Dudleytown, Connecticut

Dudleytown, also known as Owlsbury, is an extinct settlement in Connecticut. A remote extension to the town of Cornwall, it is best known for its "haunted" forest.

Cornwall, Connecticut

Cornwall itself was never a large settlement, but was inhabited by farmers, millers, blacksmiths and other itinerant workers. Current records show initial settlement at Cornwall to have begun in 1738 by Thomas Griffis, with the incorporation of the surrounding farming community in 1740. All that now remains of this early settlement known as Dudleytown (located at an elevation of nearly 1500 feet) are some foundations, cellarholes and remnants of buildings erected over a century after the founders' initial log cabin was established.

Despite the difficult landscape, Griffis soon had neighbors who began to clear the land and to build additional homesteads and stone walls from the abundant traprock found in the area. Two of these neighbors were Abiel and Barzillai Dudley. Abiel is recorded as having bought more land in Cornwall on December 31, 1748.

That there were Dudleys in Cornwall before 1750 is clear, as Abiel was included in the tax list of 1744, and by 1748 Gideon Dudley had been recognized as a taxpayer. On January 2, 1749 Gideon Dudley was born in Cornwall, the son of Gideon. Abiel Dudley later acquired additional land in Cornwall on October 23, 1753. Joseph Dudley, another son of Gideon, was born in 1755. Barzillai Dudley married Sarah Carter on March 6, 1750 in Cornwall and they raised two children, Sibe and Sarah, born in 1750 and 1752, respectively.

Barzillai Dudley is listed in Captain Lyman's Company during the French and Indian War for 14 days in 1757 and is again recorded in the 1758 Cornwall tax records. He seems to have left the area soon afterwards, as no further tax records for him are listed. Along with other early arrivals (the population never exceeded 100), the Dudleys cleared the land, planted buckwheat, hunted deer for the winter store and established their farms on the rough upland plain. Small streams were dammed to supply power for at least three mills, but Dudleytown remained fairly isolated. Ice Age glaciers had removed most of the topsoil from the Dudleytown plateau, leaving an abundance of glacial rock and granite ledges; evidence of this can be seen in the maze of stone walls bounding farm lots, roadways, bridges, fords, and sluiceways. Abiel Dudley's property was sold to the township in 1771 and Gideon was recorded in the Cornwall tax records for the last time in 1773. He departed the area shortly afterwards, abandoning 30 years of work. By 1766, his sons Gideon and Joseph had died, after their mother, Elisabeth Dudley, in 1765. A plague (probably smallpox) reached Cornwall and Dudleytown during 1774. The cause of this outbreak is not known, but is important in the context of the numerous infant deaths recorded in the small community over the previous decade. Abiel Dudley did survive, to die of old age in November 1799.

Of the various plagues that affected 18th century North America, perhaps none were more devastating than the smallpox outbreaks of 1775 to 1782. An appearance of yellow fever occurred in the United States during 1702. Thirty-five further outbreaks were recorded from this initial event until 1800, with almost annual recurrences between 1800 and 1879.

Dudleytown was poorly planned as a farming community because the area was unsuitable for agriculture due to its location. Shadowed by three mountains (Woodbury, Coltsfoot and Bald) the area receives scant sunlight regardless of the sun's location. However, given the abundance of trees, the area was suited for the manufacturing of charcoal, a fundamental constituent in iron working.

The dense tree cover was readily available to be felled. Eastern white pine, oak, and native chestnut, as well as other native trees were used to build houses at first. Later the houses would be made of stone, while wood was used to make charcoal for the nearby iron works.

Dudleytown in decline

For a hundred years Dudleytown struggled, despite the hard work and versatile skills of the families who lived there over a single generation. During the latter part of the 18th Century, few prospered from the booming iron industry centered around the "great furnace" on nearby Mt. Riga having stripped the mountainside of most every tree which further eroded the already taxed land. By 1800, Dudleytown had developed sufficiently to possess its own town hall and meeting house. Improved access followed, by way of Dudleytown and Dark Entry Roads, to accommodate the heavy traffic of horses and riders into the town proper of Cornwall Bridge where the school, church, local cemetery and general store were located at the bottom of the mountainside. Even with these improved roads, the low birthrate of the families and the arrival of many different epidemics (like small pox and yellow fever) in the tiny Dudleytown settlement never raised the population in excess of one hundred people (not exceeding twenty-six families at the populous-peak).

During the American Civil War, almost every Dudleytown family augmented its farming pursuits by cutting and burning wood for charcoal to stoke the numerous furnaces in the area. Some families even operated their own backyard smelters, fed by locally mined ore, heated with local "wood-coal".

Eventually, the community declined due to a number of factors. Once the trees were gone, the spring and summer rains and the run-off from winter snow soon washed away much of Dudleytown’s soil making crop growth poor to non-existent. There was a general reduction in local industry (mostly timber and iron based) due to the advent of modern techniques like the Bessemer process for making steel in the late 1800s. The opening of great expanses of farmland in the American West, combined with improved means of transport to distant markets, enticed farmers to seek locations with better prospects. By the time the "chestnut blight" hit Connecticut in the early 1900’s, there were few if any permanent residents in Dudleytown. Letters from other states written by the adult children of Dudleytown residents are evident as they implored their parents to move away from the settlement which offered no viable prospects for a good lifestyle.

With no new families moving in to occupy the abandoned homesteads, the houses that had stood for a hundred years crumbled. Their massive hand-cut beams collapsed and decayed beneath protective blankets of wild tiger lilies. Brush and vine now reduced Dark Entry and Dudleytown Roads to little more than tangled trails shrouded in a permanent gloom.

