While many people don’t believe in ghosts, there are plenty of strange things that happen in life that make you wonder whether they might exist after all. Take, for instance, the town of Dudleytown, a section of Cornwall, Connecticut that’s said to be so haunted that it’s not only been abandoned entirely but it’s illegal to actually visit there.
To understand Dudleytown’s history, you’d have to go back to the mid-18th century, when the Dudley family and a few others decided to settle in a valley known as the Dark Entry Forest. They lived there happily until the 19th century when the land became infertile and people decided to leave. However, it wasn’t all innocent.
A man named Nathaniel Carter moved to Dudleytown, only for six of his relatives to get sick and die of cholera. When the rest of the family picked up and left, they all got killed on their new land in New York. A second man named Gershon Hollister died suddenly after building a barn for his neighbor, while the neighbor became obsessed with talking about creatures in the woods that came out at night.
Then, in 1804, a woman named Sara Faye was struck by lightning on her front porch and died, with her husband passing away of grief not long after. Those are just a few of the horrific fates that befell those who lived there.
By the dawn of the 20th century, pretty much everyone had decided to get out of there. Now, the land is owned by the Dark Entry Forest Association and is illegal to visit. That’s because the organization wants to preserve what remains of the town and forest. That being said, you always get people who try to sneak in, and those who have gotten in have said they’ve felt a dark presence there. Make of that what you will!
