phenomena. What is going on in the Bennington Triangle?

From 1945-1950 a spate of disappearances began to occur in the Bennington Triangle beginning with the sudden vanishing of Middie Rivers. Rivers was a local hunting guide with extensive knowledge of the wilderness in the area of Hell Hollow in the southwest woods of Glastenbury. He was out leading a group of four hunters when they suddenly lost sight of him. The hunters raised the alarm and a large search party of over 300 concerned locals and U.S. Army Soldiers combed through the woods for eight days with no trace of Rivers being found.

Just one year later in 1946 a young woman named Paula Welden decided to go for a hike in the area during thanksgiving break. When she didn’t return for classes on the following Monday a massive search party of over 1,000 people combed the woods for any sign of her. Despite the large search party, the use of aircraft and the fact that she was wearing a bright red jacket that should have made her easy to spot she was never seen again.

Three years to the day after Paula Weldon vanished the Bennington Triangle claimed another victim in James E. Tedford. The 68 year old man boarded a bus to Bennington from St. Albans, Vermont after visiting relatives. Many eyewitnesses including the driver of the bus confirmed Tedford had been in his seat for the entire journey even after the last stop before Bennington. When the bus pulled into Bennington Tedford was nowhere to be found. If the witnesses are to be believed Tedford disappeared while the bus was travelling down Route 7 through the Bennington Triangle.

Nearly a year after this incident an eight-year-old boy named Paul Jepson was playing in the family vehicle while his mother left to tend pigs at the dump where she was a caretaker along with her husband. When she returned to her vehicle the boy was gone.

A large search party was assembled including sniffer dogs which followed the boys scent along the road until it suddenly lost the trail at a nearby road suggesting that the boy may have been picked up by a motorist.

The boys parents were prime suspects but his dad insisted that something paranormal had lured the boy into the mountains. He claimed his son spoke of nothing but the mountains for days leading up to his disappearance.

Only two weeks after this incident an experienced survivalist who was familiar with the area name Frieda Langer was hiking with her cousin and on the Long Trail bordering on east Glastenbury. After hiking just half a mile Langer fell into a stream and decided to turn back to their camp where her husband was resting with an injured knee. Neither her husband or her cousin saw her again.

A huge search party was initiated with no success. Six months later Langer’s body was found in an open area near the Somerset Reservoir. Disturbingly this area was searched multiple times during the search operation and nothing was turned up.

Theories

• A serial killer was lurking in the woods and surrounding areas picking off random people. This is unlikely as serial killers usually have a certain type of victim that they target and the missing people have a large variety of ages.

• There has been speculation that Bigfoot or some other paranormal phenomena is responsible. Some even think that the victims were abducted by aliens.

• A big cat such as a lynx or bobcat attacked. These cats are usually not aggressive towards humans so this is somewhat unlikely.

With little in the way of evidence in all of these disappearances links have been made to other strange phenomena that have been occurring in the area such as creepy voices appearing on empty radio frequencies and aircraft having navigational problems. Is there some grand interconnected paranormal phenomena causing all of these mysterious happenings in the Bennington Triangle? Maybe!

If you enjoyed this article you may also like learning about the disappearance of Vladimir Bastl or a whole village that disappeared in Alaska!