A Creepy Ghost Town In Massachusetts, Dogtown Is The Stuff Nightmares Are Made Of

You may think "ghost towns" are exclusively a Western thing. You know, a boom-and-bust village that pops up from the desert and is abandoned as the wind of fortune shifts. Well, Massachusetts is not one to be outdone by anywhere that doesn’t even know the difference between a frappe and a cabinet. Dogtown, Massachusetts is a bonafide ghost town with a mysterious and fascinating past. Suspicious vagrants, wild dogs, witches, werewolves, old curses, and creepy dolls are all part of the legends that swirl around this eerie locale. You seriously won’t believe that abandoned Dogtown, Massachusetts has been lurking just out of sight in our state for so many years.

Settlers began moving to the area in 1693, mainly because the spot's inland locale granted protection from pirates and from hostile native peoples who were understandably annoyed at the uninvited guests. At its peak (1750-1800), Dogtown played host to around 100 families.

After the War of 1812, most farmers moved away from Dogtown. Fears of coastal attacks were dwindling and new roads were being opened between Rockport and Gloucester. This is when all the trouble started. As respectable families took off, their abandoned homes began filling with vagrants and unsavory people looking for a place to lie low.

Those without a family to follow also remained behind, i.e. widows and some independent single women. Rumors began to brew that some of these had stayed in order to practice witchcraft. Strange booming sounds began to be heard coming from the town and travelers reported flickering lights and figures in the surrounding forest.

And what about the name? Originally known as the Common Settlement, Dogtown got its name from the roving population of feral dogs that were known to inhabit the town. Many of the widows of lost sailors and soldiers kept dogs for protection and companionship. Whether it was the death of their owners or some more unexplainable force, these pets became feral and took to wandering over the nearby moors and howling.

Some residents had particularly menacing reputations. Thomazine "Tammy" Younger was known as the "Queen of the Witches." Tammy lived on Fox Hill, by Alewife Brook, and was reported to curse teams of oxen transporting fish from the nearby harbor as they made their way through the Dogtown area unless their driver paid her a "toll." I suppose that's one way to leverage nasty rumors.

The last resident of Dogtown was a freedman named Cornelius "Black Neil" Finson. Horrifically, he was discovered half-dead in a cellar-hole during the harsh winter. Babson was relocated to a poor house in Gloucester in 1830. He died very soon afterward.

Roger Babson, the founder of Babson College, commissioned out-of-work stonecutters to carve what were meant to be inspirational inscriptions on three dozen boulders in Dogtown during the Great Depression. There are 36 of these baffling and occasionally unsettling inscriptions scattered around the area.

Early settlers of the area reported astounding levels of wolf activity. According to the late folklorist Richard Cahill, the local Agawam Indians stated that their ancestors actually possessed heads like dogs and that eating a special local plant could allow anyone to adopt the same canine features.

On March 17, 1984, a Boston resident claimed that he witnessed a gigantic animal roaming the cliffs near Dogtown. He thought it might be a mountain lion, but local wildlife officials insist no mountain lions live on Cape Ann. March 17 was a full moon. On March 21st, a dead deer was found on Crane's Beach. It had been torn apart but not eaten. That same night near the road to Dogtown two people reported seeing a "gray monstrous dog-like animal, running into the woods."

Just when you thought this place was already maxing out its creepiness potential, we have a toy cemetery to consider.

Sometime in the past few years, old dolls and stuffed animals have begun appearing in a section of Dogtown. Tied-up baby dolls and grim-looking animals feature prominently in the collection. While probably the work of mischievous teenagers, there's always the possibility that a less savory individual or group has begun using Dogtown for their own purposes.

Today, Dogtown in Massachusetts is a rugged 3,000-acre park where visitors can see the village's abandoned cellar holes and roam the trails and tangled forest surrounding the unfortunate town. The terrain can be treacherous, however, as old homestead foundations have been known to give way underfoot, and many have reported the area to be disorienting. Dogtown is definitely a must-explore destination for those craving a ghost town adventure. Just be sure to keep your eye on the horizon – it wouldn't do to linger after dark.

Have you been to Dogtown in Massachusetts? Share your experience in the comments! Did you know there's also an underwater ghost town hiding in Massachusetts? Up for more exploring? Check out AllTrails.