Episode 209: The Bridgewater Triangle
The Bridgewater Triangle refers to a triangle in southeastern Massachusetts that is an area of about 200 square miles. The entire area is said to be a paranormal vortex and is located with the points of the triangle in Abington, Rehoboth and Freetown. The towns of Taunton, Raynham, Berkley, Dighton, Brockton, Easton, Marshfield, Norton, North Middleboro, Segragonset, Myricks, and, of course, Bridgewater are all located within the triangle. The boundaries within the triangle were first described by famous cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, who also came up with the name “The Bridgewater Triangle.”
The Hockomock Swamp is over 16,950 acres and is the largest freshwater swamp in the state of Massachusetts. Today, it provides crucial flood control for the state as well as a home for wildlife. To the Wampanoag tribe, the swamp was their way of life. It provided fresh water, shelter, a variety of food and protection from English settlers and part of it served as their ancient burial ground. From the years 1675-1676, King Philip’s war was a huge conflict between the Wampanoag tribe, other Native tribes, and English settlers. It’s considered to be the deadliest war in Colonial American history with hundreds if not thousands of casualties. Entire towns were destroyed, one-tenth of all men in the colonies available to serve in the army died and more than half of New England's towns were involved in the war.
Over 3,000 Wampanoags were publicly executed, left to starve in the middle of winter, burned at the stake or enslaved, and essentially all of the Wampanoag’s land had been stolen by settlers. The war was pretty much the last effort of the Natives to get rid of British colonizers. While Native lives were lost all over New England as a result of this, a huge amount of casualties occurred within the bounds of the now Bridgewater Triangle. The Hockomock swamp itself was a major part of King Philip's War as it was a base of war operations for the Wampanoag chief named Metacomet, also called King Philip. Settlers were disgusted with the Hockomock swamp, thinking it was useless land that could be destroyed and instead used for crops and farmland. Their solution was to drain the water out of the swamp. This land was sacred to the Wampanoag tribe, especially as the swamp had been their entire way of life for centuries.
The name “Hockomock” is a Native name that means “place where spirits dwell." They lived off of the land, and they also used it as a sacred burial ground. In their culture, they believed in a chief deity of death and disease named Hobomock. Hobomock was composed of human souls of the dead and liked to spend time in swampy areas, especially the Hockomock swamp. Due to all of the unrest the settlers caused and how sacred the swamp was, it’s widely said that the Native Americans put a curse on the swamp. Hobomock is said to still be in the swamp, and many people have reported seeing orbs of light floating around and over the water, especially after the sun sets.
One of the more well-known landmarks within the Bridgewater Triangle is Profile Rock, which is in the Freetown Fall River State Forest. Profile Rock is accurately named as it looks like the profile of a face when you look at it from the side. The rock is also of spiritual significance for the Wampanoag people as there’s a legend that during King Philip’s War, settlers stole a sacred Wampum belt from the Wampanoag tribe. A Wampum belt is a belt made of beads crafted from shells, and the entire process of making the beads and then crafting a belt out of them is incredibly painstaking and a beautiful form of art. Belts could be used to illustrate stories among the tribe and were of deep importance. It’s said that King Philip went to Profile Rock with the stolen belt to return it to Anawan, another notable Wampanoag figure, and legend has it that at Profile Rock you might be able to see the ghost of Anawan sitting cross-legged on the rock with his arms outstretched, waiting for the belt to be returned to him.
The Dighton Rock was found in a river and is covered in various carvings of symbols, animals and people in all different styles of art, likely from centuries ago. No one has any idea what culture, if not multiple cultures, are responsible for the carvings and what they could mean. Some of the carvings show ornate images of animals like deer, and there are other symbols some believe relate to fertility and tell a story. Experts have debated on whether the carvings are from ancient Native Americans, Nordic sailors, colonial Portuguese, or even medieval Chinese sailors. In the 1950’s, the stone was removed from the river and placed on solid land, and the Dighton Rock Museum was built around it to preserve it and learn more about it.
