nothing can be, is isolating or confining as the woods they seem d this off from the rest of the world, leaving us alone balanced. the edge of being lost Even in these thoroughly modern times, the woods seem to exist as a reminder that so much of the world is outside of our control. Sure we could stay on the path. but those narrow routes between the trees only give us the illusion of control like a trail breadcrumbs their fragile, and leading and somewhere in the back of our minds. We understand that if we were to leave the trail, we would be stepping into the unknown the woods. I things from us

for centuries. Criminals have used the dark cloak of the forest to conceal everything from bootlegging and poaching to drug use and murder. They hide wildlife from us and instil Joe enough doubt and mystery that we end up leaving the anything could be living up there. Anything. Some areas, though, are darker than others in some places. woods are more than just a gathering of trees and undergrowth. There are occasions in our world that are consistently avoided, plagued by rumour and dense with fear the step into one of those places is to obey. In all safety, all reason and all hope. I'm Aaron Mahnke- and this is lore

between the three Massachusetts towns of Abingdon. Robots in Freetown exist a triangular slice of land that has become home to hundreds of reports of unexplainable phenomenon, its known as Bridgewater triangle, though some call it. The black crying lower. The devil's triangle not be swallowing up fighter jets and colonial era. Ships like the Bermuda triangle to the south, but its history is justice, storied and mysterious. One of the areas within the triangle is the hawk swamp. It's a in thousand acre Wetland near Bridgewater Massachusetts in this Sixteen hundreds, it was inhabited by the Wop unknowing tribe of native Americans and the fort built inside. It became a strategic location for them during King Philips WAR. In sixteen. Seventy four. One legend details how, during this time of upheaval and invasion by the colonies, a powerful artifact was lost in the swamp. Now I

can't find anything beyond a small Wikipedia entry to confirm this, but the store He tells us how an object known as the wampum belt was lost during the war and, as a result, the swamp became the home to restless spirits. Ever since the swamp has been the source of a nearly endless supply of unexplainable sightings, one of them dramatic and best documented reports was made by a local police officer sergeant Thomas Downy, summer night in eighteen. Seventy one down he was driving or the town of Eastern, near a place known as Bird Hill NET sits at the edge of the swamp as he approached the He caught sight of an enormous winged creature, downy clay, that it was over six feet tall and had a wingspan of almost twelve feet. After reporting, the siting to the east in police. He quickly earned the nickname of the bird man. I don't know about you, but

seems odd that a police officer would risk his reputation on such an unusual claim if it was just a joke officer downy Clearly saw something that night just what that thing was, of course, is open to debate decades earlier in nineteen, thirty nine, the civilian conservation CORE were working on the edge of the swamp near King Philip Street, while their workers. To have seen a huge snake as large around and his black as a stove pipe. According to the report, the snake coiled for a moment raised its head and vanished into the swamp. And what would it area would be complete without Bigfoot sightings, although tall. Harry creature has been cited dozens of times over the years in various parts of the Bridgewater Triangle, the most common your have been near the swamp in eighteen. Eighty, three, John Baker, a local fur trapper

a similar experience. He was on his canoe in the swamp when he heard a splash, he turned to see a hairy beast log into the river and pass within a few yards of his boat. in eighteen. Seventy eight local man, Jody Andrade, was standing on the shore of upon known as clay banks. He claims that he turned and I what he described as, and I quote a creature. was all brown and Harry like an a man thing. Oddly enough, I, with the high school with the guy, who fits that desk action, but there has been more than just weird animal sightings in the swamp as far back as the late night, in century locals Hebron, where did seeming unusual lights, one report was made by two undertakers who were travelling power the swamp on Halloween night in nineteen o eight may claim we have seen a light that Hubbard in the sky for almost an hour whether the reports of creatures, lights are true or not. It might be.

Worth mentioning that the word Hocker literally means the place where spirits dwell Another. Hot spot in the South eastern corner of the triangle. Is the Freetown State Forest if The stories are to be believed. It's the quintessential hunted forest deep inside the park is a cliff known as the asset ledge that overlooks in old quarry. There have been reports of hauntings near the ledge of this. Ends and ghostly figures. Some stories tell of a woman in white lingers near the precipice others claim to have heard voices while visiting their them common report, though, is of mysterious lights. Some research

think they know exactly where those lights come from to their the tools of a creature known as the Pugwash GI in ancient want a folklore. The package is a small forest dwelling creature, something like a troll or a goblin that It is in the wooded areas around the swamp site from having one of the most entertaining names to say out loud. They are said to be small, Harry people, roughly three feet tall who hide in the woods and cause trouble to people who discover them there. What kind of trouble well want banal. Folk lore tells of how the Pugwash easiest lights, to lure travellers into the woods where they would then kill them. These lights, according to legend, are known as the Taipei Wankers north american version of the english- will o' the wisp, sometimes referred to as ghosts lights. Quality is used the lights as bait, luring people to their death, Then it's hacking hikers out rights. Apparently, these creatures prefer to let the land itself kill their victims,

