Deep in the forests of Vermont lies a place where people step into the trees… and are never seen again.
Over the years, hikers have reported feeling watched, compasses have malfunctioned and search parties have scoured the land only to come up empty-handed. Locals whisper of the ‘Bennington Triangle’, a mysterious area plagued by disappearances, eerie lights and a sinister force that seems to pull people into the unknown. Some blame the wilderness itself, a vast and unforgiving terrain where even the most experienced hikers can lose their way. Others believe something more unnatural is at play…
For decades, the disappearances have remained unexplained. People walk into the woods and simply… cease to exist. No bodies. No clues. Nothing.
What’s lurking there? And why have so many who entered never returned? Find out more in the ‘Bizarre But True!’ story of the ‘Bennington Triangle Mystery’
In 1992, Vermont writer Joseph Citro coined the term ‘The Bennington Triangle’ to describe the region in southwestern Vermont cantered around Glastenbury Mountain. Once home to a small logging town, the area was completely abandoned by the early 1900s.
The land was already the subject of sinister Native American folklore, with some tribes refusing to set foot on the mountain, believing it was cursed. Legends spoke of a place where the four winds met chaotically, making it impossible to navigate. Others told of enchanted stones that could swallow a person whole.
But while folklore and superstition have always surrounded Glastenbury Mountain, the true terror began in the 1940s when people started to disappear—one after another, leaving no trace behind.
The first known case occurred in November 1945. Middie Rivers, a 74-year-old local guide, was leading a group of hunters through the woods. Despite his age, Rivers was an expert outdoorsman, someone who had spent a lifetime navigating the area. On the way back to camp, he walked ahead of the group, certain of his footing. But when the others arrived at the meeting point, Rivers was gone.
At first, they assumed he had turned around, but as the hours passed, concern turned into panic. Search teams combed the area for weeks, scouring the trails, the undergrowth and the riverbanks. The only clue they ever found was a single rifle cartridge beside a stream, as if it had been dropped by someone moving through the woods. No footprints, no signs of a struggle – just an empty forest and a vanished man.
A year later, the Bennington Triangle claimed its most famous victim. Paula Welden, an 18-year-old college sophomore at Bennington College had been intrigued by the beauty of ‘The Long Trail’, a rugged and remote hiking path that cut through the mountains. On the 1st of December 1946, after finishing her shift at the college dining hall, she told her roommate she was heading out for a short hike. She left wearing only a red coat, jeans and training shoes, ill-suited for the bitter cold of the Vermont wilderness.
She was seen by multiple witnesses throughout that afternoon. A gas station owner noticed her running up and down a gravel pit, though no one knew why. Later, a man picked her up while she was hitchhiking and dropped her off near the Long Trail entrance. Another witness, an elderly man named Ernie Whitman, watched as she headed toward the dense woods. Concerned about the fading daylight and her light clothing, he warned her to be careful. Paula just smiled and continued walking.
That was the last time anyone saw her…
When she failed to return, a massive search was launched. Authorities, local volunteers, and even aircraft scoured the area. The FBI got involved, and her father offered a $5,000 reward. But nothing was ever found. No footprints, no clothing, no remains. Paula had simply walked into the trees and vanished.
Then, again in December but this time in 1949, another strange disappearance occurred. This time, under circumstances even harder to explain. James Tetford, a veteran living at the Bennington Soldiers’ Home, had been visiting relatives in St. Albans. On the 1st of December, he boarded a crowded bus back to Bennington. Witnesses saw him sitting in his seat as the bus made its way through the countryside. At the stop just before Bennington, he was still there, reading his bus schedule.
But when the bus arrived in town, Tetford was gone. His luggage was still in the overhead rack, his bus schedule open on his seat, but the man himself had vanished. No one had seen him leave. No one could explain how he had disappeared from the moving vehicle. It was as if he had simply… ceased to exist.
