| Driving down the road of a rural New England town feels like stepping into a classic horror novel. College campuses cut into the woods and then stretch for miles with their perfectly placed trees and their gothic architecture. Lonely back roads snake through small towns without streetlights, and stone walls mark the borders. Abandoned or converted tuberculosis hospitals loom on hills like gargoyles. It is nearly impossible to walk into a small town in New England, strike up a conversation with someone, and not have it turn into a chat about the legends of the town. Strange animals are seen underneath unexplained lights. Mysterious figures appear and disappear at will. Talk long enough and the subject turns to ghost.
Bristol County in, southeastern Massachusetts, is one of these places. It seems a world away from the city of Boston just thirty miles to the north and is one of those rare counties stuck between the legends it was built on and the ghosts it still fears. Originally settled as an outpost for the Boston colonies and the stepping stone to Rhode Island and Connecticut, the area consists of twenty towns and has experienced the history of this country well before it was a country. Trying to trace the origins of the occurrences there is a bit like walking back in history. Some of the unusual things experienced there can be contributed to the bad feelings and blood shed between the early settlers and the Native Americans that originally lived there. King Phillips War, considered by many historians to be the bloodiest war in America’s history, with brutality and betrayal on both sides, was fought mainly within the confines of Bristol County. The reputation of this land might go even further back, however. Even before the new inhabitants of this country had started to venture out past the safety of their port settlements, the land was considered tainted. |
| The Cursed County |
Some believe there are areas of this Earth that act as portals or passageways to things we do not understand. Unexplained paranormal happenings, UFO sightings and unusual animals are seen more often in these places. One such location is a 200 square mile area in Massachusetts known as the Bridgewater Triangle. First named in the seventies by researcher and writer Loren Coleman, the triangle is formed by connecting lines between Abington, Freetown and Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and includes seven of the towns in Bristol County. These areas allow many of the things we still can not explain to travel back and forth between our world and someplace else, but they also acts as a magnet for evil elements. An examination of the towns near these passageways reveals a disproportionate amount of violence and suicide. Religions and groups attuned to forces in nature, like Wiccans, prefer these places, but darker cults are often found there as well. The portals are not just for ghosts, but energy itself. In the middle of the Bridgewater Triangle is Hockamock Swamp. Entering the swamp is like walking back in time, an untouched stretch of land remaining in a rapidly developing county. There have been numerous sightings of unclassified animals, unexplained lights and smells and noises coming from the muck since the earliest writings of Europeans in the area. The Native of the region, mainly members of the Wampanoag tribe, feared the swamp as well. Hockamock loosely translates to “place of spirits,” but has also appeared as, “place of darkness”, “place of evil” and “place of dark spirits.” Regardless of the exact meaning of the word, the tribe seemed to make some connection between the swamp and the spirit world. The question remains; why a people so in tune with the natural environment around them would label someplace as dark or full of spirits? The answer might lie in evidence from the present. |
| The Bridgewater Triangle |
| By Christopher Balzano |
 |