The Bennington Triangle: Vermont’s Scariest Urban Legend

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It starts with a disappearance.

A red coat vanishing into gray mist. A compass that won’t stop spinning.
The forest hums with silence, the kind that feels alive. And when you look back down the trail, the path is gone.

In the heart of Vermont’s Green Mountains, there’s a place where people have vanished for nearly a century.
Compasses fail. Radios cut out. The woods seem to twist in on themselves, and sometimes—people never come back out.

They call this place the Bennington Triangle.
And for decades, it’s been one of the strangest, most haunted corners of New England.

Part Forty-Five of Our Series

This is Part 45 in our ongoing series: The Scariest Urban Legend from Every State.

Last time, we explored the cursed expanse of Utah’s Skinwalker Ranch, where science and superstition collide under desert stars. Now we travel northeast to the mist-shrouded forests of Vermont, where the mountain doesn’t roar—it waits.

Welcome to the Bennington Triangle, where the wilderness itself seems hungry.

The Legend

The Bennington Triangle covers an area around Glastenbury Mountain in southwestern Vermont, stretching across the towns of Bennington, Woodford, Shaftsbury, and Somerset. It’s a region defined by steep ridges, thick forest, and abandoned logging towns that have long since been reclaimed by nature.

The name “Bennington Triangle” was coined by Vermont author Joseph A. Citro in the early 1990s. Citro, known for collecting regional folklore, used it to describe a series of unexplained disappearances between 1945 and 1950, as well as the mountain’s centuries-old reputation for strangeness.

To the Abenaki people, Glastenbury was a cursed place—a mountain where the “four winds met” and where spirits dwelled. They warned hunters to avoid its slopes, calling it “taboo ground.” When white settlers arrived in the 1700s, many reported disorientation, strange lights, and eerie silence in the forest. By the time the last towns on its slopes were abandoned in the early 1900s, the mountain had already earned its haunted reputation.

Then the disappearances began.

The Disappearances

Middie Rivers (1945)
A 74-year-old hunting guide, Middie Rivers vanished on November 12, 1945, while leading a group of four hunters near Hell Hollow Brook on Glastenbury Mountain. He was experienced, confident, and familiar with every trail. When he stepped ahead of the group, they assumed he’d reach camp first. But he never arrived.
Searchers found a single spent rifle cartridge in a stream—nothing more. Despite hundreds of volunteers, dogs, and aerial sweeps, no body or belongings were ever found.

Paula Welden (1946)
A year later, 19-year-old Paula Jean Welden, a student at Bennington College, decided to hike part of the Long Trail. She was last seen wearing a bright red parka—an image that still defines the legend. Witnesses saw her walking along Route 9 and entering the trailhead, but she was never seen again.
Her disappearance triggered one of Vermont’s largest manhunts, but despite aircraft, bloodhounds, and national headlines, not a single clue emerged. The case led to the creation of the Vermont State Police, as the state had no formal search authority at the time.

James Tedford (1949)
Three years later, a veteran named James E. Tedford boarded a bus from St. Albans to Bennington. Witnesses saw him on board, but when the bus reached its destination, Tedford had vanished. His luggage and timetable were still in his seat. The bus hadn’t stopped between towns.

Paul Jepson (1950)
In October 1950, eight-year-old Paul Jepson disappeared while his mother tended pigs near the Glastenbury town dump. She left him in the truck for only a few minutes; when she returned, he was gone.
Search dogs followed his scent to the base of Glastenbury Mountain—the same area where Paula Welden disappeared—but it ended abruptly. No trace was ever found.

Frieda Langer (1950)
Just sixteen days later, Frieda Langer, 53, disappeared while hiking with her cousin near Somerset Reservoir. After falling into a stream, she told him she’d run back to camp to change clothes. She never arrived.
Six months later, her body was found near the reservoir—an area that had been searched extensively. The cause of death could not be determined.

And then, the disappearances stopped as suddenly as they began.

A History of Fear

Even before these vanishings, Glastenbury carried an eerie reputation.
In the 1800s, it was a booming logging community connected by rail to Bennington. But deforestation and a devastating flood in 1898 wiped out the industry. The logging towns of Glastenbury and Somerset were officially dissolved by the state in 1937, leaving behind nothing but cellar holes and overgrown trails.

Locals told stories of phantom lights, voices in the fog, and sudden changes in weather. Early settlers claimed their compasses spun erratically near the summit, and some believed the mountain itself could shift paths or confuse travelers. Even the Long Trail, which crosses near the area, is infamous among hikers for its difficulty and disorienting terrain.

