Fortean Traveller 123. East Haddam, Connecticut
East Haddam, Connecticut, rests at the mid-point between the urban area of Hartford to the northwest and the placid shoreline of the Long Island Sound that opens to the Atlantic. The nights are quiet and the skies are dark. From the early to mid-1900s, the nearby village of Moodus was a summer resort destination for families from the big cities. The pavilions and lodges are long gone, though the traces of foundations, roads, and game courts can be seen in Sunrise State Park. The ghosts of summers past are not the only spooky attraction of this rocky, forested area that encompasses many other small communities. The fortean traveller can hike the trails and sail the waters said to be haunted by indigenous spirits, witches, mysterious monsters and Satan himself.
THE NOISES
Moodus is infamous for its “noises”. More precisely, the sounds are ascribed to a place called Machimoodus (“place of bad noises”) along the Salmon and Moodus Rivers, which is now a state park. White settlers who came to the area in 1685 quickly noticed the noises that were said to sound like thunder, thumps, and pistol or cannon fire. They were also historically described as cracking and popping, or like breaking or falling rocks. The noises emanate in clusters, occasionally in