Coincidentally, one of the most common experiences reported by visitors to the ledge is an overwhelming urge to jump normal. Healthy people have failed. Nearly suicidal standing atop, the ledge many of them claim upon approaching the edge of the cliff they felt in almost unconscious. little desire to jump off into the dark rocky water over one hundred feet below, What story in particular, bears repeating bill Rousseau was a welder from Reign of Massachusetts. He worked long hours and for the six years prior to his retirement, he worked a late shift from three p m until midnight by the time he got home from work each night bills, Dog Samantha, would be in desperate need of walk, and so before bed bill would say.

her out and let her get some exercise make up this habit up each and every night, no matter the season or whether on a night in eighteen. Ninety five bill took Samantha for their usual midnight walk there. Typical route was to stay on the sidewalks and head toward the center of town, but on this night they made a chain Bill decided on a whim to cut through his own back yard and head along a trail through the woods. Alongside the swamp, not a choice I would have made my you, even with a german Shepard and Rottweiler Mix, as my companion of half a mile into their walk in a place where the path was crossed by a road Samantha began. Acting on, she was tug. at the leash and trembling and kept glancing bill with worried eyes, bill tugged at the least to lead her home. But the dog wooden budge she just wind and quivered, where she stood.

after a moment. Bill began to hear the sound that had frightened his dog. It was a thin high pitched voice face at first, but growing louder as it continued, and even though Bill couldn't understand what the voice was saying. It kept repeating. The same sounds ye. Why chew? It seemed to say- me why chew it was midnight in the woods. So, of course, bill couldn't see anything, but tried. He scanned the trees and bushes, for whatever could be making the sounds. There was even a street light near by casting circle of pale light on the pavement, but he didn't see anything and then suddenly something stepped into the light. According to bill, it was perhaps four feet. Tall covered and hair walked on two legs. Like a human,

and looked away, no more than a hundred pounds. It was naked and pop bellied and look nothing like anything bill had ever seen before in the swamp and as its stepped out of the trees and into the light it continues. To speak to him, he why chew it said here here: Bill and Samantha stood frozen to the ground paralyzed with food. and as the dog continued to wine and shiver, a creature lifted its arms and beckoned them to follow ye? Why chew? It said again, motioning to them here. bill claims that he tried asking the creature a few questions, but it only reply the same nonsense. It had already said not now in what else to do bill manage to tug Samantha after him and they both turned and headed home. They didn't look back

It's not the trees that make the woods a frightening place. It's what the trees Conseil There's no telling what creatures hide behind the green leaves and thick branches of the forest landscape. Crypto zoologists, ghost hunter. And believers in the supernatural are often seen as abnormal, they believe in things that can't possibly be real, but when we step into the woods when we surround ourselves with the dark embrace of the unknown. Somehow the impossible begins to seem more likely. Maybe we want to believe. Maybe there feeling may get in the pit of our stomachs when we step into a strange wooded area is a cry for answers. There has to be something more out there right. Maybe that's all we want to know, but were simply

too afraid of answers, bill, Rousseau, experience that same fear on that night in nineteen, ninety five, he and Samantha. Need to find their way home safely, but he was beyond shaken up, even though was one in the morning he went into the kitchen and brood himself, a large part of coffee. There was no way he was going to let himself sleep TAT Night CUP after CUP hour after hour, bill relive the experience over and over again playing back everything he heard and saw he experienced doubts and fear and regret he wondered if maybe he should have tried harder to speak with the creature. Perhaps he should have approached it if Samantha would have allowed him to that is But the question that plagued in the most that night was more difficult. What was the creature saying to him? Bill wrestled with his memory of those sounds all through the night

Why, too? It had said, and then here. Before sunrise bill, Almost positive that he had his answer, it wasn't it other language. The creature was speaking after all, it had been trying its best to use English and the words it kept repeating we want you. It had been saying come here, stories of tiny forest creatures that cause problems for their human neighbours are certainly frightening and entertaining, but they are far from isolated to the bridge water

angle. In fact, it doesn't take much define echoes of those legends in countless other places. Creatures similar to the package has been spotted over the centuries and I've tracked down and The example that sure to give you some chills stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it If we take away its name and geographical home, the Pugwash actually gets bigger, not in size, but definitely in scope. Boiled down to the bare essence of the legend. It's a simple creature, two to three feet: tall Harry with a pot belly. An affinity temper meant that tends to bounce wildly between fun, loving and downright terrifying.

