In Episode 461, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger hike through Bolton Notch State Park in Connecticut to search for the haunted Squaw Cave. The story goes that back in the early 1600s, a Podunk maiden fell in love with a Dutch fur trapper. Their forbidden love was against Puritan law and led to a tragic end.
BECOME A LEGENDARY PATRON:
https://www.patreon.com/NewEnglandLegends
CREDITS:
Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST FOR FREE:
Apple Podcasts/iTunes | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Podcasts | TuneIn | iHeartRadio
JOIN OUR SUPER-SECRET:
New England Legends Facebook Group
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[DRIVING IN CAR]
JEFF: We’re driving down Route 44 in Bolton, Connecticut.
RAY: We are.
JEFF: And we’ll bang a right up here onto Notch Road.
[BLINKAH]
RAY: Got it.
JEFF: And we can pull in right over here on the right in that small parking area.
RAY: Okay.
[CAR STOPS/DOORS OPEN AND CLOSE]
RAY: Cool. This looks like an old stone quarry.
JEFF: And it is!
RAY: You can still see where workers were chiseling away at the rock on the far side of the lot.
JEFF: For a while this area was known as Quarryville for obvious reasons.
RAY: I’m guessing the quarry was a big industry in Bolton for a while.
JEFF: It was. This is where our adventure begins, Ray. We’ve come to Bolton Notch State Park to hike up into the woods to search for… a haunted cave.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger. Welcome to Episode 461 of the New England Legends podcast.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Thanks for riding along with us as we chronicle every wicked strange legend in New England one story at a time. From ghosts to monsters, UFOs, aliens, roadside oddities, eccentrics, and the just plain weird, we love it all. And we can’t do it without you! We love when you reach out to us with your story leads.
JEFF: That we do. We’ll go searching for the ghost of Bolton Notch in Connecticut, right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
RAY: So we’re standing in a former stone quarry in Bolton, Connecticut. We’re about 12 miles due east of the capital city of Hartford, but it’s pretty woodsy out here. You wouldn’t know we’re that close to a major city.
JEFF: Yeah, it feels more remote. To hike up the hill, we have to pass through this tunnel leading under Route 44.
[CARS DRIVING BY]
RAY: Yeah, that’s a little freaky with the busy road above our heads.
JEFF: Definitely. But we just have to pass through and then it’s all woods.
[HIKING IN WOODS]
RAY: Bolton was incorporated as a town in 1720. It used to be called Hartford Mountains, and also had the name Hanover for a little while. But long before the town was chartered in the Connecticut colony, this notch area was once the divide between the Podunk people and the Mohegans. The Podunks hunted lands west of the Connecticut River. And the Mohegans had the lands north and east of here. The Native American word for this area translates to “land or place of hard rock.”
JEFF: Which makes sense given the quarries. Being land at the boundary between two groups, there’s bound to be some tension over who is hunting on whose land. That will happen whenever two groups share a boundary. But then you add in a third group, and things can get ugly.
RAY: Who was the third group?
JEFF: That would be the colonists who began arriving in the first half of the 1600s.
RAY: Right. Them.
JEFF: So, when we were driving on I-384, we saw an outcrop of rocks covered in graffiti halfway up the hill.
RAY: I remember seeing that.
JEFF: That’s where we’re headed now. It’s here in the eastern section of the park. (BEAT) That’s it right up ahead.
RAY: This is the haunted cave?
JEFF: It is. It’s known as Squaw Cave. Shall we step inside?
RAY: Wow! This is a real cave.
JEFF: Right?
RAY: It’s not huge. Maybe 20 feet deep or so, maybe 6 feet wide. But it’s enough to give you shelter.