The Freetown Fall River State Forest is also called “The Cursed Forest of Massachusetts” because of all the murders and Satanic cult rituals that have taken place in the forest. One of the more well-known murders within the Freetown State Forest is the murder of Mary Lou Arruda. Mary Lou was 15-years-old when she went missing while riding her bicycle near her home in Raynham, Massachusetts on September 8th, 1978. Her bicycle was found the next day on the side of the road, and Mary’s body wasn’t found until two months later. Her body was badly decomposed and was left tied to a tree in Freetown State Forest. She had been strangled. It was determined later that her kidnapper had not strangled her but had tied her up in such a way that she was tied up alive and standing. When she lost consciousness, couldn’t stand anymore and collapsed, her neck became pressed against the ligatures and she was suffocated. The perpetrator, James Kater, was tried four times for Mary Lou’s kidnapping and murder before he was eventually convicted.
In 1980, two years after Mary Lou’s body was found, police were investigating another murder near the forest when multiple locals in the area approached them to tell them about a much bigger issue: a Satanic cult. Carcasses of cows were being found in random spots in the Freetown State Forest in manmade clearings, and the carcasses were left in specific arrangements that were also clearly manmade. The Fall River Cult murders also happened within and right outside of the Freetown State Forest, and it was believed that the same cult activity that killed 17-year-old Doreen Levesque, 19-year-old Barbara Raposa and 20-year-old Karen Marsden were responsible for the animal murders and rituals.
In 1987, a houseless man was murdered by someone who thought he was an undercover police officer, and in 2001 two men were found shot to death multiple times on Bell Rock Road within the Freetown State Forest.
Also within the boundaries of the Bridgewater Triangle is Bridgewater State University. Bridgewater State University has multiple parts of the school that are said to be haunted. In 1924, the Old Woodward Dormitory burned down in a massive fire, and in the new Woodward Hall, you can hear someone running up and down the halls screaming “fire.” Many students have reported the smell of death, decay and rotting flesh in the Student Apartments, often happening on and off and throughout the building at random. One student could return to their apartment and report that the entire place smelled like death, but surrounding apartments wouldn’t. Then some time would pass and another student in an entirely different apartment would report the same thing. In a second floor room in Shea-Durgin Hall, people have heard the sound of a woman choking, and this has been determined as the ghost of a man choking his girlfriend. The bathrooms of Shea-Durgin Hall are known for their own ghost, who will turn showers on and off or turn the water temperature hotter or colder when students are showering. On Shea-Durgin’s fifth floor, a ghost there will stack cans and rearrange furniture. A ghost named George loves hiding in the auditorium and playing pranks, especially on students who would get upset or frustrated by the pranks. George is said to steal scripts, mess around with the lighting, and move props around.
Another very haunted building within the Bridgewater Triangle is Taunton State Hospital. It’s regarded as one of the most haunted hospitals in the world. It opened in 1854 and was originally called “The State Lunatic Hospital at Taunton.” As with most psychiatric hospitals back in the day, what started with good intentions quickly turned into a way to lock up anyone seen as “less than” in society. Violent criminals, elderly people, sex workers, unwed mothers, people with intellectual disabilities, poor people, orphans and immigrants were all among the patients who eventually found themselves in horrific, unsanitary and neglectful conditions in the hospital. Taunton also housed multiple dangerous people, including several serial killers. One of the most famous patients of Taunton was female serial killer Jane Toppan. Jane was born the same year the hospital opened in 1854 as “Honora Kelley.” She became an indentured servant very young and started training as a nurse in 1885.
She began experimenting with her patients, especially her frail and elderly patients, by using the medications morphine and atropine to see what combination of the two and how much would kill them. She enjoyed changing their medications and dosing them so that they would drift in and out of consciousness before she finally increased the doses to kill them. Jane would get into bed with the patients as they were dying because she said she got sexual pleasure from watching her patients die. Jane then began working as a private nurse, using poison to kill patients and those she wanted gone. She went on to kill her landlords, who were a married couple, her foster sister, and four elderly members of the same family. One of these patients, a woman named Minnie Davis, was found dead and her death was examined. The toxicology report revealed a whole cocktail of poison and Jane was arrested. She told her lawyer she had killed 31 people, but it’s now believed she could be responsible for up to 100 murders. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to Taunton State Hospital for the rest of her life. Jane was quoted as saying her ambitions were “to have killed more people - helpless people - than any other man or woman who has ever lived.”