And if that's all you're looking for you can cast a much wider net. No longer are we limited to looking through reports from the Bridgewater Triangle. All of a sudden the entire world opens up, and while I could take you on a tour of european versions of that very same type of folklore, I'll say that for another time right now, we're headed to the Pacific ocean. Long before Europeans stumbled upon the hawaiian Island in the late seventeen Seventys the archipelago had been settled by polynesian, who move their from other communities farther West scholars aren't exactly. Sir when that migration took place, but they guess sometime around a thousand a d But when those settlers arrived, they didn't discover a pristine wilderness. Instead, they found evidence of another civilization. There were shrines, manmade, fish ponds and even large breakwaters along the coast in all of it left them with a big question who had been responsible for build,

such amazing things. Now evidence suggests that an earlier wave of settlers arrived on the hawaiian islands around three hundred eighty, but not much is known about them, but when humans, Step two shore, a thousand years ago, They knew was that some one had been busy building things there and like many early cultures, they told stories that explained the mystery away They believe that the islands were inhabited by little human, like creatures that they called many honey. They were described as two to three feet: tall Harry with pot bellies an affinity. Permits and over the centuries they would record many encounters with them blurring the lines between truth and fiction. Yes, the legend of the men who, were probably away of remembering the existence of an earlier human community. Those legends also seem to hold something more and if the stories are true, the supernatural explanation can't be so easily done

missed. In fact, in the late eighteenth century, King Camberwell Lee ordered a census of his kingdom and among the People listed on the island of Calliope, there isn't entry of sixty five men honey. It's just one example from a long list that places a lot of the men who need folklore right there on cooperating on the sound. Western shore of the island is a place called, why may a bay close to the bay is an ancient stone, awkward duck that predates the polynesian settlers along Stone Channel that was constructed out of hand, car blocks of Basle II and its name? The men who need ditch, but it's another location near by that's, been a over the years for something more frightening actual many honey. Sightings

a well known example took place in the nineteen forties. It all began when the local school Bell rang for recess and about forty five children rushed outside to enjoy some fresh air and sunlight in the middle of the day and when they did many of them almost instantly clustered together to wash something across the street. It was a group of men, honey, climbing and jumping down from some of the larger trees over and over again. Honestly, it was almost like they too had come outside for some exercise and we're having fun plain in the trees. But when the small human, like creatures, spotted the children watching them, they dispersed and quickly vanished into the shadows, one less

in item twenty nine students at that same school were outside plain in the sunlight it may twenty. Fourth, and according to the principle from that time, a man named Dallas Mclaren. There were at least twenty kids in the schoolyard, all of whom were in their teens as Mclaren Watch, though, a few of the students began to run and shit. there. He goes one of them yelled before a number of other students ran toward where he had pointed for the next ten minutes. Students were running in packs, clearly chasing something, but whatever it was, it was too small for Mclaren to identify and their chase eventually took them across the street to the home of the local minister Reverend J, L Martin by the time, a clear and arrived to see what they were up to the students had surrounded the house. A few others had actually crawled beneath the house through across space and were frantically trying to chase something down using

is best principle. Voice Mclaren immediately ordered the students to stop what they were doing and explain themselves. We were trying to catch him, one of the students told him and when he asked him who the student replied with complete and utter seriousness, the men, a honey before pointing to the dirt near the Cross Base Mclaren, couldn't believe his eyes Right there as clear as day was evidence. He had no way of arguing with the unexplainable footprints of a tiny miniature human. This episode of war was research written and produced by me, Erin Monkey with music by Chad, Lawson There is much more than just upon cast. There's a book series available and bookstores an online and two seasons of the television show on Amazon. Prime video check them both out

We want more lore in your life. I also make an executive produce a whole bunch of other podcast, all of which I think you'd enjoy my production company grim and mild specializes in shows that sit at the intersection of a dark and the historical you can learn about all of our shows and everything else going on over in one central place, grim and mild dot com- and you can. so follow. This show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, just search for lore podcast, all one word and then click that follow button. And when you do say hi, I like it when people say hi and as always banks for listening.