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.
Hotels, theatres, prisons and back roads with a reputation.
Woodbury, CT
Connecticut's long-running Curtis House Inn now operates as the 1754 House, but its old ghost stories have not disappeared with the name change. Reports attached to the historic property include apparitions, footsteps, voices and unexplained music. It remains an active inn and restaurant rather than an abandoned location.
Mystic, CT
A 1756 waterfront building now operates as a restaurant and pub while preserving centuries of Mystic history. Local haunting stories include a young girl on the staircase and other unexplained activity, making it an unusually easy paranormal stop where visitors can simply book a meal.
Preston, CT
This operating eighteenth-century inn openly embraces its reputation as one of Connecticut's haunted lodgings. Guests and investigators have reported apparitions, knocking, moving objects and activity associated with the Adelaide Room, while old cemeteries immediately around the property deepen the atmosphere.
Danbury, CT
Danbury became the center of national attention during the 1981 murder trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, whose defense attempted to argue that demonic possession played a role in the killing. The court rejected possession as a legal defense, but the case became one of Connecticut's most famous intersections of true crime and paranormal belief.
Naugatuck, CT
This small cemetery dates to around 1790 and is one of Connecticut's better-known local haunting sites. Stories include a black ghost dog, a lantern-carrying man, a child near the back wall and unexplained music. Treat the reports as folklore and visit respectfully during permitted cemetery hours.
Groton, CT
The unusual brick lighthouse at the mouth of the Thames River is famous for a resident ghost nicknamed Ernie, traditionally described as a former keeper. The New London Maritime Society owns the light, and public access is available on selected boat tours rather than by road.
Real events too strange to have made the textbook.
Stafford Springs, CT
A recovered steel beam from the World Trade Center stands outside the West Stafford Fire Department. The memorial particularly honors two local residents who were crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 175.
Waterbury, CT
Tiny stone houses, miniature stairways and a strange little throne sit nearly swallowed by the woods beside an old service road. Local stories have connected the handmade ruins with fairies or elves, although their actual origin is much more earthly. Reach the area only by lawful public access and do not park on Old Waterbury Road.
Hartford, CT
Hartford's oldest surviving cemetery holds generations of the city's earliest residents in an increasingly compressed downtown landscape. Thousands were buried here, sometimes in layered graves, while later city development transformed the land around the burial ground.
New Haven, CT
The former Knights of Columbus Museum now centers on the life of founder Michael McGivney while retaining exhibits on the Catholic fraternal organization's history and religious material culture. It is a specialized museum in an unexpectedly monumental downtown building.
Norwich, CT
A distinctive blue-green bronze woman watches over a grave in Yantic Cemetery. The statue has inspired local stories about who she represents and what she once held, and after being stolen in 2010 she was recovered and returned to the cemetery.
Winsted, CT
Winsted's 1890 Soldiers' Monument looks less like a conventional obelisk and more like a small Gothic castle tower, complete with a soldier standing on its parapet. The hilltop structure overlooks town and opens for interior tours only on selected commemorative days.
Small, specific collections run by people who care far too much.
Goshen, CT
Beyond the live-animal park, Action Wildlife maintains a museum filled with mounted animals and natural-history displays. The unusual concentration of taxidermy makes it a distinct stop within the larger wildlife property; current park admission includes museum access.
Bristol, CT
Hundreds of American clocks and watches trace Connecticut's outsized role in mass-produced timekeeping. Rooms filled with ticking mechanisms, novelty clocks and elaborate cases make this specialized museum much stranger than its quiet historic-house exterior suggests.
Winsted, CT
Founded by Ralph Nader, this museum is devoted to civil wrongs, product-liability cases and the lawsuits that changed American consumer safety. Exhibits turn famous cases involving automobiles, dangerous products and corporate negligence into an unexpectedly strange museum subject.
Storrs, CT
More than 2,500 puppets from different cultures and theatrical traditions make up this University of Connecticut collection. Changing exhibitions range from folk puppetry to highly experimental creations, making it one of the state's stranger specialized museums.
Cheshire, CT
Tens of thousands of character toys, lunchboxes, figures, advertising pieces and cartoon collectibles crowd this family-run museum. The collection spans generations of American pop culture and has the dense, slightly overwhelming feel of a giant toy attic.
Hartford, CT
The Connecticut Museum of Culture and History holds an exceptional collection of early American tavern signs painted with animals, symbols, portraits and sometimes bizarre imagery meant to attract travelers who could not necessarily read. Display availability can rotate with exhibitions.
Giant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
Mystic, CT
Hundreds of forks, knives and spoons were welded into an 18-foot upright striped bass outside S&P Oyster Restaurant. The fish was created in 2022 using utensils supplied by the restaurant itself.
Hartford, CT
Museum director A. Everett 'Chick' Austin designed this 1930s home to resemble a grand European villa, but much of the impressive facade conceals a house only one room deep. The theatrical architecture fits its famously eccentric former owner; interior access is by scheduled museum programming.
Norwich, CT
A giant cowboy Muffler Man has been part of Norwich since the 1960s and has watched over the West Main Street shopping area for decades. Big Bob wears a cowboy hat and holds an American flag, preserving a classic piece of fiberglass roadside culture.
Niantic, CT
Hundreds of thousands of used books are scattered through buildings, sheds and themed corners at this sprawling book compound. Cats, goats, strange decorations and sections with names such as Hades and The Haunted make it feel more like a literary scavenger hunt than a normal bookstore.
Stratford, CT
The eccentric Boothe brothers filled their property with unusual structures and collections, many of which survive in today's public park. Highlights include a miniature lighthouse, an old tollbooth, a blacksmith shop with dozens of sides and the wonderfully strange Technocratic Cathedral.
West Hartford, CT
Conny was once a walk-through, life-size sperm-whale sculpture outside the Children's Museum. When the museum moved, the enormous whale was cut apart; its surviving tail was reinstalled beside the Trout Brook Trail as an intentionally strange remnant of the original landmark.