JEFF: It may not be that large, but it does have a haunted reputation. To find out why, let’s head back to the year 1633.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s September of 1633 here in central Connecticut. Connecticut is an Algonquin word that means “beside the long tidal river.” King Charles I sits on the throne in England. He’s got his eye on the new colonies popping up in the Americas. But so too do the Dutch. Dutch traders have been coming to this region since the year 1613, but recently, they completed construction of a new base of operations called Fort of Good Hope nearby. So the Dutch are actively trading with the local tribes.
JEFF: One of those Dutch traders is Peter Hager. Hager is a young man from Holland. He was orphaned at a young age, so he was placed on a Dutch trading vessel and sent to sea. He came to the Americas as an indentured servant who had to work off his room and board. At least this new land offers an adventure for the young Hager. The Dutch are forming relationships with local Indian tribes to learn where to trap for furs, or to just trade with them outright.
RAY: Today Hagar and his group are visiting a Podunk village. While the older men speak with the tribal sachem, Hager wanders the village observing some of the locals. That’s when a beautiful young woman named Wunnetumah, or Wunnee for short, catches his eye.
JEFF: She is beautiful. There’s no debating that. Buuuut…
RAY: But what?
JEFF: She’s the sachem… or chief’s daughter.
RAY: Oh. Right. And that’s not someone any of the Dutch want to upset in any way.
JEFF: Still… look at the way they’re looking at each other.
RAY: Oh man… they both look like they stepped in it. Wunnee is smiling at Hager. He’s smiling back. Both of them are blushing.
JEFF: Seasons pass, and Hager visits Wunnee’s village any chance he gets. There’s no question, these two are falling in love. They’re even learning the basics of each other’s languages. Once he’s 18, with his indentured service completed, his Dutch fur trading master invites him to sail back to Holland, but Hager decides he’d rather stay behind and live with Wunnee. His former master shrugs, then sets off for home.
RAY: Meanwhile, Hager has won the heart of not just Wunnee, but also her family and village. Miles away, though, the British Puritans are firmly establishing themselves as controllers of the growing colonies. They have laws forbidding marriage between Indians and Europeans.
JEFF: Still, Hager is undeterred. The couple discusses getting married then living out in the wild on their own. While that sounds romantic, they know how difficult life can be out there. So Hager…
[HORSE TROTTING]
JEFF: Heads to Boston to find out about the laws there.
[HORSE TROT FADES]
JEFF: By the time Hager arrives in Boston, he quickly learns that the Puritans are in control of every part of government, and they are not flexible when it comes to marriage laws.
RAY: Hager is saddened. But still committed to being with Wunnee no matter what the laws say.
[CHOPPING FIREWOOD]
RAY: It’s Sunday, and Hager is outside chopping some firewood near the home where he’s boarding for a few days. (PAUSE) Two Puritan leaders see him working on the sabbath, so they immediately have him arrested.
[CHAINS]
[CELL DOOR SLAMS]
JEFF: Hager is confused. He’s never heard of arresting someone for chopping firewood on a Sunday. But the Puritans run a theocracy. Their interpretation of their religion determines the laws of their lands. No other views are allowed.
[WHIPPING A MAN]
[MAN CRIES OUT]
JEFF: As part of his punishment, Hager is tied to an ox cart and whipped in public. Then he’s placed in the stocks for more public ridicule.
RAY: Word of Hager’s arrest and punishment make its way back down to Connecticut. When Wunnee learns what’s happened to her beloved, she’s furious.
[HORSE TROTTING]
RAY: Wunnee and her mother head to Boston.
[LIGHT CROWD NOISE]
RAY: Once in Boston, Wunnee sees Hager in the stocks. She waits for the crowd to thin, and that’s when she makes her move.
JEFF: (WHISPERING) Wunnee is sneaking up to the stocks… she’s pulling the pins and wedges off of Hager’s hands. And quickly the two sneak off to the woods.
[RUNNING THROUGH WOODS]
JEFF: Once in the forest, the two meet up with Wunnee’s mother and agree to meet at a place they all know in Connecticut near the Podunk village.
