Hey, Readers. Welcome to the first Mystery Monday post of 2023. I have a lot of topics already lined up for the year. Instead of having one Mystery Monday each month and another Legends and Lore post, I’m combining the two and making it a weekly feature. Now for this week’s story.
In the United States, 423 national parks and sites encompass 85,000,000 acres. Around 300 million people visit these sites each year. Of those visitors, there are an average of 330 deaths per year. More than half are accidental—drownings, falls, and car accidents. Some deaths are purposeful suicides.
Still, there are a number of unexplained disappearances and many of those often go unsolved. Such is the case of Paul Jean Welden who disappeared while hiking Vermont’s Long Trail hiking route in 1946.
Paula was an eighteen-year-old sophomore at Bennington College in North Bennington, Vermont. On the afternoon of December 1, 1946, she set out to hike the Long Trail. She wore adequate clothing for daytime temperatures but not for the anticipated nighttime drop. She took no extra clothing or money. It appeared she didn’t anticipate being gone for more than a few hours.
Welden hitched a ride from State Route 67A near the college to a point on State Route 9 near the Furnace Bridge between downtown Bennington and Woodford Hollow. From this point, Welden either hitchhiked or walked to the start of the trail in Woodford Hollow.
A group of hikers passed her as they ascended the trail. She asked them a few questions, then continued walking in a northerly direction. She was still on the trail in the late afternoon as darkness approached. It’s presumed she continued her walk along the Bolles Brook Valley, although the last confirmed sighting was at a place called Fay Fuller Camp.
When she didn’t return to campus, her roommate notified school officials, and a search began. Classes were suspended so that fellow students could help. Paula’s father enlisted the aid of the Connecticut State Police. (At that time there wasn’t a state police force in Vermont.) Despite an extensive search, Paula was never located. She was later declared dead in absentia.
There are several theories as to what happened. Authorities believe she ran away to begin a new life. Some believe she was depressed and committed suicide, while others speculate she was kidnapped or murdered. There was one person of interest, a lumberjack named Fred Gadette, but with insufficient evidence, no corpse, and no forensic evidence, authorities closed this avenue of the investigation.
The area where Paula disappeared came to be known as the Bennington Triangle, a reference to unexplained disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. In addition to Paula, there were at least four other mysterious disappearances in this area between 1945 and 1950. There are rumors Long Trail is home to a sasquatch-like animal known as the Bennington Monster. Some believe this creature is responsible for Paula’s disappearance.
If there is anything good that came from this event, it’s the creation of the Vermont State Police. They are now responsible for all wilderness search and rescue missions in the state.
This year, I’ll feature more unexplained disappearances in national parks. One of the most mysterious was the story of Glen and Bessie Hyde in the Grand Canyon. In 1928, the Hydes attempted to raft the Colorado River. Their story was one of my first Mystery Monday posts.
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36 Responses
Poor Miss Welden, how horrible for her and her family. If she wasn’t adequately dressed for nighttime temperatures, I can understand how she’d succumb to the cold. I guess we’ll never know, though, if her body was never found.
It does make one wonder, Priscilla.
This sounds like an accidental death in the mountains around here. There have been several this winter already. However, the bodies are usually found in a few days after a search.
That’s terrible, Liz. The strange thing about this one is they never found her body. I can understand that happening in vast wilderness areas, but not in places that are populated. Unless, of course, someone did a good job at hiding it.
A sad tale and interesting no body was ever found, which would lead me away from suicide or succumbing to the nighttime temperatures. I would imagine something of her(s) would have remained even after the wildlife had fed. Have a wonderful week, Joan 💕🙂
Exactly, Harmony. Looks like there would have been some evidence. She could have ran away, or someone killed her and did a good job at hiding the body.
I really enjoy these posts. They tend to spark my Muse.
Thanks, Craig. They do mine as well.
That poor girl. I wonder what happened. (I love that there’s always SOMEBODY who blames a cryptid or alien.)
Always. Aliens have even been blamed for the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Or rather, the reasons for them not finding bodies. Go figure!
Such a sad story. It certainly sparks the “what ifs” in my brain. Personally, I would never go hiking alone.
Me neither, Jill. Especially not in this day and age.
Five disappearances in the same area sounds like foul play. Too bad no one was ever caught.
A mystery that will likely never be sold. It does sound like foul play. Thanks, Judi.
Hiking alone is dangerous and she no doubt was not prepared. Sad story. Thanks for sharing.
It is dangerous, John. Nature and predators (both animal and human) can be dangerous if one isn’t prepared.
😊
This is definitely puzzling. I’d say she was murdered, but who knows. A deranged serial killer lurking in the woods? Very interesting. Thanks for sharing I love these posts!
Especially with the other disappearances in the same area. I’m glad you enjoy the posts, Jan. I enjoy researching and writing them.
I can’t imagine hiking alone, even in safer times. I feel so bad for her and her family. I know a lot of these types of disappearances never get solved. At the very least, I’m glad Paula Jean’s disappearance resulted in the creation of Vermont’s State Police force.
At least some good came from it. I can’t imagine hiking alone either. Several years ago, I would go alone to a nearby park and walk along the nature trail there. Today, I wouldn’t go without someone with me. Of course, that could be because it’s the area I pictured when writing a murder scene in the third Driscoll Lake book. 🙂
I remember those trails in Driscoll Lake.
Its sad when the family never gets closure to what happened, Joan. I never thought about people dying in parks or why. My best guess is a serial killer since there were more. Although Bigfoot is a writers option.
These true events sue help stir a writer’s imagination. I agree that not knowing is worse than knowing.
She wasn’t a hiker, but I had a cousin who was carried away by the water while scuba diving with her husband. He looked away for a moment and when he turned back, she was gone. Never found her.
That’s terrible, Annette. I read a book a few years ago where that happened. (I think it was a the husband who disappeared.) I can’t imagine.
I hiked the Long Trail as a kid, Joan. First with my family and then later with just my siblings. What a creepy tale. We never met any monsters on the trail, human or otherwise, but the place is still a wilderness to this day. Hard to get lost, but equally hard to be found. Great mystery.!
Wow. Nice to hear from someone who has hiked and is familiar with the trail. I believe a lot of the disappearances in our national parks and wilderness areas can be attributed to the fact that they are, indeed, a wilderness. Thanks, Diana.
I’d rather imagine that she’s off somewhere in California living it up than murdered and buried in Vermont. That would be creepy.
That would be a nice ending tho this story.
When someone goes missing, it makes you fell for their parents, family, and friends. The searches they do, the avenues they use to find them. So sad.
There was a young woman who disappeared from my husband’s hometown. She was a couple of years ahead of him in high school. To this day, they’ve never found her body or know what happened, although there are suspicions that someone killed her. Her mother died not ever knowing what happened.
With so many disappearances in that general vicinity, it’s pretty suspicious. How horrible for the families that never knew what happened to their loved ones – I just can’t imagine.
I can’t either, Teri. I think not knowing would be worse than learning the truth.
A sad mystery, indeed, Joan. Methinks that those who believe she was running away to start a new life when she took no supplies, money, or extra clothing, just might be barking up the wrong theory. (Just sayin’.) I’m thinking it sounds more like an unexpected mishap befell her, accidental or intentional. And don’t you just hate that no one really knows? Her poor family and friends!
Looking forward to your newly tweaked series of mysteries, legends, and lore! Great post! 😊
I’d like to think she decided to start a new life (that would be the happy ending), but it doesn’t seem likely. It is bad that her family never learned the truth.