Haunted reputation

In addition to the economic factors in its decline, Dudleytown developed a reputation as a haunted place. Tales of several suicides, mass hysteria, ghost sightings, and demonic contacts have been mistakenly attributed to the small settlement of Dudleytown, leading to many modern-day rumors. In a 1993 interview in "Playboy Magazine", comedian Dan Aykroyd claimed that Dudleytown, "Massachusetts" was "the scariest place on Earth". Dudleytown is actually located in Connecticut. While it has been speculated that the fear generated by such legends contributed greatly to the decline of Dudleytown, the town's ultimate demise more likely occurred due to poor choices of location by its original founders. The settlement, in addition to being sequestered from the town proper in a difficult-to-reach area, and having very poor soil for crop-growth, lay in the shadows of three mountain peaks which minimized its exposure to sunlight, hence the name of its largest avenue, Dark Entry Forest Road.

The "Curse of Dudleytown" is said to have been begun in the 1940s, but in actuality has its origins in 1938 with the publication of a book by Iveagh Hunt Sterry and William Garrigus entitled "They Found A Way: Connecticut's Restless People". The book's authors allude to the Dudleytown curse and refer to many of these myths and legends as historical fact. From the Connecticut Heritage: "Sterry, Iveagh H., and Garrigus, William H. They Found a Way: Connecticut’s Restless People. Brattleboro, 1938. This is the sort of popular history that should be kept out of the hands of children and unwary adults. It is full of legend and long-exposed myths put out as though they were true. One would do much better with Peals, Lee, or Roth." The curse was revived in a 1970s "National Enquirer" article whose headline proclaimed, "Deadly Curse Turned New England Village Into A Ghost Town!". The uncredited article caught the attention of The Warrens of Connecticut, who proceeded to shoot a Halloween special on the paranormal at the site of the former settlement. After proclaiming that Dudleytown was "demonically possessed", paranormal groups and amateur ghost hunters from all over the world began to descend on the small Connecticut town of Cornwall. The "curse" allegedly had its beginnings in England where the court of King George II took action against the Barons Dudley for supposed malfeasance against the crown. Their father was supposedly descended from these Dudleys who had fled England in the 1700s to escape accusations of high treason. The Dudley family was said to be cursed for its political opposition to the king. However, the Dudleys of Dudleytown appear to have no genealogical descent from the Barons Dudley of England. According to the actual town records of Cornwall, no murders or suicides ever took place in Dudleytown. As for the ghostly sightings and demonic activity, no town records of such occurrences exist to support such claims.

Due to its "haunted" reputation, the area has attracted many ghost hunters, as well as adolescents willing to cause trouble. In the late 1990s, vandals visiting the area committed arson, resulting in a large forest fire that threatened many of the private residences on the property. Following this episode, the Dark Entry Forest Association (which owns the property that includes the site of the former settlement) closed the area down to unauthorized visitors to protect the assets of the community. Still, multiple arrests are made every year, prompting the DEF to continue to keep the area off limits to visitors.

In 2006, Red Barn Films, a small production company in Massachusetts initiated an investigation into the "Curse" and the reported paranormal phenomena in Dudleytown, as the basis for a feature film. The film is planned for 2009.

Warning

Dudleytown is located on private property. It is not open to the public. The land it rests on is owned by the private interest, "Dark Entry Forest Association" and is posted thoroughly with "no trespassing" and "no parking" signs on all roadways leading into the area. Residents on the two closest entry roads are known to take the registration numbers of non-local vehicles and call the police. The state police vigorously enforce these injunctions.

Those seeking admittance through the Dark Entry Forest Association should be prepared for an almost immediate rejection since trustees in this association allow no one except residents and families of residents to enter the land. A direct descendent to the Barons Dudley, Reverend Gary P. Dudley, of Texas, was granted permission to enter the land after its closure because of his unique link to the legend of Dudleytown. He found that, following an ardurous hike and few ruins, only stone foundations, overgrown cellarholes, and stone fences remain as proof of this enigmatic settlement.

While Dudleytown proper is located neither on state property nor in a state forest, it is directly adjacent to a blue blazed public hiking trail accessible from a trailhead at the end of South Dark Entry Rd. with the closest inconspicuous parking available along US 7 in Cornwall Bridge. For those wishing to disintermediate the local authority the Dudleytown site can be most easily accessed by turning off the blue blazed trail onto Dark Entry road at the point where they cross about 1500 feet west of Dudleytown. Dark Entry Road was designed as a carriage path, and was never paved or modernized. In disuse since the early 20th century, it is traversable only by foot or specially equipped vehicle, but provides a much faster alternative to the trail which negotiates a rough, albeit scenic route along a stream.

External links

* http://www.redbarnfilms.com The Dudleytown Curse - the 49th Key - movie - in the works
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GybjGVRs7s4 - A YouTube clip about Dudleytown Curse - the 49th Key - history
* [http://www.legendofdudleytown.com/front.html Legend of Dudleytown web site by Gary Dudley]
* [http://www.tangledforest.com/tangledf/dudleyhistx.html The Tangled Forest page on Dudleytown]
* [http://www.prairieghosts.com/dudleytown.html Prairieghosts.com page on Dudleytown]
* [http://www.ghostvillage.com/legends/dudleytown.htm Ghostvillage.com page on Dudleytown]
* [http://pages.cthome.net/rwinkler/dudleytown.htm Writer Robert Winkler investigates Dudleytown]
* [http://drazor1.tripod.com/id25.html Complete Dudleytown History by Creepy Connecticut]