Bennington County in Vermont sits just a couple miles west of the Long Trail, a trail that stretches across almost the entirety of Vermont, and more. The trail is a total of 272 miles of path. It overlaps the Appalachian Trail for about 100 miles in the southern end of the state. Not far from Bennington County lies a mountain known as the Glastenbury Mountain. A town by the same name used to be near the mountain's peak.
The town of Glastenbury was a booming mining and lumber town. Because the town deprived most of the mountain of its trees to use as a resource, the town lost most of its population and was unincorporated by the state of Vermont through legislation in 1937.
Glastenbury’s unique history
Glastenbury's population never peaked above 250, yet the area became a summer attraction. After the townsfolk depleted the mountain's resources, the entirety of the town was remade/remodeled to be a tourist attraction. Train tracks that had been made to move resources around the area were utilized to carry people across the area for convenience.
The first year of being open as a tourist attraction was quite successful, but soil erosion and flooding washed out the tracks, and since then, Glastenbury has dwindled to what it is today -- a ghost town.
An unexplained death
Unexplained disappearances and murders have occurred in the area since the early 1940's. One of the more perplexing death stories involves 37-year-old Carl Herrick. He and his cousin Henry went hunting in the woods in November of 1943. The story goes that the two men were hunting 10 miles northeast of Glastenbury. Carl and Henry got separated during the hunt. Henry returned to their campsite, but Carl never did. When it started to get dark, Henry contacted the authorities.
After three days of searching, they found Carl's body with his rifle against a tree, 70 feet away. They reported finding bear tracks around the area. What was so odd about Carl's death is that an autopsy revealed that he was squeezed to death. His lung had been punctured by his own ribs. It begged the question, can a bear squeeze a human to death?
The red coat curse
There have been many disappearances in the same area, the most baffling was of Paula Weldon in 1946. She decided to hike along the Long Trail for a bit, so she left her dorm at Bennington College and walked into the woods. She was wearing a bright red coat and was easy to spot along the trail, and many witnesses say they saw her walking the trail on the day of her disappearance.
When Monday came around, Paula was nowhere to be seen. A large search party was formed with a $5,000 reward offered to anyone who found her. No body, no evidence, and no clothing was found, despite her wearing a bright red coat. To this day, it's considered bad luck to wear red while hiking Glastenbury Mountain.