Maine Ghost Hunters

Tag: cemetery

  • The Sabattus Well Incident

    The Sabattus Well Incident

    The origins of the “Sabattus Well Descent” incident are unclear.  We’ve done a bunch of research but the results have all been super redundant and not at all forthcoming as far as specifics of the case are concerned.

    The Story goes like this:

    There were 3 teenage boys fooling around out in the woods one day when they came upon an old uncovered well.  Boys being boys they decided to challenge each other to a dare, and one of them accepted.  The dare was for one of them to be lowered into this well by the other 2 boys.

    So they found some rope laying around, and they located a small tire for the kid to sit on, and they lowered him down into this deep, dark, well until they lost sight of him completely. When it was clear he had reached the bottom, because the rope got loose, they pulled him back up.

    When he reached the top of the well they couldn’t believe their eyes.  The boy’s appearance had seemingly morphed into this horrid, hagrid looking old-man appearance.  His face looked like he’d aged 50 years in the past few minutes, and his hair had turned completely white.

    When they were able to pull him onto the ground beside the well he started laughing maniacally and when they tried to question him about his condition he responded with gibberish.  He had apparently lost his mind and gone insane.

    The story continues on that his condition was incurable.  There was no bringing him back from this sudden case of insanity and so he was sent away to a county mental institution to live out his days as a psyche patient, having no ability whatsoever to tell the tale of what happened at the bottom of that well.

    Getting there

    With a little help from some of the locals who are familiar with this legend, we think we might have a bit of a handle on where it could be located. Hopefully, if the well really did exist, it’s been covered up. But at least we can bring you to the general location of where this mysterious incident took place.

    Your first step is to head to Long Beach Road in Sabattus. From here you’re just a hop, skip, and jump away from the old Coombs cemetery on a little traveled side-road named Mitchell Street. It’s here that we’ve been led to believe the “well” is located; in the back, in the woods – but it’s been either filled in or covered up, thank goodness.

    We hoped to not find an open well just waiting for someone to fall into it.  Kids run around in the woods all the time, that would be a tragedy waiting to happen so we’re glad there is no readily visible open hole in the ground with no discernable bottom.

    We’ve also been led to believe the well is fairly close to the edge of this cemetery, off a back corner and away from the road.

    Respecting Land Ownership and The Deceased

    After reading this blog entry we ask that you remember this is a sacred place – a cemetery – and when coming here, please respect the dead by walking on the outside border of the graveyard.  Pick up any trash you might see laying around, and pay your respects without disrupting the environment.

    We’ve been told that some of the residents nearby this cemetery are very well aware of the urban legend of the Sabattus Well Descent and they’re not too happy about people helping themselves while on private property.  So please have respect for the people who live here 24/7 and if you see someone watching you, ask them if you can have permission to be there if it’s their land.  If they say “no”, that’s their prerogative.  You can investigate from inside the cemetery.

  • The Haunting of Ghost Road

    The Haunting of Ghost Road

    Introduction This cemetery has a history so haunted it’s actually on a road called “Ghost Road”.  We’re taking you with us as we explore Springfield, Maine’s Cushman Cemetery.

    Why it’s called “Ghost Road” The history of this haunting isn’t exactly clear.  No one is really sure why it’s haunted, or who haunts it, but there have been too many experiences by too many people to deny something weird happens out here.

    First – we have the name of the road it’s on and how it got it’s name. The Ghost Road came into its name, it’s thought, because of this little blond haired girl that went missing and her body was never recovered.

    There are 2 versions of this story floating around.  The first is that the little girl was playing out near the road and a woman known by townspeople as the “Green Eyed Witch” stopped her horse and carriage to talk to the child.  She beckoned the child to come closer and asked her get into the carriage.  The little girl told the old lady she wasn’t allowed to go off with strangers and ran home, telling her parents when she got there. Her parents warned her to stay away from the woman, known as “The Green Eyed Witch” but some time later the girl was outside playing in the area of the road again, and when it was time to come home, she was nowhere to be found.

    She and the “Green Eyed Witch” disappeared forever.

    The other story goes like this – The little girl was out playing on her bike and the “Green Eyed Witch” drove up to her in a car and asked her if she wanted a ride home.  The girl kindly refused, but a short time later, playing out on that same road, the girl went missing, and the “Green Eyed Witch” was never seen again, either.

