The Strange Disappearance of Paula Jean Weldon in the Bennington Triangle
Revised May 2024
The "Bennington Triangle" is a name given by paranormal author Joseph A. Citro to denote an area of southwestern Vermont within which as many as ten people have disappeared between 1920 and 1950. This "mystery triangle" centered around Glastenbury Mountain, includes some or most of the area of the towns immediately surrounding it, especially Bennington, Woodford, Shaftsbury, and Somerset.
Glastenbury and the nearby town of Somerset were both once moderately thriving logging and industrial towns but began declining toward the late 19th century and are now essentially ghost towns, unincorporated by an act of the state legislature in 1937.
The Bennington Triangle has also been a hotspot for apparent UFO activity, Bigfoot sightings, and strange lights and sounds. Strange stories date back as far as the late 19th century, and Native Americans regarded the Glastenbury area as "cursed" and avoided it. There are tales of hairy "wild men" and other strange creatures.
One of the most famous stories from the Bennington Triangle is that of Paula Weldon from 1946.
Paula Jean Weldon’s trip to the Long Trail
On Sunday, December 1, 1946, Paula Jean Weldon, 18, finished her job at the Commons at Bennington College in Vermont. She worked two shifts in the dining hall and then returned to her room in the Dewey Hall dorm, changed her clothes, and told her roommate she was going for a long hike. Her roommate remembered Paula saying she had been feeling a bit depressed in the days before and had not gone home over Thanksgiving for reasons unknown.
Paula was the eldest of four daughters of William Archibald Welden of Stamford, CT, a design engineer at Revere Copper and Brass. Her sisters were Steph (14), Pamela (16), and Heather (5). She was 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 123 lbs. She had a grayish scar on her left knee, a vaccination mark on her right thigh, and a small scar under the left eye, under the eyebrow.
She enjoyed swimming, biking, skating, hiking, camping, square dancing, and playing the guitar and was interested in botany.
Paula was wearing a Red parka jacket with a fur-trimmed hood, blue jeans, and white sneakers with heavy-soled Top-Sider size 6 1/2 or 7. She was also wearing a small, gold Elgin ladies’ wristwatch with a narrow black band. This watch has the repairer's marking, 13050 HD, scratched on the inside of the back case.
It was 50 degrees on Sunday when Paula left the college, explaining her light clothing, but by the evening it grew much colder and windier with snow. By Monday it was 9 degrees in Bennington with a wind.
She was seen by several other students heading down towards Route. 67A. Danny Fager, at the service station across from the College Entrance, saw her walk down the drive at about 2.30 pm, turn to her right and run up a small knoll at the college entrance, run back down, and walk down Route 67A towards Bennington. Louis Knapp picked her up at about 2:45 pm and took her as far as his home on Rt. 9, about 3 miles from the Long Trail where she planned to hike, about 30 minutes later. At around 4 pm, Ernest Whitman and three friends coming out of a camp in Bickford Hollow saw Paula, and she asked Ernie about the length of the trail before they saw her head towards a bridge leading to the trail. Several other Woodford residents claim to have seen her in the vicinity of Fay Fuller Camp, further up the trail, but the reliability of these reports is uncertain. With darkness descending around 4.15-4.30 pm, she was on the trail with inadequate clothing and no supplies. She was never seen again.
The search for Paula
After Paula failed to show up for classes on Monday, December 2, Mary Garrett, director of admissions, called State's Attorney William Travers Jerome, Jr. to the college at noon. Paula's father, William, also arrived that day.
Paula had once said that she would like to visit the Everett Cave on Mt. Anthony, so Henry Steele of Fairdale Farms, working as a guide, with some of the students, headed to the Cave area that afternoon but found nothing.
Abe Ruskin, a local taxi driver, stated he had taken a student to the bus station on Sunday afternoon, but couldn't positively identify her as Paula. There were several buses she could have taken - Pittsfield, NYC, Albany, or Burlington. The clerks at the station didn't remember anyone of her description, but it was a busy day.
Glastenbury Mountain
A waitress at the Modern restaurant on Pleasant Street, called Ora Telletier, served a girl matching Paula's description at 9:30 pm. Ora said the girl was with a young man of about 25 who was drunk and abusive. When he went to the counter, the girl signaled Ora to come over. She asked how far it was to Bennington Vermont, and then asked where she was. She said she had to get to Bennington and that she had arrived in Fall River with $1000 but had nothing left. The girl had not been drinking but seemed dazed.
That evening, the media put out her story, and authorities in NY and Massachusetts were alerted, and photographs circulated. As no one knew where Paula might have gone, no formal search and rescue effort was started.
On Tuesday, December 3, R.N. Thompson, the manager of Vermont Transit in Burlington, said he would contact all the bus drivers who left Bennington on Sunday afternoon to find out if she boarded any of those busses.
Searches were carried out on the College Campus and the section of the Long Trail leading to the Glastenbury Fire Station, which crosses Route 9 on Brattleboro Road near Hell Hollow and Bickford Hollow.
