Groton’s Godzilla & Hearing Things
Suddenly they saw movement at the roadside. As Mrs. Desorda recalled, "I stopped, and he stopped. And here was this huge thing, I don't know what it was. It had come up partway across the road... And I could see it as it went by. It looked just like a dinosaur. It came from the right side of the road.
Panthers and Lake Monsters
As the story goes, in the middle of the night on May 20, 1968, three excited young people burst into the Littleton Police Department. The officer on duty, Officer Miller, saw that they were terrified, raving about something in the water… a monster!
DOOR TO ... SOMEWHERE?
The maternal side of Mark's family came from Scotland during the 1700s and settled in the Ryegate area. There, James Whitehill, Mark's ancestor, built a stone house on his 600 acres. The house still stands; each year it hosts the family reunion.
Mark enjoys many childhood memories of the place. But there are other memories, too: the most profoundly puzzling incident of his life occurred there when he was in his early teens.
END OF THE WORLD...VERMONT STYLE
Tsunamis. Tornadoes. Avalanches. Mudslides. Terrorism and war. And Religious leaders and crackpots spouting myriad end-of-the-world scenarios. It feels like disasters are all around us.
Could we be living in the final days? Is the Rapture just around the corner? Even dyed-in-the-wool skeptics like me are beginning to get just a wee bit edgy.
OLD SLIPPERYSKIN & MUSIC OF THE SPHERES
This fearsome oddity came to be known as "Old Slipperyskin." The creature was said to resemble a huge bear, but unlike any known bear, it always walked upright, on its hind legs. It was said to have a mean disposition, and sometimes sought revenge against individuals who had offended it.
Berlin and Canada
Sometimes I think we need a miracle. The last one that I know of took place not so very long ago, and in – of all places -- Berlin, New Hampshire.
The amazing event began on Thursday, June 1st in the year 2000. On that day, between 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Mr. George Arsenault, a Eucharistic minister, came face-to-face with the supernatural.
Springs and Ponds
First, they are a geological anomaly comprised of six individual springs, side by side on a knoll, forming a semi-circle of about fifteen feet. Though nearly as close together as spigots on a soda fountain, the mineral content of each is said to be completely different from that of its neighbor. Moving left to right, they are: Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, White Sulfur, Bromide and -- if you are brave enough -- Arsenic.
From Fairlee to Lyndonville: Six Strange Tales
Mark Massie recalls a ghostly experience from his early adolescence. He and his brother Matt were playing near the family place in Ryegate. While exploring, they found a hill with a wooden door in its side. This wood-plank door looked ancient. So did its rough iron bolts, oversized hinges, and huge rusty padlock.
The Lead Tube & Giant Eels
Before that, back in 1935, the mayor of Newport, Frank D. Burns, disappeared and was presumed drowned. Divers looking for his body said they had seen giant "eels six to eight feet long and as thick as a man's thigh."
Goonyak & The Lead Tube
Game wardens speculated that someone might have seen the skinned carcass of a bear. Something like that could appear half-human at a glance. In any event, they guessed, the myth was probably conjured up by a deer hunter.
And Morris Shulham was a deer hunter.
NO UFO
I was living in Burlington at the time, not far from Lake Champlain. One night, my telephone rang sometime after midnight, waking me up. A little late for a phone call, I thought, and somewhat nervously, I picked up. It was my friend Bob who lived up north, not far from the Canada border.
The Biggest Bore In Vermont
Digging for water, natural gas, and even oil in Vermont seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Even hunting for long-lost pirate pillage and Spanish silver seems comparatively rational when contrasted with the exploits of a bunch of good old boys from Montpelier.
WARREN’S ROCKET & THE ART OF RUSSELL RISLEY
For me, it was like stepping into an old-time science fiction movie.
I was traveling along Route 25, driving toward Warren, New Hampshire -- a tiny town of about 800 people. The leaves were beginning to turn, working a transformational magic of their own.
THE NEW ENGLAND FAT MEN’S CLUB & DANVILLE’S DIVINE COMEDY
In November 1903, a unique and lighthearted chapter in the social history of New England began at Hale’s Tavern in Wells River, Vermont. Jerome Hale, the tavern's proprietor, observed that he and his ten companions around the fireplace shared a notable characteristic: they were all conspicuously obese.
Nature’s Revenge & The Electric Lady
Over a period of several months beginning in 1783, a strange madness possessed the animals in and around town. First, folks began to notice abnormally aggressive behavior among the wildlife of the area. For example, an extraordinary number of foxes or wolves would be spotted fighting at the edge of cleared land. Feral creatures that normally remained hidden brazenly marched out in the open to attack each other.
Norton’s Mine & The Mystery of Hannah Nute.
Norton was captivated by Monadnock Mountain, once a volcano and now a 3,000-foot-high granite dome. Around 1900, he became convinced that the mountain concealed a rich vein of gold. Determined to uncover this treasure, Norton, at 51, embarked on an extraordinary journey that would define the rest of his life.
Lake Morey’s Ghost & The Grantham Ghost
In the scenic heart of Vermont, a tale lingers over the calm waters of Lake Morey, a story of phantoms and lost recognition. This is the legend of Lake Morey's only ghost ship, a spectral vessel tied to the fate of its creator, Capt. Samuel Morey, the lake's namesake and a man of ingenuity wronged by history.