Bridgewater Bigfoot
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 29th, 2009
Bigfoot are reported, from time to time, in the Hockomock Swamp/Bridgewater Triangle.
The cultural wave of the Bridgewater Triangle can be seen below in the two distinctive examples of old-fashioned cryptozoo poster art from Mark Phelan.
The beginnings of the use of the phrase I coined is slightly incorrect in the sharing of the attribution found in the “Bridgewater Triangle” entry from Wikipedia:
The Bridgewater Triangle is an area of about 200 square miles (520 km2) within southeastern Massachusetts in the United States. Since colonial times the area has been a site of alleged paranormal phenomena, ranging from UFO and “black helicopter” sightings (including many with multiple points of corroboration including police and a local news team), to poltergeists and orbs, balls of fire and other spectral phenomena, various “Bigfoot” sightings, giant snakes and ‘thunderbirds’, as well as the mutilation of cattle and other livestock.
Although known for centuries as an area of unusual and unexplained activity, the specific boundaries of the Bridgewater Triangle were first defined by paranormal researcher Loren Coleman in his book Mysterious America. The Triangle encompasses the towns of Abington, Rehoboth and Freetown at the points of the triangle, and Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Middleboro, Dighton, Berkley, Raynham, Easton, Lakeville, and Taunton inside the triangle.
Central to the area is the mysterious and largely untouched Hockomock Swamp, which means “the place where spirits dwell”, and which was called “The Devil’s Swamp” by early settlers. The Triangle also contains several Indian burial grounds, as well as significant sites used by both natives and colonists during King Philip’s War, which is said by some to be the source of several curses on the nearby land.
Actually, I coined the phrase “Bridgewater Triangle” in the 1970s, using it in correspondence with other researchers, in lectures, and with the media during my investigations there. I first used it in print in an article for the April 1980 issue of Boston Magazine entitled “The Bridgewater Triangle.” I then expanded that article into a chapter in the first Faber and Faber edition of Mysterious America in 1983, and then updated it again for the Paraview publication of 2001 and 2006’s Simon and Schuster edition.
Map of the Bridgewater Triangle.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Lately the Bridgewater Triangle has garnered attention more for aerial phenomena than for Bigfoot but it is still great to see “another side of the story.” Thanks for the report, Loren.
I’ve always liked the story of the Bridgewater Triangle.
Thanks for putting all that effort into your research Loren.
I’d like to take a trip there and see what there is to see.
– Tim M.
Awesome. I grew up in Bridgewater – my family still lives there – and first heard about the Bridgewater Triangle in high school. I’ve been reading this blog for a while and had no idea it was you who had coined the term!