Slightly Odd Fitchburg

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. I share them and you can get in on the fun by liking my page at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following me at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the haunting story! Now, to be fair, these are all "know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy" stories. I can't verify a single one. Still, DID YOU KNOW Leominster has a haunted park? Leominster, Massachusetts, holds tales of the supernatural, particularly in Barrett Park , where fellers and fellettes whisper of two spirits said to haunt the area. The most well-known is the “Lady in White,” believed to be the ghost of a woman who drowned in the park's pond in the early 1900s. Witnesses describe seeing her spectral figure wandering the water’s edge at dusk, her flowing white dress glowing faintly in the twilight. Some claim she appears to be searching for something, or someone, lost to the depths. An...

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. I share them and you can get in on the fun by liking my page at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following me at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the haunting story! DID YOU KNOW there’s a Christmas ghost of Route 2A ? Yeah, so, the stretch of Route 2A between Acton and Concord already feels like the kind of place where a ghost might wander out of sheer boredom, but every December it becomes home to a haunting that locals mention. They call him the Christmas Ghost of 2A, though older residents still prefer the name Lantern Man , as if giving him a title makes him easier to live with. The story traces back to the 1920s, when a traveling tinsmith named Elias Cutter vanished during a Christmas Eve snowstorm. He’d been walking the long road between towns, carrying a lantern he’d crafted himself, the sort of sturdy handiwork that could survive anything except, apparen...

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. I share them and you can get in on the fun by liking my page at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following me at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchbur ! Now onto the haunting story! DID YOU KNOW the Chelsea Soldiers' Home is haunted? Yeah, so, the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home has the sort of quiet that doesn’t feel entirely empty, the kind that settles in old military buildings where too many men once waited for news that never came. Staff have been reporting oddities there for decades, long before ghost hunters started showing up with gadgets that beep at dust. Nurses talk about footsteps in the hall after lights out, steady and purposeful, the way a man walks when he’s spent a lifetime following orders. They check, of course, because that’s what you do, and find nothing but the long corridor stretching ahead like it’s holding its breath. One orderly swore he saw a figure in a World Wa...

The Shrieking Thanksgiving Ghost This one brings us to Geneva, New York . That’s the state with that really big city that smells like the Dutch . Every other holiday has a ghost and Thanksgiving isn’t any different, it’s just a little surprising. I mean, nothing bad ever came out of that day for any person or group of people, right? Hold on, my producer is talking in my ear… Oh? OH! oh. Well, that was disappointing to learn. Anyway, let’s get into the ghost story! The When and Where Told you so. This ghost story takes place back 1902, a few years before the world was going to start having fun with the Great Worcester Airship Hoax . It was the night of Thanksgiving Day and a train was approaching Marsh Bridge in Geneva, New York. It's bad enough when you have to work on Thanksgiving, but things were about to get weird for the engineer and fireman driving this thing. They were both in the train’s… cockpit? Engine car? Driver’s seat? I don’t know, I’m not a train guy. By...

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. I share them and you can get in on the fun by liking my page at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following me at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the haunting story!   DID YOU KNOW that Pittsfield, Massachusetts has a ghost train? Back in 1958, a guy by the name of John Quirk was in the Bridge Diner which sat right next to train tracks. He was just minding his own business when a phantom train drove right by the place. He got a good look at it and told people it had five or six coaches, a baggage car, and a tender with coal in it. The same thing happened one month later at 6:30am and he contacted railway officials about it. They looked into what happened, since they had no idea why a steam engine was using their tracks and confirmed that a train running on coal hadn’t operated on them for many years. The whole thing played out again a few months later, and the ...

Frostbite takes hold in fewer than 5 minutes. Numbness grips your limbs. Pins and needles race over your skin. Ice crystals form on your body. Your muscles stiffen. Your joints stop working. Your face turns white, then waxy, then hard. That’s what the cold does to you and the cold is New England. You can’t separate them. When a tourist comes in with smiles and words, you don’t have time for it. They get to leave and go back to the warmth. You, the New Englander, live in the cold . Do you really have to wonder why there are so many ghost stories to be told? Up in northern Maine , on the outskirts of Haynesville, there’s a stretch of road so lonely that it’s only named Route 2A. This is the extreme north of Maine in a forgotten piece of the United States that’s so distant from the rest that it gets its electricity from Canada. Not that it needs much power, though. The population of Haynesville, Maine is only 97 and it’s not set to increase anytime soon. There was a time, however, when th...

Watch the video above or read the article below! This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. I share them and you can get in on the fun by liking my page at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following me at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the haunting story! DID YOU KNOW that Newport, Rhode Island is home to a Christmas ghost? In the late 19th century, the Beechwood Mansion was a luxurious mansion, frequented by the elite during the Gilded Age, so the fanciest people of the fanciest time. One Christmas Eve, a maid named Abigail was found dead in one of the grand halls. Rumors swirled that she had been pushed from the staircase by a jealous lover, though her death was officially ruled an accident. Fancy people in a fancy time rarely get prosecuted. Anyway, since that fateful night, guests and staff at the Beechwood Mansion have reported strange occurrences every Christmas season. The scent of Abigai...

