Road Trip Into The Unknown:What Lurks in Dudleytown, Connecticut?

When I first started writing for this esteemed website I took us on a breathtaking tour of some of the most haunted locations around the world. Recently we visited the shores of jolly olde England and explored the haunted reputation that Ol Blighty certainly deserves, so I thought it fitting to come full circle and bring us back to the good Old US of A to take a look at some of the strangest locations, myths and urban legends that call our great nation home.

Compared to the rest of the world the United States is just a mere child, despite our short but illustrious history America plays host to some of the most terrifying ghosts, monsters and strangest stories that seem to put the other nations to shame. When I first conceived of this project I was just going to deal with the many reports of the dearly departed that still walk among us, however I thought that was somewhat unfair to the other tales that enrich our American culture and keep mysteries hunters busy. I hope you enjoy Roadtrip Into the Unknown.

The Curse of Dudleytown

Well hidden by the years of growth in the back woods of Litchfield County, Connecticut along the ominously yet aptly named, “Dark Entry Road” sits an enigmatic ghost town that has gained quite a reputation over the years as one of the most haunted and terrifying locations upon the North American continent, Dudleytown. Dudleytown, is one of those locations that has such a terrible reputation over the years it is almost impossible to seperate fact from fiction, and truth from Urban Legend. Those who have visited this eerie ghost town, which is nothing more than a few foundations grown over with weeds and trees, all seem to come away with stories that would keep even the toughest guy awake at night with nightmares. If the stories concerning this lost gem of Americana is true, Dudleytown could only be described as a town cursed and set up for disaster from the very beginning.

Those who have made Dudleytown, the focus of their paranormal meanderings claim that the sad little town was cursed well before it’s first foundation was laid in the late 1700s. It is widely believed that the Curse of Dudleytown began across the pond in Great Britain when the Barons Dudley committed a horrible act of treason in the royal court of King George II. No one is really sure what that act was and why it offended the King, however the treason sent the Dudley clan fleeing into the night for their very lives to the colonies of America and Connecticut.

By 1800, Dudleytown was considered a small and struggling community in the backwoods of Connecticut. Unlike the other towns that thrived and prospered in the area, Dudleytown experienced so many problems that they appeared to go well beyond coincidence and hovered in the realm of the truly strange and unusual. No matter how hard the farmers tried proper crops would never grow on the land. Some feel that the soil may have been to acidic which would not allow anything to grow while others believed that the very ground was cursed by the local Native American tribes who held the place as being evil and the abode of wicked spirits and perhaps this is what contributed to the hysteria that soon overtake the small community and force many to either flee or committ suicide.

One of the strange experiences at Dudleytown was that the general population never grew past fifty people at the most. The town had such a reputation for being cursed new and interesting people did not want to even come near this town on the decline. Those who stuck it out in Dudleytown, reported strange lights and terrifying apparitions that flitted among the trees even during the light of day. It was reported that suicide became a huge problem in the struggling town with at least one citizen going mad a month and hanging himself in the haunted woods that surrounded Dudleytown. Reports of demonic possession were commonplace and strange sicknesses that did not touch the surrounding communities broke out in Dudleytown viritually wiping out the community overnight. By the second decade of the 1800s, Dudleytown was completely abandoned and never again would another human soul live upon it’s haunted land.

In an interview with Playboy Magazine, comic actor and serious researcher of the paranormal, Dan Aykroyd declared that Dudleytown, Connecticut was the most frightening place in the United States and rightly so. Although the land is private property owned by the “Dark Entry Forest Association” with warnings that trespassers will be prosecuted, this has not stopped the intrepid ghosthunter from ignoring the law and venturing into one of the most haunted locations in the United States if not the world.

Those who have paid this desolate area a visit have reported so many strange experiences one would have to think that someone is trying to pull the wool over our eyes. Many have reported strange voices crying out from among the trees and have witnessed dark entities flitting about the surrounding forest. Others have reported an intense feeling of dread and sadness as they walk among the remains of colonial village. Others have reported an intense desire to kill themselves and join the spectral citizenry of Dudleytown that seems to beckon them to their fate.

When one considers the strange tale of Dudleytown Connecticut we must consider the possibility that this little ghost town and the stories surrounding it are nothing more than Urban Legend, however if even 10% of the stories are true than the ruins of Dudleytown are not a place to be taken lightly and only those with many years in paranormal research and investigation and the local clergyman should pay this sad little cursed town a visit to determine what manner of evil called Dudleytown, Connecticut home.

I want to try something new with this series, if you are a reader and have had an experience with one of the locations that I will be writing about please let me know. You can either leave a comment here or contact me at t_seeker@hotmail.com. I and the editor of this website would love to hear from you and strange things you have come across. Thanks.

Rick E. Hale