Freetown-Fall River State Forest

A 5,000-acre forest at the heart of the Bridgewater Triangle, a 200-square-mile area famous for paranormal activity. The forest has been the site of murders, Satanic cult activity, and animal sacrifices. Profile Rock, believed by Native Americans to depict Chief Massasoit, lies within.

Deep in southeastern Massachusetts lies 5,441 acres of dense woodland, rocky ledges, and murky bog that locals call the darkest corner of the Bridgewater Triangle—a 200-square-mile zone so saturated with paranormal activity that cryptozoologist Loren Coleman named it after the infamous Bermuda Triangle. Freetown-Fall River State Forest sits at its heart, and everything wrong with this region seems to concentrate here.

The Wampanoag people knew this land was different long before Europeans arrived. They called the nearby swamp "Hockomock"—"the place where spirits dwell." Profile Rock, a 50-foot granite outcropping bearing an uncanny resemblance to a human face, served as a sacred ceremonial site where ghost dancers performed rituals and the spirit world touched the physical realm. The Wampanoag believed the rock held special powers; some say it still does.

Then came King Philip's War (1675-1678), one of the bloodiest conflicts in American history relative to population. Chief Metacom—called "King Philip" by the English—made his final stand in these forests. Over 3,000 Native Americans died; Metacom himself was killed, his head displayed on a pike in Plymouth for 25 years. His people were sold into slavery. But something else was lost: the Wampum Belt, a sacred shell-bead relic representing Wampanoag identity and heritage. According to legend, the belt's theft cursed this land. Descendants believe the forest will never know peace until the belt is returned.

The curse, if that's what it is, has manifested in ways both supernatural and horrifyingly human.

In 1978, 15-year-old cheerleader Mary Lou Arruda was kidnapped while biking near the forest. Her body was found two months later, tied to a tree deep in the woods. She had been strangled the same day she disappeared. James M. Kater was eventually convicted after tire track evidence linked him to the crime—but for locals, the forest itself seemed complicit.

The 1980s brought something darker. Police began receiving reports of Satanic activity—cult members gathering in clearings for blood rituals. The investigations would connect to the "Fall River Cult Killings," which claimed three victims. Throughout the decade, animal mutilations appeared with disturbing regularity: a butchered cow in 1998, mutilated calves arranged in what appeared to be ritualistic patterns. A "torture bunker" was reportedly discovered. Other murders followed—two men shot on Bell Rock Road, a homeless man found dead in 1987. In 2016, razor wire was strung across biking paths, as if something in the forest wanted to keep people out.

But the human horrors pale against what defies explanation.

The Assonet Ledge—"The Ledge"—is an 80-foot granite quarry overlooking a dark, still pond. Visitors describe an overwhelming, irrational dread when approaching. Some feel a sudden urge to jump. In 2004, someone did—a person with no documented history of suicidal thoughts. Rangers report seeing apparitions leap from the cliff, only to vanish before hitting the water. Glowing spheres drift across the pond's surface. A woman in white—the "Lady of the Ledge," supposedly a girl who jumped after romantic rejection—wanders the rim. Dark figures of Native warriors stand silently among the trees.

UFO sightings have been documented here since the 1700s. In 1974, then-Governor Ronald Reagan reported strange lights tailing his Cessna as it flew over The Ledge with Air Force Colonel Bill Paynter at the controls. The lights displayed apparent intelligence, changing direction when the plane did.

Witnesses report giant serpents slithering through the underbrush, black panthers with hellish red eyes, Bigfoot-like creatures, and Thunderbirds—prehistoric bird-like entities that shouldn't exist. Shadow people move between trees at the edge of vision.

But the most persistent entities are the Pukwudgies—three-foot humanoids from Wampanoag folklore that the tribe considers dangerous tricksters. They push hikers off trails, blind victims with thrown sand, and lure travelers to their deaths. Park rangers have heard reports for decades; some claim to have seen them themselves.

At Profile Rock, visitors still report seeing the ghost of Chief Massasoit sitting cross-legged with arms outstretched, either blessing or cursing his surroundings. Phantom drums echo through the forest at night. Spectral fires flicker in clearings where no fire burns. Ghostly laughter rises from empty trails.

The Bridgewater Triangle earned a 2013 documentary exploring its concentrated paranormal activity. But Freetown State Forest remains its darkest node—5,441 acres of cursed land where Native American spirits, cult violence, unexplained creatures, and UFOs converge in a place the Wampanoag always knew was haunted. They named it after spirits for a reason. Modern visitors are only now learning what the first people always understood: some places don't want us here.