  Have you ever have one of those nights where everything seems fine, and then, boom! Your best friend betrays you, people get murdered, and now you’re a ghost forever wandering the rocky shores of a forgotten island? No? Well, welcome to Smuttynose Island, where the vibes are bad, the history is worse, and everything feels like the plot of an experimental indie horror film your pretentious cousin swears is life-changing. Let’s set the stage: it’s 1873. You’re a Norwegian immigrant trying to carve out a peaceful life on a chunk of granite in the middle of the Atlantic. Smuttynose, they call it. A name that sounds suspiciously like a bad insult from a Victorian middle schooler. But hey, it’s home. And if you squint hard enough, the rocky coastlines, endless sea, and isolation are kind of charming. It’s like Little House on the Prairie, except the prairie is made of sharp rocks, and you’re way more likely to die from exposure.   The Smuttynose Murders — A Real-Life Gothic Horro...

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. I share them and you can get in on the fun by liking my page at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following me at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the haunting story! DID YOU KNOW the USS Salem is hella haunted? Commissioned in 1949 as a heavy cruiser for the U.S. Navy, the USS Salem wasn’t just any ship. It was the flagship of the Sixth Fleet which is, you know, fancy. This 717-foot-long hunk of ship patrolled the Mediterranean during the Cold War. Although the Salem never saw combat, it had its fair share of dark moments. It served as a floating hospital for victims of a devastating 1953 earthquake in Greece. Hundreds of wounded and deceased were brought aboard, beginning a spectral legacy that ghost hunters just can’t ignore. The ship was decommissioned in 1959, but its story was far from over. In 1994, it became a museum, and that’s when the weirdness began. Visi...

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. I share them and you can get in on the fun by liking my page at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following me at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the haunting story! DID YOU KNOW that Georges Island has a Civil War ghost? Yeah, so on a cold December night during the Civil War (the one where the blues fought the greys), Fort Warren on Georges Island became the setting for a tragic ghost story with some light crossdressing thrown in. The tale goes that Melanie Lanier , the wife of a Confederate soldier imprisoned there, disguised herself as a man and snuck onto the island to free her husband. Unfortunately, her plan was foiled, and she was captured. She probably stuck out as the only man who didn't smell like rat urine and sepsis.  Anyway, the legend says Melanie was sentenced to death by hanging, still wearing the black mourning dress she was forced to cha...

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. I share them and you can get in on the fun by liking my page at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following me at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the sad story! DID YOU KNOW that Ruth Blay was the last woman hanged in New Hampshire?   Say hello to Ruth Blay. She was the last woman to be hanged in New Hampshire and all she did was give birth to a stillborn child out of wedlock. There’s a lot going on here, so I’d like to talk in more detail later, but here’s a quick rundown:   Ruth Blay was a teacher and seamstress in 18th-century New Hampshire. She was born on June 10, 1737, and remained unmarried into her 30s. That would turn out to be a very bad thing for her.   She came down with a severe case of being pregnant in late 1767, which was a taboo thing for an unwed woman to do back in olde timey days. She continued to teach and carry on with her life u...

Welcome to this month’s patron exclusive post ! If you’re anything like me, you’ve already learned something new in the title, and there’s plenty more! Portsmouth, New Hampshire History Portsmouth, New Hampshire was first explored in 1603 and found to be home to a natural harbor that would allow big ships to use as well, a port. It was incorporated as a town in 1653 and given the name “Portsmouth”, but not for the reason you think. You see, it wasn’t given that name because it was a port, oh no. It was given that name in honor of the colony’s founder, John Mason. You know, John Mason, Portsmouth, makes sense, right? No? Oh yeah, that doesn’t make any sense. Wait, hold on, here it is! You see, John Mason used to be the captain of the English port of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England! Now it’s all coming together. They named the new town after his old workplace! It also turns out that ports have captains! You really do learn something new every day. Like, just yesterday, I learned that...

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. We share them weekly and you can get in on the fun by liking us at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following us at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the haunting story! Fitch Bits: The Worcester Palladium DID YOU KNOW that the Worcester Palladium is haunted AF? Yeah, it's super haunted! It was built in 1928 and was the subject of a Ghost Hunters episode. It's said that you can hear disembodied voices in certain areas of the venue. There are also reports of a glowing orb floating around. It's about the size of a soccer ball and multiple people have seen it! It's very common for a theater space to be haunted but few of them have any actual reasons to be. Not the Palladium, though! It's rumored that several dead bodies were once found in a dressing room and that pretty much guarantees some angry ghosts! Anyway, this DYK is going to be a little light on ...

Watch the video above or read it in article form, below! Okay, so this post has been a long time coming. I was originally supposed to post it back in October as part of the Atlas of the Odd series. The whole concept was to give you haunted places that you could actually visit during the Halloween season, but, needless to say, that didn’t happen. I ended up coming down with COVID and that knocked me out for a month and a half. Then I came out on the other side of that just in time for the holiday season. Then I was just lazy. Anyway, here we are again in a new year and it’s finally time to visit Route 44 in Rehoboth! This is a story that you legally have to talk about if you write about ghosts and stuff. It’s pretty much been done to death, but hopefully I can give you some new information about it, or at least make it entertaining. Let’s just say that I want this post to get a big thumb up, and not just from a hitchhiking ghost! Get it? Wow, we’re off to a terrible start. Okay, let’...