[WALKING THROUGH WOODS]
RAY: Wunnee and her mother travel together, while Hager sets out by himself on the five day walk back to Connecticut.
JEFF: Near the destination where the three agreed to meet, two men patrolling with guns spot Wunnee and her mother. They start bothering the women.
RAY: Hager is watching closely from a distance. No one has seen him yet. He knows this could go badly at any moment.
JEFF: Hager sees one of the men grab Wunnee by the arm, and that does it.
[RUNNING THROUGH WOODS]
JEFF: Hager races toward the group and tackles the man who just touched his future bride.
[STRUGGLING MEN]
[RIFLE SHOT]
JEFF: In the struggle, Hager seizes the rifle of the man who just assaulted Wunnee. The rifle fires, and the man is dead. Hager scrambles and disarms the other man. With rifle in hand, Hager warns the other man to leave and never return or suffer the same fate.
RAY: Back in Wunnee’s village, the two are married in a proper ceremony befitting Wunnee’s culture.
JEFF: Knowing he’s being hunted, Hager believes he and his bride should move away from the Podunk village so they don’t cause any problems. They spend some time in a ravine area by the Connecticut River, then head east to a land of rocks and forest where they find a cave.
RAY: The cave overlooks a hill. It’s not large, but it’s perfect for the two of them. A small fire can warm the cave even in the coldest days, and in the summer the rock keeps them cooler than being outside. It’s a fine life for the pair.
JEFF: It’s a summer day when Wunnee heads off to pick berries on the hillside. She’s found a bunch of blueberries that are ripe to perfection.
[RIFLE SHOT IN THE DISTANCE]
JEFF: Suddenly, Wunnee hears a shot fired in the distance. She immediately knows something is wrong.
[RUNNING IN THE WOODS]
JEFF: She races back to their cave.
[RUNNING STOPS]
RAY: Near the opening of the cave, she sees blood on the ground. Her heart races. She enters the cave to find her beloved wounded and bleeding. Clearly the Puritan authorities had found and shot him.
JEFF: Wunnee does all she can to tend to Hager’s wounds, but the bullet has done too much damage. Sometime in the night, Hager slips away. (PAUSE) That night, Wunnee walks all the way back to her village to report what happened. Hager’s body was never found. Some say his Podunk family retrieved him and buried him per their customs, but we’re not sure. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: There’s one other event to highlight around this cave and rock.
JEFF: Go ahead.
RAY: In 1643, Mohegan Chief Uncas executed Pequot Chief Miantinomah right by this rock. The slain Pequot’s body was also never seen again.
JEFF: Today the cave is still there and is known as Squaw Cave after Wunnee and her story. Whether it’s just the wind blowing by the cave opening like a glass bottle, or moans and cries still echo from the tragic past is unknown, but we do know that people whisper about this cave. They may not know all the details, but they do know this cave in Bolton Notch… is haunted.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: And that takes us to After the Legend where we dig deeper into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
JEFF: After the Legend is brought to you by our patreon patrons! Thank you patrons for being our inner circle of support for everything we do! We appreciate all you do for us. Our patrons help us financially with our hosting, production, travel, marketing, and all of the other expenses it takes to bring you two shows each week. It’s just $3 bucks per month, but for that you get early ad-free access to new episodes, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. We’d love to have you join us at patreon.com/newenglandlegends.
To see some pictures of the cave related to this week’s story, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our website and click on Episode 461.
Most of what we know about this story comes from Mathias E. Spiess of South Manchester, Connecticut. He was an expert on Indian relics and lore and penned an article for a September 1930 Hartford Courant article.
Do you have a weird New England story you think we should check out? Email us anytime through our website and you might hear it on a future episode. Plus, we love hearing from you! On our website you can also see a calendar of events to see Jeff’s story tour this fall. His one man show will be all over New England. Don’t miss it. Plus you can find dates to see my band the Pub Kings.
We’d like to thank our sponsors, thank you to our patreon patrons, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.