Exploring the haunted Bridgewater Triangle

Southeastern, Massachusetts: a leafy glade of New England highways, a throwback to more simple days. It's also one of the most haunted areas in the country.

Two hundred square miles of fright, encompassing 12 cities and towns, better known as the Bridgewater Triangle.

Ghost-hunter Andrew Lake has been investigating the paranormal here in New England for decades. For some unexplainable reason, parts of Bristol and Plymouth County have been shrouded in darkness for hundreds of years.

“From cryptic animals, to phantom lights, UFOs and ghosts. When were talking cryptic animals, were talking about things from big foot to incredible enormous birds,” Lake says.

Witnesses say those mystic creatures prowl the Hockomock swamp, located in the triangle's heart of Bridgewater, Easton, Norton, Raynham and Taunton. Hockmock is Algonquin for "dark place", and has spawned stories of prehistoric Pterodactyl taking flight, 30 foot alligators and half man/half ape-like giants thrashing through the woods.

“Because we are talking 17,000 acres of swamp, and if you've ever walked into the outskirts of the Hockomock, it is a dense forested swamp. And I can easily believe there are animals in there that people don’t see on a regular basis,” Lake says.

In the triangle’s eastern corner, sits the Freetown forest. A magnet for negative energy. 5,000 square feet of former Wampanoag land that has been disturbed for centuries. A dumping ground for violent crimes, and satanic rituals. Phantom orbs have been reported numerous times, beaming out of the forest, including one directed at President Ronald Reagan.

“He had an encounter with a UFO over the Freetown state forest in Air Force One. Fighters were scrambled when the crew called it in. A mysterious light came out of the forest from the area of the Assonet ledge, and was stocking Air Force One. And they scrambled fighters off of the Cape and by the time the fighters joined up with Air Force One, this thing took off with incredible speeds,” Lake explains.

Northwest of Freetown in the triangles other corner sits Rehoboth. Route 44 pours in from neighboring Seekonk and at that town line lurks the ghosts of the red headed hitch hiker. Some believe he was a farmer that was struck and killed back in the 50’s while trying to help a passer-by. Residents claim car accidents occur far too often here. Some actually claim to have met “Old Red."

“People have claimed they have slowed down and offered him a ride and he disappears, and sometimes when he is reaching down for the door handle, a couple of people swear he actually got into their vehicle and faded away,” Lake says.

In the town of Rehoboth, there are more cemeteries per square mile than any other town in the Bay State. Along with all those tombstones, come a lot of stories. The Village cemetery, one of 25 in town, boasts numerous stories of cryptic, shadowy figures hovering over graves. While others claim they have seen a young boy at the Palmer River Cemetery, darting from stone to stone in a playful game of Hide and Seek.

"Probably one of the spookiest things that people have talked about is a soldier in colonial garb walking amongst the graves where there are known veterans buried in there," Lake said. "And he’s been seen to move about as if he’s in his own bubble of time. He seems out of sync with his surroundings, and he’s been seen dragging his fingers over the tops of stones and like a bubble popping, he disappears."

The Bridgewater triangle has it’s share of doubters, but Andrew Lake says it’s all a matter of time and space. He is a believer.

“Are there certain areas of the world where these dimensions can open doors to one another if you’re in the right place as the right time, you’re going to see it and then the door shuts when you go to get your friend and see it or what? We’re not quite sure we can speculate to doomsday, I don’t think we’re ever really going to find the answer,” Lake says.

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