Less than a year later, in October 1950, the Bennington Triangle took its youngest victim. Eight-year-old Paul Jepson had been sitting in his mother’s truck while she fed livestock. When she returned just minutes later, Paul was gone. Search teams, including bloodhounds, traced his scent to a highway… where the trail abruptly went cold in a location chillingly similar to that of Paula Welden’s last known location years before. The similarities became more striking when Paul’s parents described the clothing that their son had been wearing, which included a red coat similar to the one Paula had also disappeared in.
His father later revealed something chilling. Paul had often spoken about wanting to go into the mountains, almost as if he was drawn to them. Whether he wandered off or was taken, no one knows. But like the others before him, his body was never found.
Later that same month, the final confirmed disappearance occurred. Frieda Langer, a 53-year-old experienced hiker, was camping with family near Glastenbury Mountain. While out on a hike with her cousin, she slipped and fell into a creek, soaking her clothes. Not wanting to continue the hike while wet, she told her cousin she would run back to camp to change and catch up with him later.
She never returned.
A massive search effort followed. Planes, helicopters and hundreds of volunteers scoured the area. Months passed and still no trace of Frieda was ever found. But then, in May of 1951, her body was discovered in a clearing, in an area that had already been searched multiple times. Even stranger, due to the condition of her remains, no cause of death could be determined.
Between 1945 and 1950, six people had vanished, and one was found in a place she shouldn’t have been. Then, the occurrences began again, when in 1981, three hunters ventured into the Bennington Triangle never to be seen again. No clues, no explanations.
Nearly three decades after, a man named Robert Singleycame close to sharing their fate, but this time, a potential victim of the Triangle lived to tell the tale of his experience.
A PhD candidate at Bennington College, Robert had gone for a hike near the same trails where Paula Welden disappeared decades earlier. But as he made his way back, the landscape seemed to shift. A dense fog rolled in and the familiar landmarks vanished. With only a failing headlamp he was hopelessly lost.
Night fell, and an eerie silence consumed the woods. Disoriented, he took shelter beneath a tree, spending a restless night battling an overwhelming sense of fear and being watched. When daylight returned, the terrain around him was unrecognisable, as if something had deliberately led him astray. At 11:30am, searchers finally found him, shaken but alive. Later, he recalled the unsettling energy surrounding the tree where he had rested, a force that made his experience feel like more than just being lost.
Could it be that previous victims of the area had also sought shelter against the fog and symptoms of hypothermia in places such as tree roots, caves and crevices?
The Bennington Triangle’s sinister reputation continued again, when in 2019, a woman eerily known as ‘Red’, but later identified as Jessica Hildenbrandt, was found murdered in a gravel pit in the area. Just two years later, a man named Joseph Schoenig was discovered inside his vehicle deep within the triangle, dead by apparent suicide after being missing for two weeks. His truck was later identified as being bright red in colour.
So, what exactly is happening in the Bennington Triangle?
Some theorize that the area was haunted by a hidden serial killer, but the victims varied too much in age and circumstances for this to be a likely explanation. It also doesn’t explain the span of time that incidents have happened in the area. Others believe the mountain itself is responsible, with shifting winds and hidden crevasses swallowing people whole. Some locals whisper about an ancient curse, of the land itself consuming those who dare to enter. Could the ancient ancestors have created legends to explain the dangers of the natural geography around them?
Then, there are the stranger and more far-fetched theories. Stories of the Bennington Monster, a large, hairy creature reported by hunters in the area for over a century have suggested that something unnatural prowls the mountains. Some believe in a supernatural portal or invisible doorway where time and space collapse on each other, taking those who step too close with them.
Even today, eerie reports continue from those visiting the area. Hikers report strange lights, distorted sounds, and an unnatural silence that seems to fall at random. Compasses spin wildly, electronic devices fail and some who enter the forest continue to claim feeling… watched.
Are these just tragic cases of people lost to the wilderness? Or is something far more terrifying at work?
Whatever the truth behind the Bennington Triangle Mystery, one fact remains.. People went into the same area… and never came out again!
