The Bennington Triangle: Vermont’s Vanishing Zone

Between 1945 and 1950, five people disappeared in the wilderness surrounding Glastonbury Mountain in southwestern Vermont. Despite extensive searches, most left no trace whatsoever, no bodies, no clothing, no evidence of what had happened to them. The area, dubbed the Bennington Triangle by author Joseph Citro in 1992, has accumulated legend and speculation for over seventy years. While each disappearance has prosaic possible explanations, the cluster of cases in such a short period and confined area has led many to wonder if something unusual lurks in the Green Mountain wilderness.

The Area

The Bennington Triangle encompasses a roughly triangular area of southwestern Vermont centered on Glastonbury Mountain. The terrain is rugged and heavily forested, with limited trails and few permanent residents. Glastonbury itself is among Vermont’s least populated towns, and during the mid-20th century, it was even more isolated than today.

The area has a reputation that predates the modern disappearances. Native American tribes reportedly considered parts of the region cursed or forbidden. The town of Glastonbury, once home to lumber and mining operations, was largely abandoned by the early 20th century, leaving ruins that added to the area’s eerie atmosphere. Strange stories accumulated over generations, stories of unusual sounds, disorientation among travelers, and an indefinable sense of wrongness.

Whether the Bennington Triangle represents a genuine zone of unusual phenomena or simply a remote wilderness where unfortunate events are more likely to remain unexplained is a question without a definitive answer.

Middie Rivers (1945)

The first of the famous disappearances occurred on November 12, 1945. Middie Rivers, a 74-year-old hunting guide with decades of experience in the local wilderness, was leading a group of hunters near the Long Trail, a hiking path that traverses Vermont from Massachusetts to Canada.

Rivers was ahead of his group as they returned to camp. He was out of sight for only a few minutes when the other hunters realized he had vanished. They searched immediately, calling his name and retracing the route. Rivers had simply disappeared.

An extensive search over the following days found only a single rifle cartridge, which may or may not have been Rivers’ own. No body, no clothing, and no other trace was ever found. Rivers, who knew the area intimately and was in good physical condition for his age, had vanished without explanation.

Paula Welden (1946)

The most famous of the Bennington Triangle disappearances occurred on December 1, 1946. Paula Jean Welden was an eighteen-year-old sophomore at Bennington College. On that Sunday afternoon, she told her roommate she was going for a walk and set out for the Long Trail.

Multiple witnesses saw her that day. A man gave her directions to the trailhead. A couple on the trail saw her ahead of them and watched her round a bend. When they reached the bend seconds later, she was gone. The trail at that point offered no obvious hiding places or side routes.

The search for Paula Welden was the largest in Vermont history to that date. State police, National Guard, FBI, and hundreds of volunteers scoured the wilderness. Rewards were offered. Psychics claimed to have visions. The investigation continued for years. No trace of Paula Welden was ever found.

The case led to the creation of the Vermont State Police, as authorities recognized the inadequacy of the local response. Paula’s father spent the rest of his life searching for answers that never came.

James Tedford (1949)

On December 1, 1949, exactly three years after Paula Welden’s disappearance, James E. Tedford vanished under seemingly impossible circumstances. Tedford, a 68-year-old veteran living at the Bennington Soldiers’ Home, had been visiting relatives in St. Albans.

According to witnesses, Tedford boarded a bus to return to Bennington. He was seen sitting in his seat as the bus made stops along the route. When the bus arrived in Bennington, Tedford was gone. His luggage remained on the rack. His open bus ticket was on his seat. But Tedford himself had vanished somewhere between the last confirmed sighting and the final stop.

No evidence indicated that Tedford had exited the bus at an intermediate stop. No one recalled seeing him leave. He simply was present at one moment and absent at the next. His body was never found, and no explanation for his disappearance was ever established.

Paul Jepson (1950)

On October 12, 1950, eight-year-old Paul Jepson disappeared from his family’s farm near Bennington. His mother had left him playing in the truck while she fed the pigs, a task that took her only a short time. When she returned, Paul was gone.

The search for Paul Jepson covered miles of surrounding wilderness. Bloodhounds were brought in and followed his scent to a crossroads, where the trail simply ended. The dogs could not continue the track in any direction.

