The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-11-05
THE MOODUS NOISES AGAIN.
They Are PuzzIing Connecticut Once More
After Being Silent Since 1885.

TIE mOSOOO iNSIOGS N0HiiNs
They Are Puzzling Connecticut Once More
After Being Silent Since 1885.
Those famous and mysterious disturb
ances of the lower Connecticut valley,
the "Moodus noises" are being heard
again. After a silence of IL years they
have broken forth once more in man
ner similar to that in which they first
fell upon the white man IS ear 200 years
ago. The phenomenon has manifested
itself at East Haddam, a pretty village
which stands near Mount Tom and not
far from the village of Moodus. The
mountain, which has been the scene of
these singular noises as far back as the
Indian traditions run, is lofty sugar
loaf shaped eminence near the east bank
of the Connecticut river.
This latest manifestation astonished
the East Haddam people on Sunday aft
ernoon, about o'clock, when what was
at first thought to be clap of thunder
was heard. Then came roar like the
echoes of distant cataract, increasing
and dying away from time to time. The
sounds came directly from Mount Tom,
and the good people of East Haddam
were not long in guessing what they
were. After period of about two hours
the noises died away. only to return
again on Monday morning between 2
and o'clock. At this time there was
the crashing of heavy mutfled thunder,
mingled with roaring sound not I'M
like the wind in tempest. The ground
was shaken, causing houses to tremble
and crockery and glassware to rattle as
though in an earthquake. Prolonged
underground rumblings seemed to &C
company the disturbance, and occasion
ally there would be a short sharp shock.
The groanings of Mount Tom are
matters of history, but the cause of the
phenomenon, as the New London Day
in the course of an article upon it says
is a matter no one seems able to explain.
All the noises enanate from the noun
tain, which the red men called Mach-i-
MoOdus-"the place of noise" The In
dians held that the Moodus noises were
the mutterings of anger of the Great
Spirit in consequence of the white man
having entered the red mans domain.
For 20 years, up to 1929, the Moodus
villagers heard these noises almost con-
tinually, and during that time the
sounds seem to have been more remark
able than those that have followed
since. A clergyman of that day wrote
of them: whether there be anything
diabolical in these things L know not,
but this l know, that God Almighty is
to be seen and trembled at. Oftentimes |
l have heard them coming down from
the north like slow thunder, until the
sound came near, and then there seemed |
to be breaking like the noise of cam
non shot which shakes the houses and
all there is in them. -
After the great earthquake at Lisbon
these manifestations went away until
one Sunday in 1852. They came again
in 1885, when they attracted consider
able attention. Scientific men have at
tempted to call the noises little earth
quakes, but no reason is given as TO why
4hey occur nowhere else in the Connect
icut valley save at Moodus.
An explanation which pleases the su-
perstitious is that a carbuncle is form
ing under Mount Tom for the third time
in the history of that hemlock clad emf
nence and that in it's efforts to unearth
itself it produces the groanings and
rumblings of the Moodus noises. This
characteristic is claimed for the car
buncle, and tradition says that during
the great manifestation of 1929 an Eng
lish physician who was skilled in I'M
earthing such enchanted gems dug up on
Mount Tom the precious stone that was
the cause of the noises at that time
The story goes that the bed from which
this carbuncle was taken in time pro-
duced another gem, which eventually be-
came responsible for the groanings of
1852, and that some one found and car
ried this stone off, when the noise ceased.