To this day, many hikers report feeling watched, hearing footsteps that echo their own, or noticing the forest grow unnaturally still—just before a storm or a dense fog moves in.

Theories

No one agrees on what caused the disappearances—or why they happened within such a short span.

1. The Wilderness Theory
Glastenbury’s terrain is harsh. With sudden drop-offs, hidden crevices, and thick canopy, even experienced woodsmen can lose their way. Natural causes, like hypothermia or accidents, could explain individual cases—but not why no remains or gear were ever recovered despite massive searches.

2. The Human Factor
Some suspect a human hand. The disappearances occurred within a five-year window, leading some investigators to suspect a serial predator or criminal activity. However, no consistent evidence or suspects were ever identified.

3. The Supernatural Possibility
Indigenous stories describe Glastenbury as a “forbidden mountain,” home to unseen spirits and voices that lure people astray. Some hikers claim to hear distant calls for help—always leading deeper into the forest, never out. Others describe hearing their own names whispered from the fog.

4. The Energy Vortex Hypothesis
Researchers of the paranormal believe Glastenbury lies on an “energy vortex”—a site where magnetic or geomagnetic forces interfere with navigation and human perception. Compasses fail, electronics flicker, and even time seems to behave strangely, much like in Massachusetts’s Bridgewater Triangle.

5. The Pattern of Silence
Whatever the cause, the disappearances share an unnerving trait: they left no trace. No tracks, no clothing, no footprints. Just silence.

Modern Sightings and Real-World Encounters

Though the cluster of vanishings ended in 1950, strange reports never stopped.

In the decades since, hikers have occasionally gone missing for hours or days before reappearing disoriented, unable to recall what happened. In 2008, a group of college students from Burlington became lost on a well-marked section of trail near Somerset Reservoir. When rescuers found them the next morning, their GPS devices had failed simultaneously, and none could explain how they’d strayed so far off course.

In 2016, local news outlets reported a man who went missing for 30 hours while camping alone near the Long Trail junction. He later told rescuers that “the woods went quiet all at once” before he realized he was walking in circles despite following a compass. His story echoed almost word for word the same phenomenon described by search teams in the 1940s.

And in recent years, drone enthusiasts testing flight paths around Glastenbury Mountain have claimed sudden loss of signal and battery drain—exactly over the region where the disappearances occurred. Local officials have no explanation beyond interference from the mountain’s terrain and dense canopy.

None of these incidents are supernatural on their own—but together, they paint a consistent, unsettling picture.

Similar Legends

The Bridgewater Triangle (Massachusetts):
Located just over the state line, this area covers 200 square miles of southeastern Massachusetts and is infamous for UFO sightings, cryptid encounters, strange lights, and missing persons. Paranormal researchers have long noted the geographic and folkloric overlap between Bridgewater and Bennington—two “triangles” bound by the same air of unease and mystery.

The Devil’s Tramping Ground (North Carolina):
A barren circle in Chatham County where nothing grows and animals refuse to cross. Folklore claims the Devil himself walks there nightly, pacing in circles and scorching the earth. Like Bennington, it’s a place locals avoid after dark—more out of tradition than belief, but the fear endures.

Hoia Baciu Forest (Romania):
Dubbed “the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania,” this Romanian forest is known for glowing orbs, unexplained radiation readings, and cases of missing time. Visitors often describe feelings of dread, nausea, and the sense of being watched—nearly identical to accounts from hikers in the Bennington Triangle.

The Missing 411 Phenomenon (United States):
Documented by researcher David Paulides, this phenomenon tracks real cases of people vanishing under unexplained circumstances in U.S. national parks. The Bennington disappearances are often cited as early examples, showing the same hallmarks: sudden loss of contact, lack of evidence, and complete absence of remains.

Why It Endures

The Bennington Triangle endures because it bridges two worlds: fact and folklore.
Every case here is real, every name recorded. Yet the collective mystery defies explanation.

Was it weather, crime, or something stranger? We may never know. But the mountain remains silent, and silence, in Vermont’s wilderness, is never a good sign.

If you hike the Long Trail near Glastenbury, bring a compass—but don’t expect it to work. And if the woods ever go quiet… turn back.

Further Reading: Scariest Legends from Other States

Enjoyed this story?
Urban Legends, Mystery, and Myth explores the creepiest corners of folklore — from haunted objects and backroad creatures to mysterious rituals and modern myth.

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