The Bennington Triangle.........Arion1

Of all the unexplained events throughout the world none were as puzzling as the mysterious disappearances of ten people in Vermont’s Glastenbury Wilderness—within the confines of what has become known as “The Bennington Triangle". It is home to several unexplained vanishings.

The Native Americans avoided the area completely, using it only for a burial ground, for they believed the land to be cursed, because all four winds met there. Too, there were legends of a mysteriously enchanted stone, said to literally swallow anything that steps on it. Whatever the cause, no one can deny that people have vanished within the boundaries of the Triangle, and only one has ever been found again.

The first recorded victim was a 13-year-old boy named Melvin Hills, who disappeared in the Bennington area on or about October 11, 1942. He was never found.

On November 12, 1945, 75-year-old Middie Rivers, a local woodsman, led four hunters onto Glastenbury Mountain on an unseasonably mild day. When the group was returning to camp, near Long Trail Road and Route 9, Rivers got ahead of the others and was literally never seen again! Police and dozens volunteers searched the area but never found him. The only clue was a single bullet found beside a brook. His friends speculated it had fallen out of his belt when Rivers stooped down to take a drink of water.

Just thirteen months later, on December 1, 1946, an 18-year-old sophomore at Bennington College vanished without a trace. Paula Welden hitched a ride to the Long Trail for a day’s hike. Several witnesses confirmed seeing her on the trail that day. But when she did not return to school, a search team scoured the area. Despite a $5,000 reward (equivalent to $50,000 today), as well as help from the FBI, Paula Welden was never seen again. Two unconfirmed rumors circulated about her whereabouts. Some say Paula arranged her disappearance and moved to Canada with a lover; while others speculate she still lives a reclusive life on Glastenbury Mountain itself. Neither story has ever been proven, nor has Paula Welden ever been found, alive or dead.

Three years to the day after Paula Welden's disappearance, James E. Tetford vanished in circumstances that defy the laws of physics. Tetford boarded a bus in nearby St. Albans after visiting relatives, intending to return to the Bennington Soldier’s Home where he lived. His presence on the bus was confirmed at the stop before Bennington city, but he was not on the bus when it reached the following stop, Bennington Soldier’s Home! None of the passengers, including the driver, had any idea what happened to him. He literally vanished!

Days later, in 1949, three hunters mysteriously disappeared in the Glastenbury Wilderness area. All were experienced in the wilderness. None were ever found.

On October 12, 1950, 8-year old Paul Jepson became another victim of the Bennington Triangle. His parents were caretakers for a dump. His mother was tending to some pigs, leaving Paul unattended for no more than an hour. When she returned from this routine chore, her son was gone, without a trace! According to Paul's father, the boy had recently expressed a desire to go into the mountains. Although Paul was wearing a red jacket, which would have made him quite visible, intensive search parties found nothing. Bloodhounds traced his scent to a highway and suddenly lost it, suggesting that Paul was picked up, or vanished into thin air. Neither he, nor his body, was ever found.

Two weeks later on October 28, 1950, 53-year-old Frieda Langer was hiking with her cousin, Herbert Elsner. After falling into a stream, Frieda told her cousin to wait there while she ran a half-mile back to their family’s camp to change clothes. When she did not return, Elsner went back to camp where he discovered that she had never arrived, and nobody saw her leave the woods. Frieda knew the area well and was unlikely to become lost, especially since it was still broad daylight. Subsequent search teams scoured the area on foot, by plane, and helicopter, but found nothing. Four more searches, on November 5th, 7th, 11th and 12th, involving more than 300 military, firemen, police, sportsmen, and volunteers all came up empty-handed. However, on May 12, 1951, Langer's body turned up, in an open area where she could not have been missed during the search. The cause of death was unknown. According to one witness, the body appeared fresh, as though Freida had dropped dead only moments earlier, “like she had died of fright”.

The disappearances stopped after 1950, and no one else has vanished in the area since then.

Many people have attempted to explain the strange Glastenbury area vanishings, but none satisfactorily. One speculation is that there are interdimensional portals that appear at random; people step into them and leave this world instantaneously. Others believe that aliens have a base nearby and periodically abduct victims at random. Then there is a suggestion that the Bennington Monster—a legendary creature said to lurk in the area—carried the people off to a grisly end. Another has it that perhaps the hikers simply fell into abandoned wells. Given the geographical spacing between the disappearances, however, this seems unlikely. Another, more logical theory, is that perhaps a serial killer was living in the area at the time, and is responsible for all the cases. However, there was no discernible pattern; serial killers usually target a specific type of individual, and the Bennington victims were of different ages and genders. The only known pattern was that all the disappearances occurred in late autumn and early winter, during the months of October, November, and December. Ironically (or perhaps, not so), this time of year is subject to frequent snowstorms, hampering the ability of searchers!

Today, the Glastenbury wilderness is host to many hikers and campers, all of whom have yet to encounter anything strange or unusual. The entire area is under consideration to become a state park. Whatever happened to those who vanished more than fifty years ago is still a mystery, and as the years pass, it becomes increasingly unlikely that we will ever know the truth.

This haunts me.

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