Life in the Bridgewater Triangle

By DINO CILIBERTI Managing Editor

05/14/2006

I live in a triangle.

It's an area of 200 square miles.

This is a hot spot in Massachusetts for paranormal activity.

It's a place of Indian curses, ghostly apparitions, cattle mutilations, Bigfoot creatures and low-flying UFOs.

And I live right in the heart of it.

It's the Bridgewater Triangle.

Most of us are actually living in it too.

The triangle, not as heralded in folklore as the Bermuda Triangle, encompasses the Bridgewaters, Raynham, Taunton, Brockton, Mansfield, Norton, Easton with Abington, Freetown and Rehoboth at its angles.

According to legend, numerous sightings attributed to the triangle include gigantic snakes, huge birds and creatures that leave 18-inch footprints and are known as Bigfoot.

A researcher named Loren Coleman first described this area in the 1970s, when numerous sightings of UFOs were reported.

In one report, two huge UFOs landed on Route 44 in Taunton in December 1976. Another one was spotted in Bridgewater in late 1997. And then came another report a year later of a UFO near Route 44 in Middleboro.

The main location of the triangle is what's called the Hockomock Swamp.

Native American Indians called it the "devil's swamp" because that's where spirits lived. It's a huge swamp too - at 5,000 acres one of the largest in the Northeast.

Several websites are devoted to this mysterious triangle and for anyone who is interested in the paranormal, the stories are intriguing.

Sometimes I find myself looking at the sky when I drive home at night, looking for a glimpse of light that might be a UFO. I'll catch a light off the pond near my home and wonder. The same goes with the nearby lake.

Could these reports be true?

Could paranormal activity be going on right under our noses? Or is it just folklore, stories passed down to send a chill down a spine and make us ask whether we are really alone in the universe.

Who knows.

But the stories about the Bridgewater Triangle put together by Christopher Pittman on his website explaining what is the Bridgewater Triangle is worth a read.

The swamp is really where paranormal activity goes off the charts.

That's where Bigfoot has been spotted many times, either entering or exiting the area. In 1970, according to legend, Bridgewater police and State Police used attack dogs to search the area.

But they came up empty.

Even as recently as four years ago came reports about UFOs.

They were reported as black helicopters. But those helicopters have also been associated with UFO lore since the 1970s.

Maybe the area is haunted? Some say it is cursed.

The triangle extends to Dighton where there is a rock that also has been reported to prompt paranormal activity.

Some of these paranormal chasers - or ghostbusters - have even stayed overnight seeking to unearth the mysteries of the triangle.

They have also come up empty.

We might never know whether these stories are true. But these legends are worth sharing and passing down over the years. These folklore stories help inspire and intrigue.

So maybe this 200-square-foot mile area is haunted. Maybe there's something special going on there that we yet to have our finger on.

We can only imagine. And that's what's great about these stories.

We can let our imaginations run wild.

dciliberti@tauntongazette.com

ŠThe Taunton Gazette 2006

Click HERE to return to the Bridgewater Triangle page.

Click HERE to return to the home page of the Massachusetts UFO Resource Site