It’s said that over 850 patients died at Taunton, but there were likely many more that weren’t reported. Many patients and staff began reporting paranormal activity and experiences, and urban explorers have reported strange encounters as well after exploring parts of the hospital decades after it closed down. People report feeling hands touching them or pulling at their clothes and hair. Patients and staff often reported hearing banging and moaning from areas where no patients were, and many patients reported seeing “the shadow man” who would be seen in the hallways and standing over patients at night. A huge spider-like entity has been reported by multiple patients and staff in the hospital as well. Long after the hospital closed and became abandoned, people have reported hearing voices of patients yelling out for help or screaming.
One of the most famous creatures within the Bridgewater Triangle is called the Pukwudgie. The Pukwudgie is part of Native American folklore and is about 2-3 feet tall. It’s a mischievous creature that loves to play tricks on humans, and it usually plays naughty or even mean tricks. They are said to be able to disappear when they don’t want to be seen anymore and can shapeshift into other creatures, usually into one that resembles a porcupine.
Thunderbirds are also part of Native American folklore and have been spotted several times in the Bridgewater Triangle. In 1988, two boys followed a pair of giant three-toed footprints into the Hockomock Swamp and came face to face with an a huge bird-like creature. The creature saw them and took off in flight, and the boys ran home screaming. Neighbors and police reassured the boys that they had simply seen a great blue heron, a bird that loves swampy areas and is known for its huge wingspan. The children insisted that the bird they saw was much larger than a heron, and they were initially laughed off until someone remembered a similar sighting by another person in the town.
This report came from Norton police sergeant Thomas Downy, who was well respected in the community. In 1971, Sergeant Downy was driving along Winter Street in Marshfield heading home when he spotted a huge creature standing right at the edge of the swamp. At first glance the creature looked like a bird, but it was standing over 6-feet-tall and towered over the car. When the bird suddenly and quickly took off, it flew straight into the air and revealed its wingspan of 8-to-12 feet. Alarmed, Sergeant Downy called for backup and officers arrived to find several large, three-toed footprints where the creature was spotted. This sighting happened at a place called Bird Hill, and Native Americans told of a Thunderbird living in that area.
In 1970, people reported seeing a huge, 7-foot tall creature covered in hair and running through the woods and their yards, sometimes on all four legs and sometimes on hind legs. Police and neighbors kept an eye out for a bear getting too close to people’s houses, but they were never able to locate one. Instead, on April 8th, 1970, two police officers were sitting in their cruiser at the edge of the swamp when suddenly the rear end of the car was lifted into the air. Just as suddenly as the car had been picked up, the car was dropped back down with a huge bang. One of the police officers shone his flashlight to the back of the car and spotted a huge hairy creature running on two legs behind a nearby house. The creature was never found in the search that followed, but there had been multiple other sightings of it around the area. One sighting was by a woman in West Bridgewater who looked out of her window at her garden after hearing a noise outside and saw a huge hairy creature eating a pumpkin from her garden. He grunted at her before running off on two legs, still holding the pumpkin.
There have also been a significant amount of UFO sightings in the Bridgewater Triangle with people reporting seeing bright balls of light or even entire spacecrafts flying around. People also report seeing orbs of light described as pure energy, often feeling like they’re being watched, feeling eyes on them and hearing eerie and not quite human voices moaning, talking and yelling when they’re within the bounds of the Bridgewater Triangle.
There are multiple theories about why the Bridgewater Triangle is the way that it is and is such a hotspot for paranormal activity and crazy, unexplainable encounters. One theory is that the area is cursed due to being on an ancient Native American burial ground and for the poor treatment of the Wampanoag tribe and the land itself by settlers. Another theory is that due to the area’s unusually high concentration of quartz, the already strange energy there is being amplified as that is what quartz does.
Paranormal expert Chris Pittman says the Bridgewater Triangle is a vortex, stating, “Some say that the wounded and pained spirits of the Wampanoag are the reason for the paranormal in the swamp. That is part of the explanation, but I would go further. I think the vortex was in place in the swamp before the settlers, and before the Native Americans. That vortex contributed to the inhumanity of the war between the Wampanoag and the English, and it fosters pain and evil in that area to this day.”
Image sources:
bridgewatertriangledocumentary.com - “The Geography of the Bridgewater Triangle”