Frank Tschorn, superintendent of Buildings and Grounds at the college, took charge of the squads of volunteers who searched on Tuesday and Wednesday. A hunter called Herman Spencer, who usually stayed in the Sausville Camp halfway to the Glastenbury Tower, assisted in the search, as did Bennington College students, Boy Scouts, about 25 Williams College students, members of the Green Mountain Club, and 30 others from the Bennington area. Sheriff W. Clyde Peck, who was familiar with the Long Trail area, joined the search on Wednesday night.
At 5:30 pm that day, Ernie Whitman, night watchman at the Banner newspaper, noticed the photograph of Paula on the front page of that day’s edition. He told reporter Pete Stevenson that he had talked to the girl at about 4:00 pm Sunday afternoon in Woodford. He and three friends, Stearns, Mary Rice and Lyman Royce, were returning from a camp when a girl approached them and asked directions to the Long Trail, saying she wanted to walk along it. The girl asked them how far the trail went, and they told her that they had only walked about 5 miles of it but that it went through to Canada. She thanked the group and went on her way walking across a bridge which led only to the Long Trail.
On this news, Paul’s father, Frank Howe II, and Pete Stevenson drove to Woodford to begin a search. Three residents confirmed they had seen the girl walking towards the Long Trail, and she was last seen near a camp called Hunter's Rest. The three men walked towards Glastenbury, looking 20 feet on each side of the trail to make sure nothing was missed. They continued to a camp owned by William Lauzon, which was about 4 miles below the fire tower, but the going was tough due to around three inches of snow which fell Sunday night. It was unlikely that she could have reached this camp because she would have had trouble crossing the stream and she was only wearing sneakers.
The group managed to speak to Lauzon, but he hadn't seen Paula. He also told them three servicemen had passed through earlier on Sunday, also not dressed for the trail, and had left a suitcase with him. They had not returned and they looked through the suitcase. The servicemen were named J.W. Carrol, William Watts, and M. Golder. Lauzon also said that a deer hunter, Middie Rivers, had disappeared from his camp the year before.
A clairvoyant, Clara Jepson, directed them to the covered bridge, but nothing was found.
The Authorities concluded there must have been two girls in the area of the Long Trail on Sunday—Paula and another woman who was with a man who had a car. They both fitted the description of Paula, except the other woman was taller, which may have caused some confusion among the witnesses.
On Wednesday night College President Jones issued a statement that authorities suspected foul play and that they believed Paula's body had been concealed. Three men who spent the last weekend at a camp near Glastenbury had already been questioned.
John Proud of the Adams Clothes Store said he had sold clothes to a man on Saturday afternoon. The man was with two other men and said they might be going hiking. He also said he was a student at a photographic school in New Haven. This man matched a description given by the Fall River Police early Thursday morning.
On December 5, searches began at dawn in a seven square mile area between Bald and Glastenbury Mountains. Over 125 people from Bennington and Williams College, as well as locals, assisted in this search, led by Sheriff Clyde Peck. Five aircraft were deployed as well as 120 men from the State Guard, meaning that nearly 500 searchers were involved. Each searcher carried confetti to drop to ensure each area was searched and none were searched twice. A thorough search of the Blue Trail over Bald Mountain was made after a Bennington College faculty member found footprints Wednesday afternoon that might have been made by sneakers. But the 500 searchers found nothing. The search of the Long Trail was concluded and the authorities believed Paula was not in that area. Her father said he was satisfied the search had been well conducted.
A woodsman on the eastern slope of Glastenbury near Searsburg reported he had heard what he thought was a woman screaming. The authorities checked the area and found nothing.
A $500 reward was offered for anyone giving information leading to Paula being found.
Some girls in Paula's residence at the college said she had been extraordinarily happy on Saturday night, causing some to suspect that she may have decided to make a change in her life, using the hike as a diversion.
On December 15 the official search operation came to an end. In May the following year when the snow melted, Paul’s father organized another two-day search, but no trace of Paula was found. He criticized the authorities’ lack of sophisticated methods in handling the case, which actually served as the catalyst for the founding of the Vermont State Police seven months later.
What happened to Paula?
Maybe Paula got lost on the trail, but it is confined by a brook and the hillsides. The ground off the trail is extremely rough, with rocks and water, which is why the initial search was confined to a 20-foot area on either side of the trail.
She may have found a place off the trail to spend the night (as she and Elizabeth did 3 weeks before), planning to walk out in the morning but perhaps the weather worsened more than she expected.
Was she abducted either on the trail or off it on her turn back to her dorm? Perhaps foul play was involved.
Paula’s body and possessions have never been found in the many years since her mysterious disappearance. The case remains open to this day.
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Sources
http://www.benningtontriangle.com/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/bennington-triangle
http://tkrice.tripod.com/welden.html
http://www.ghosttheory.com/2015/10/06/bennington-triangle-strange-disappearances-in-vermont