    The older generation will tell you they see an apparition of the girl, always on the road, and always at a distance.  When she’s approached she disappears before anyone can make contact with her or talk to her in any way.

    Reports by people in more recent times say she’s a blond haired little girl who’s seen riding her bike on the road. But the same thing happens when she’s approached.  You can’t get too close before she disappears.

    The Haunting of Cushman Cemetery

    Cushman Cemetery has quite a haunted history, and while no one really knows why, there are few who have been here who have witnessed the weirdness who can deny it has a paranormal edge to it.

    One of the earlier accounts of odd happenings occurred in the 1960’s when some of the civil war graves were unearthed. The townspeople say the graves were mysteriously opened, but a more logical assumption was that someone dug up the bodies to retrieve Civil War artifacts the soldiers may have been buried with, such as guns, bayonets, or medals. There was never any definite conclusion as to how the graves of these soldiers were opened, so the mystery remains to this day.

    That said, there have been personal experiences documented by a wide range of witnesses who claim this cemetery is definitely haunted.

    The first was the experience of 2 young boys who accidentally found the Cushman Cemetery off the side of the road. In a state of disrepair and really overgrown, it was in pretty bad shape.  So they decided they’d clean it up.

    They returned at a later date and brought garbage bags and rakes and things to clean up the area to make it look nice. At one point they came across this teddy bear over a grave.  It had been there so long it was tangled in a mess of plants and weeds.  They tugged it out of the entanglement and set it off to the side while they continued to rake and pick up trash. When they left, they forgot to put the bear back where they found it. When they returned the next time they looked for it, first thing, so they could return it to the grave site, but quickly realized it wasn’t where they put it.

    When they went over to the grave they originally encountered it, they found it in the exact same position and circumstance they had seen it the first time. Entangled in weeds and plants, sitting beside this gravestone like it hadn’t been touched or moved in ages. After seeing the bear in this position, and knowing they had moved it the last time they were there, it freaked them out. They ran out of the cemetery area and out to the road. Just as they were making a mad dash for the road they heard a voice holler out from the cemetery “Help Me!”

    They never went back.

    Another account is of an older gentleman who was charged with conducting a land survey with a bunch of other men. Each member of the survey crew was assigned a specific area in and around Cushman Cemetery.

    One man, in particular, was in charge of the area just off to the side of the cemetery and out of sight of the others. As he was doing his work he noticed the wind started to pick up and a storm was coming in fast.  Before he knew it he was completely overwhelmed with darkness and leaves blowing around, the wind whipping things up from the ground, and branches flying all over the place.  Clearly it was time to get back to the work truck.

    So he headed out of the area and the closer he got to the road he noticed the storm was making its way out of the area.

    When he reached the other guys on the job he commented about that quick storm that had just passed through, and they had no idea what he was talking about.  They told him it’s been just as bright and sunny a few minutes ago as it was right then.

    And for a more recent encore –

    There’s a report of a witness account within the past few years where a couple of women were out hunting for gravestones for a genealogy project they were working on.  We’re not sure if they found what they were looking for but when they came back out onto the road, after they were finished, one of them looked over into the brush and saw a little blond haired girl watching them.

    They attempted to talk to her, but she didn’t talk back.  She just watched them.

    Noticing the girl was dressed in clothes that seemed a bit dated, they grew increasingly uneasy about the situation.  After several attempts of trying to communicate it became clear there was something not right, here, and they fled the area in a very quick way, convinced they had just been in the presence of the ghost of the little girl said to haunt “Ghost Road”.

    That’s basically what we know about the Cushman Cemetery on Ghost Road in Springfield, Maine.

    There have been accounts of people hearing a little girl crying, and hearing their names called out by unseen people, but you can basically get the gist of why folks find this cemetery to be so haunted.

    If you’d like to visit the Cushman Cemetery we ask that you do so with respect.  Be curious, but be respectful, first. A haunted cemetery is not a paranormal playground.  It’s sacred ground where people are buried, and we ask that you keep that in mind above all else.

    The Ghost Road is located on Route 6 in Springfield and the cemetery itself is set off the side of the road. Not entirely obvious, but if you look, you can find it.