6 chilling tales from Aroostook County
Ghostly apparitions, a supernatural logger and buried gold — a horror movie? Nope. They’re all a part of Aroostook County’s chilling lore.
County native Dick Curless’ well-known track “Tombstone Each Mile” describes ghostly encounters within the Haynesville woods. Then there’s the story of three males who recounted being kidnapped within the wilds of Allagash.
However there are different eerie echoes in The County. Many are creepy outdated tales, excellent to be advised round campfires. Others might make you look over your shoulder on a darkish night time.
The Hunter’s Moon, so referred to as as a result of it’s large and orange, will peak on Oct. 28, in response to the Farmer’s Almanac. It’s an ideal time to discover a little bit of Aroostook’s unknown. Learn on, and also you simply may really feel a chill up your backbone.
Lethal offers in Dyer Brook
There was a spot in Dyer Brook the place folks might meet the satan, in response to Boston writer Peter Muise on the web site New England Folklore.
One story says a logger named Jack met the satan, who warned he’d die if he drove logs downriver the subsequent day. Jack didn’t heed the warning, and whereas driving logs noticed a flaming axe seem earlier than him. He jumped to shore and, although others died in a logjam, he was spared.
Fellow loggers seen bizarre issues about Jack after that, Muise wrote. They may hear two axes chopping when solely Jack was round. They heard him conversing with nobody else seen. As soon as he embedded an axe with such power the deal with broke, however when he pulled the axe out, the deal with was entire once more.
Fearful coworkers sensed the supernatural and named him Jack the Ripper. In the future Jack was cleansing a big forested space, a job that may take days. He completed in two hours. Nobody would work with him after that, and Jack left, by no means to return.
Supernatural farmhouse
“The outdated Flewelling home was haunted. There was little question about it,” Suzanne Reynolds wrote within the 1940 guide “Tales of Aroostook.” She interviewed 90-year-old, pipe-smoking Aunt Betsy Walters a few home close to the Aroostook River, someplace between Fort Fairfield and Limestone.
Betsy and her husband, Walter, moved right into a vacant farmhouse. Mischief began occurring. Quilts have been yanked off the household’s beds at night time, the bars on the door stored sliding open and there have been sounds of footsteps upstairs.
One night time Aunt Betsy took a candle and determined to confront no matter was up there.
“However once I reached the highest of the steps I might go no farther. I stood there on the highest step and all the remainder of the home had vanished. The candle confirmed no gentle when held earlier than me,” she advised Reynolds.
From then on folks shunned the home, Reynolds wrote. A tree fell on it and caved it in, then one other fell and burned, leaving solely ashes and a stump the place the home and its timber as soon as stood.
Guardians of the gold
Presque Isle historian and writer Dena Winslow options this story on her web site aroostookhistory.me. The article comes from a late 1800s newspaper clipping by an unknown author, in response to Winslow.
Within the 1830s, Matthias Black of Miramichi, New Brunswick, arrived on horseback and settled in Washburn. In saddlebags, he had $20,000 in gold, which he buried on his property. Black left initially of the Aroostook Struggle in 1838, and was seen by locals with out the saddlebags.
He by no means returned, however catastrophe struck those that looked for his gold. One man’s face turned completely black. One other was pelted by gravel and noticed two monumental arms emerge from mist holding a big piece of rock, with a “spook” biting off items and hurling them at him.
A long time later one other man introduced a block and deal with and two helpers to carry a big rock he was positive lined the gold. As they dug, the bushes began to shake. The helpers fled and the deal with glowed with fireplace. The person fell right into a deep sleep and awoke to seek out the bottom stuffed in as if by no means touched, and solely ashes remained of his gear.
Nobody might get the higher of the spooks that guarded the gold, the story goes.
Unusual steps on the dance ground
Previous buildings appear notably suited to unusual phenomena, like this one in Presque Isle.
The previous R.W. Wight & Son Furnishings retailer on State Avenue dates from the early 1900s. As soon as an opera home, the constructing’s second ground had what remained of a ballroom, stated Kim Smith of the Presque Isle Historic Society.
The Wight household additionally bought caskets on the furnishings retailer and created an embalming room within the basement, Smith stated.
The Wintergreen Arts Middle as soon as occupied the decrease ground. One night time a employees member, working late, heard the footsteps of kids working throughout the ballroom ground above, Smith stated. Understanding there have been flats upstairs, she thought nothing of it.
She later discovered she was the one one within the constructing that night time.
Now the constructing is owned by C and C Leases. Lotus Lounge is on the underside ground, and nothing stays of the ballroom. The area is partitioned and being made into flats, rental firm employees stated.
No people right here
Some deserted locations are horrifying due to why they have been constructed.
Bunkers and underground tunnels saved nuclear weapons on the former Loring Air Pressure Base. A long time in the past a bunker referred to as Constructing 260 was sealed, in response to writers Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger.
The 2 visited the positioning, now a part of the Aroostook Nationwide Wildlife Refuge, in 2020 for his or her podcast collection “New England Legends,” and noticed stays of a cement guard tower and constructing. A former base safety staffer advised them he’d heard about an accident the place radiated victims died and have been sealed contained in the constructing.
The constructing received the identify “the vampire home” and drew plenty of authorities consideration, notably after a group investigating it earlier than the bottom closed have been uncovered to excessive ranges of radiation. Authorities stated it was radon. Rumors stated monsters lived inside.
No matter occurred there, or didn’t, is misplaced to time, the podcasters wrote.
Valley headhunter
From Abenaki legend arose a creature whose identify meant “Nice Satan,” in response to “Unusual New England” author Tom Burby, a Caribou native.
“He would play morbid methods on these silly sufficient to hunt him out in his distant campsite on Musquacook Mountain subsequent to the Allagash River, leaving misplaced souls to hang-out the darkish nights within the farmlands and forests of Aroostook County,” Burby stated in his podcast “Madahodo: The Headhunter of Aroostook County.”
In a single story, Dr. John B. was in the hunt for a shrunken head and a adorned cranium, so he went to Madahodo. However Dr. John and his information intruded on Madahodo, who wove darkish spells certainly. He turned the information right into a cranium that talked and sang, and shrunk Dr. John’s head “all the way down to the dimensions of an apple,” Burby wrote.
Legend has it that Dr. John along with his tiny head wandered native woods for many years.
So in case you’re feeling courageous, enterprise out because the moon grows full. When shadows fall, what’s going to you see?
