Dudley Town, in Cornwall, Connecticut

Cornwall, Connecticut

Cornwall is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,434 at the 2000 census.In 1939 poet Mark Van Doren wrote "The Hills of Little Cornwall", a short poem in which the beauties of the countryside were portrayed as seductive:The town was also home to the Foreign...

, otherwise known as the Village of the Damned is a ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

, founded as a small settlement in the mid-1740s.

History

The town was founded in the mid-1740s by a family of woodcutters known as the Dudleys. The town quickly flourished and was well established with schools, a blacksmiths and a church. Between that time and the 1900s, there were reported strange sightings, murders and suicides in the town. In 1774, six settlers contracted cholera and a founding member of the Dudley family went mad. In 1792 a woman was murdered and in 1804 another was struck by lightning. Many newer settlers believed the founding family were cursed and by the 1850s they had fled.

Legend states that the founders of the town were cursed by the British Royal Family

British Royal Family

The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...

, as their ancestor was beheaded for having tried to usurp the crown. However, contemporary researchers have noted that the town was built far from a source of clean water, and with land that was not suited to cultivation; and that this probably had a large impact on the town's demise. It has been suggested that the town succumbed to mass hysteria, and that was the cause of many deaths. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the groundwater is contamined with lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

, which could also offer an explanation for the number of deaths.

In 1892, John Brophy attempted to set up his residence in the town and moved there with a flock of sheep and his wife. Both the sheep and his wife died of unknown causes within the subsequent months. In the 1920s Dr William C Clark set up his summer home in the ghost town, only to have his wife commit suicide soon after. She had complained to him of seeing demons before her death.

Contemporary sightings

Footage has purportedly been captured of restless spirits in the area and hikers have reported seeing orbs in the area. Visitors claim that the area is unusually quiet and without wildlife.

The town's abandonment has meant that barely any ruins stand. The land on which it used to stand is now in private ownership and visitors are not allowed; fan sites state that trespassers have been arrested for trying to visit the ruins.