Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Stories a place tells about itself, passed down and still repeated.
New Haven, CT
Yale's extraordinary rare-book library is home to the Voynich Manuscript, the famously undeciphered illustrated codex whose strange script has resisted generations of researchers. The original manuscript is not normally on public display, but the library itself is open to visitors and keeps a facsimile available.
Milford, CT
Charles Island is wrapped in stories of curses, buried treasure and an alleged Captain Kidd connection. At low tide a sandbar can appear to connect it with shore, but currents and rapidly changing tides make crossing dangerous, and seasonal wildlife closures prohibit access during nesting periods.
East Haddam, CT
Chapman Falls tumbles over bedrock pocked with near-cylindrical holes. Early folklore claimed the Devil made those holes with his burning hooves after getting his tail wet, while geology explains them as potholes ground out by stones spinning in river eddies. The state park is open daily.
New Haven, CT
Mary E. Hart's grave carries an ominous inscription that helped inspire one of New Haven's best-known cemetery legends. Later stories claimed she was buried alive and now punishes anyone who visits after midnight, although the dramatic tale is folklore rather than documented history.
Seymour, CT
Great Hill Cemetery is better known in local ghost lore as Hookman's Cemetery. The legend tells of a hook-handed caretaker whose spirit supposedly scraped the roofs of cars parked near a particular tree. The tale is folklore; the cemetery remains an active burial place and should be treated accordingly.
Meriden, CT
The Hanging Hills around Hubbard Park are home to the legend of a small black dog whose appearances supposedly grow increasingly ominous: seeing it once brings joy, twice brings sorrow and a third sighting foretells death. The story is folklore, but it has been repeated for generations.
Griswold, CT
After tuberculosis killed multiple members of the Ray family, frightened relatives exhumed corpses in the 1850s and burned remains in an attempt to stop what they believed was a vampire-like curse. The episode belongs to a documented New England tradition in which disease was blamed on the restless dead.
Danbury, CT
After comedian John Oliver mocked Danbury on television, the mayor jokingly threatened to name the city's sewage plant after him — and the city ultimately followed through. A sign now officially identifies the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant, turning a municipal facility into a comedy landmark.
Moodus, CT
For generations the area was famous for mysterious subterranean booms and rumblings remembered in Indigenous traditions and later colonial folklore. Geologists eventually linked the 'Moodus Noises' to shallow microearthquakes, giving the park a rare combination of genuine geology and centuries of strange stories.
New Hartford, CT
Despite the ominous name, Satan's Kingdom is now a popular river recreation area. Competing stories have tried to explain the name through rough terrain, outlaw hideouts and local folklore, giving an otherwise scenic park one of Connecticut's best place names.
Hamden, CT
The long ridge resembles a giant figure lying on its back and is tied to Indigenous traditions involving the giant spirit Hobbomock. A stone observation tower built in the 1930s stands at the end of one of the park's best-known hikes.
Sterling, CT
Stop on Main Street, just before Snake Meadow Hill Road, put the car in neutral, and it appears to roll uphill. The slope is an illusion — the surrounding land hides the true horizon, so a gentle descent reads as a climb — which has never once stopped anyone trying it with a bottle of water. A public road, so pull over sensibly and watch for traffic.
Watertown, CT
One of the caves associated with the mysterious nineteenth-century wanderer known only as the Old Leatherman sits along his former Connecticut circuit. Dressed almost entirely in handmade leather, he repeatedly walked a roughly 365-mile route through Connecticut and New York while refusing to reveal much about himself.
Willimantic, CT
Four enormous bronze frogs perch on equally enormous thread spools at the corners of this bridge. The sculptures combine Willimantic's textile history with the famous 1750s 'Battle of the Frogs,' when mysterious nighttime noises terrified residents before being traced to masses of frogs.
