Tag Archives: ufo

The Infamous Bridgewater Triangle

Text: “A super popular legend in Massachusetts is the story of the Bridgewater Triangle which is like an area in southeastern Massachusetts that is supposedly haunted by ghosts, UFOs, and other paranormal phenomena. According to legend, the Bridgewater Triangle is a hub of supernatural activity, with many people claiming to have witnessed strange occurrences in the area. These include sightings of Bigfoot-like creatures, mysterious orbs of light, and ghostly apparitions. The Hockomock Swamp, which is located within the Bridgewater Triangle, is said to be a particularly active area for paranormal activity and I personally heard a story about a ufo with a bunch of flashing lights being seen there, but I have also heard about people saying they’ve seen bigfoots or like giant snakes there. Its basically this huge area where a ton of weird unexplainable stuff happens.”

Context: CW is a very close friend of mine and it was clear to me from the very beginning of this story that he did not really believe in the supernatural sightings within the Bridgewater triangle, but he still said this legend was very very common in Massachusetts. He recalls first being told about it by his friend in middle school, but that when he was first told about it, his friend blew it out of proportion, saying that the ghosts of several random famous people have been seen there having parties or that aliens often go there to just casually hangout. This led to a good laugh and it also helped explain why he was altogether unphased by the supposed supernatural nature of this area close to his home. We looked up if any of the supposed sightings could be backed by evidence and while we found some very blurry pictures it was certainly not enough to “prove” anything.

Analysis: I found this to be one of the more enjoyable legends I have been told about particularly because it leaves a lot up to the person hearing the story’s imagination. It seems that it does not necessarily matter what supernatural activity occurs in the Bridgewater Triangle, it is more important just to believe that something supernatural might be happening there in general. The legend has supposedly gained a large following among paranormal enthusiasts and has been the subject of numerous books, movies, and TV shows. Additionally, many people who live in the area have reported experiencing strange occurrences and believe in the supernatural happenings that are said to occur in the Bridgewater Triangle. This legend exists because of the numerous reports of paranormal activity and strange occurrences that have been reported in the area. The stories of this particular area have been passed down from generation to generation, and many people believe in the supernatural happenings that are said to occur there. This leads me to believe that it s primarily passed down through word of mouth. People who have experienced strange occurrences in the area share their stories with others, who then pass them on to their friends and family. Like in the case of CW, who heard the legend from his close friend. I also enjoy the fact that this particular legend can have many different effects on a person or group depending on what they believe in. Because of the lack of concrete or credible evidence, this falls nicely into the category of legend because of how much people do truly believe in the supernatural activity of this area, even though it is yet to be proven.

UFO Navy

So, my teacher is the like tech guy at school, and told me about a time when he was in the navy and they were on their battleship and they saw some weird, like…light, and it came down above the ship and stopped, like a big ball of light. And it like stopped over the ship and went around a little bit, and then it disappeared. Um…and so he talked about that a lot. And he and the whole boat saw it. 

We were hiking, and just like telling stories while we were walking and he brought that up. He definitely seemed to think it was a UFO…um…or something like that. I have heard that theres a similar like phenomenon called ball lighting or something like that so I would imagine it was that, but I wouldn’t imagine it would like stop above a ship….so…..thats weird. 

This is a fairly typical UFO sighting story. The informant believes it to be an explanation for a natural phenomenon, whereas the original storyteller believes it to be a UFO or alien spacecraft.

For more examples of UFO narratives see Bartholomew, Robert E. “From Airships to Flying Saucers: Oregon’s Place in the Evolution of UFO Lore.” Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol. 101, no. 2, 2000, pp. 192–213. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20615052. Accessed 13 May 2021.

Blue Mountain Flying Saucers

Informant: Grandma Johnson once saw a flying saucer. Yes, she saw it—saw it hover, and then it landed in a field by her house. And when she went to go look at it, there was a—a burnt place, in the field. A burnt area.

Me: Did anyone else see it?

Informant: Not that one, no. Grandma Johnson saw that one. But one of the other families in town—their two little girls, they saw a flying saucer land near their house. And they wanted to go out and look, too—to investigate—but their parents, oh, they wouldn’t let them. They were hysterical! They wouldn’t even let them outside, they were so worried they’d go looking.

The informant (my grandmother) was born in Missouri and has lived in Berkeley, CA for close to sixty years. She has always been a remarkably hard worker; she was raised by her uncle on his farm, where she more than carried her own weight, and, after completing four years at Penn State (where she was the only female Chemistry major at the time), she insisted on paying her uncle back every dime of her tuition. The informant moved out to California, went to graduate school at Mills College, and became a nutritionist working with nursing homes and other care facilities to develop standards for feeding different types of patients. After having two sons, the informant became the President of the Parents Association for the Head-Royce School in Oakland, CA and remained an active member of the Claremont Book Club.

“Grandma Johnson” is the informant’s mother (born and buried in Blue Mountain, Missouri, despite having moved to Berkeley, CA for several years to be cared for by the informant), so the date of this flying saucer viewing would have occurred a little fewer than one hundred years prior to 2015, the date of the collection. Today, a Google search of Blue Mountain, Missouri yields one major result—the Blue Mountain Methodist Camp. The area, the informant says, has not changed too much; the landscape is still predominately rural, low to lower middle class, and religious.

UFO and flying saucer sightings tend to occur in regions of America (specifically America; the United States has an undeniable fascination with extraterrestrials) where there is less light pollution and a lot more open space (a flying saucer landing in a city would cause innumerable damage, but a landing in, say, a corn field, might be more discreet). The informant delivered her mother’s encounter with a flying saucer to me in a way which I believe indicates that the informant, too, believes in extraterrestrial contact with Earth.

UFO Sighting

Both my mother and sister claim to have witnessed a UFO several years ago while driving home from a Target store which is only about a mile from my house in Marietta, Georgia.  It was late and dark outside.  Through the front window, my mother saw a pair of white lights approaching the intersection outside of the Target.  She recalled that the object, which she definitely believed was a craft, was extremely low in the sky – she said maybe the height of a telephone pole.  She could make out a boomerang shape as it moved overhead, where to her amazement, it hovered in absolute silence.
While my mother will admit being uncertain as to the craft’s identity, she suggested that it was some form of secret military technology; in particular she indicated that the craft she saw resembled the stealth fighter she had seen in photographs.  This is one popular interpretation of unidentified flying objects, and it is a viable explanation for many such sightings, perhaps including this one.  Together with this idea of futuristic military (human) technology, it seems the idea of super-advanced alien technology forms the overwhelming majority of the public sentiment on the subject of UFO’s throughout the US and most of the free world.  Though many UFO witnesses (and many who hear second hand) ascribe a spiritual nature to their experience, these interpretations and others are far outnumbered by those that focus on the future and progress of the human race.  While my mother does not believe in aliens and simply gave an honest account of what she witnessed, people of other cultures would probably have provided vastly different explanations.