I first heard about “Dudleytown,” the notorious ghost town near Cornwall, Connecticut, when I was sixteen. The dark legends surrounding the area were titillating. Wild tales of demonic activity, poltergeists, pitiful ghosts, and unexplained phenomenon are the order of the day in Dudleytown. The findings from paranormal research incited my interest to little less than a voracious frenzy. I am not alone; Dudleytown is one of the most well known places of purported supernatural activity in New England, if not on the Eastern seaboard. Even actor Dan Ackroyd labeled Dudleytown “the scariest place on earth.”

The sinister tale of Dudleytown begins in England in the 16th century. Though the Dudley family goes back as far as Saxon times, the first major recorded “disaster” in the family’s history involves the beheading of a family member accused of treachery against King Henry VIII. It was then the Dudley family was reputedly tragically cursed, the origins of which are speculatively considered to be part of the punishment for treason. Many members of the family met their end via beheadings, until William Dudley of Surrey, England left for America—for a fresh start, perhaps, or for salvation from the curse that so plagued his family.

Alas, such salvation was not to be found in America. At least, not whilst people like Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts sometime during the late 17th century/early 18th century, were further darkening the family name. Whilst governor, Thomas Dudley instated a particularly vicious breed of religious persecution which helped to lay the foundation for the witch trial frenzy in the state.

Three Dudley brothers—Gideon, Abiel and Barzillai, great-grandchildren of William from England, settled upon the land ominously named “Dark Entry Forest,” by the year 1753. To say that the location of Dudleytown is an odd one for a settlement is an understatement. Flanked by three mountains, in the strangling thick of a dark forest, the rocky land wasn’t at all conducive to farming, or a generally decent quality of life. Nevertheless the little settlement experienced a sort of renaissance, with more members of the Dudley family relocating there, despite the dismal surroundings. Part of Cornwall, and not actually a town unto itself, Dudleytown received its name because of the surname of most of its occupants.

One would think the odds against survival in such a harsh area, with farming virtually impossible, would be enough to explain the gradual demise of Dudleytown. But, the violent nature of the happenings in the settlement lead to the belief that other more evil, perhaps even paranormal forces were at work.

From Wikipedia.org

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 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 in 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 Ackroyd 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 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.

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, Inc." and is posted thoroughly with "no trespassing" and "no parking" signs on all roadways leading into the area. The state police vigorously enforce these injunctions. Dudleytown is not located on state property nor in a state forest.

• Legend of Dudleytown web site by Gary Dudley
• The Tangled Forest page on Dudleytown
• Prairieghosts.com page on Dudleytown
• Ghostvillage.com page on Dudleytown
• Writer Robert Winkler investigates Dudleytown
• Complete Dudleytown History by Creepy Connecticut
• http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8444045909 Dudleytown Facebook Group

• Dudleytown, Connecticut is at coordinates 41°48′29″N 73°21′23″W / 41.8080589, -73.3563323Coordinates: 41°48′29″N 73°21′23″W / 41.8080589, -73.3563323

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