Paul was wearing a bright red jacket, which should have made him visible even in the autumn woods. Yet despite intensive searching, no trace of him was ever found. His father, a town caretaker, searched obsessively for years, but Paul had vanished as completely as the others.

Frieda Langer (1950)

The final disappearance in the classic Bennington Triangle series occurred on October 28, 1950, just sixteen days after Paul Jepson’s vanishing. Frieda Langer, a 53-year-old experienced hiker, was with a group near Somerset Reservoir when she fell into a stream and soaked her clothes.

She told her cousin Herbert Elsner that she would return to their campsite to change while he waited. The camp was not far away. Frieda Langer never arrived.

The search for Langer was extensive, covering the same territory that had been searched repeatedly over the previous five years for other victims. For seven months, nothing was found.

Then, in May 1951, Frieda Langer’s body was discovered in an open area near Somerset Reservoir. This was an area that had been thoroughly searched multiple times during the initial effort. Either the body had somehow been missed, or it had been placed there after the searches concluded.

The body was too decomposed to determine a cause of death. Frieda Langer became the only Bennington Triangle victim ever found, and her discovery raised as many questions as it answered. How had she ended up in a location that searchers had covered? How had she died? Why was she the only one found?

Theories

The Bennington Triangle disappearances have generated numerous theories over the decades.

The simplest explanation is that the victims succumbed to the ordinary hazards of wilderness travel. The Vermont woods can be disorienting, especially in cold weather. Rivers could have drowned in streams or been covered by snowfall. Bodies could have been hidden by vegetation or taken by scavengers. The failure to find remains might simply reflect the difficulty of searching rugged terrain.

Others have proposed that a serial killer operated in the area during this period. The concentration of disappearances in time and space suggests a pattern, and several victims were last seen in similar locations. However, no suspect was ever identified, and the victimology is unusual for a serial killer, with ages ranging from eight to seventy-four and no apparent selection criteria.

More exotic theories invoke the supernatural. Some suggest the mountain contains a portal or dimensional anomaly that claims unwary travelers. Others propose a creature, perhaps related to Bigfoot legends, that inhabits the wilderness and takes victims. Native American legends of the area’s cursed nature are cited as supporting evidence.

Joseph Citro, who coined the term Bennington Triangle, has suggested that the mountain may be a “window area” where unusual phenomena concentrate. He compares it to other regions of alleged strangeness, like the Bridgewater Triangle in Massachusetts.

Legacy

The Bennington Triangle has become one of Vermont’s most famous mysteries and a staple of paranormal literature. The cases have been featured in books, television programs, and podcasts. Glastonbury Mountain attracts hikers who know its reputation and wonder if the strangeness persists.

The Long Trail, where Paula Welden vanished, remains a popular hiking route. The wilderness where Middie Rivers disappeared is still wild, still remote, still capable of swallowing the unwary. Whether anything genuinely unusual lurks there or whether the Bennington Triangle is simply a name for random tragedy in a dangerous environment depends on what one is willing to believe.

Conclusion

Five people vanished in southwestern Vermont between 1945 and 1950. An elderly guide who knew every inch of the woods walked around a corner and was never seen again. A college student rounded a bend on a hiking trail and stepped out of existence. A veteran disappeared from a moving bus while his luggage remained in place. A child in a red jacket walked away from a truck and into mystery. An experienced hiker left to change her clothes and was found dead months later in a place already thoroughly searched.

Maybe it was all coincidence. Maybe the Green Mountains are simply dangerous, and people die there and are not found. Maybe the cluster of disappearances was nothing more than bad luck concentrated in time and space.

Or maybe there is something in the woods around Glastonbury Mountain, something that has been there for longer than we know, something that takes people and does not give them back. The Native Americans avoided the area. The town was abandoned. The wilderness reclaimed the land and kept its secrets.

The Bennington Triangle offers no answers. The missing remain missing. The wilderness remains wild. And travelers on the Long Trail still pause sometimes, looking at the forest around them, wondering what might be watching from the shadows, wondering if the stories could possibly be true.

The mountains keep their secrets. The dead, if they are dead, rest in places no one has found. And the Bennington Triangle remains what it has always been: a mystery wrapped in wilderness, a question without an answer, a darkness at the heart of the Green Mountains that we may never fully understand.