FtV – The Devil and the Crying Rocks
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Welcome, legendary listeners. Thanks for tuning in to From the Vault, a second look at some of our classic episodes. Look for a new episode every week. Now, can you go back and listen on your own at OurNewEnglandLegends.com? You bet. But you won't get the added bonus of an After the Legends segment featuring new commentary about that episode from your old pals Jeff and Ray. So let's open up the New England Legends Vault and revisit another legendary episode.

Hey kids, welcome to The Vault. We are back inside The Vault. A little bit of a tragic and sad story this week, but also kind of spooky. First aired September 16th, 2021. Enjoy. Ooh, Jeff, I got an eerie feeling out here. Yeah, I kind of get that too. Well, walking in the woods of Charlestown, Rhode Island will do that to you. Getting out here away from the houses and civilization...

You can feel kind of alone. I know, but it's more than just the isolation. Some places just give off a bad vibe. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense too. Hey, that looks like a pond over there. Yep, that's Schoolhouse Pond. That's one of the two destinations we're here to see. The other is a small outcropping of rocks just a short walk north of here. Although it looks like a pretty normal pond, I still have a strange feeling.

Maybe it's because they say the devil once visited this pond. And there's a dark and deadly reason those nearby stones are called the crying rocks. ♪

Hi, I'm Jeff Belanger. And I'm Ray Ogier. Welcome to episode 213 of the New England Legends podcast. If you give us about 10 minutes, we'll give you something strange to talk about today. Thank you so much for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England, one story at a time. We appreciate you being here. We're a community of legend seekers who love sharing our history and lore.

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All right, Jeff, we're on the Trail of the Devil in Charlestown, Rhode Island. We are. So we parked our car right near the Narragansett Indian Church. We did. Now, that church is kind of central to this story, a story we should point out that might be highly disturbing to some of our listeners. So for those of you who are sensitive, you might want to skip this one. All right. The Narragansett Indian Church has been here since 1750. Originally a wooden structure, this was a Baptist congregation founded by Reverend Samuel Niles.

Niles was an Indian preacher who was on a mission to convert the native people of the region to Christianity.

The wooden structure was replaced by the granite stone building we see today back in 1859. Nearby is a small graveyard, and just north is a larger cemetery with close to 700 burials. But most of them are unmarked. Pinning an exact date on this legend is difficult. It's a time when there are still some Narragansett people around, yet the colonial influence is truly significant.

So let's head back to 1760 and explore the nearby woods. It's the late fall of 1760, and we're standing here by the relatively new Narragansett Indian Church. Reverend Samuel Niles is doing his level best to make this a spiritual center of activity for the locals. But it turns out this place has had a spiritual energy to it for many, many years. A dark spiritual energy. Ray, let's head into the woods right behind the church.

We're heading maybe a quarter mile or so to Cedar Swamp. Okay. Hey, look at these old cedar trees. Oh, yeah. They look so gnarled and twisted. And the bark is curling up on itself. That's really strange. Now, the Narragansett legend states that this place is so dark and evil that nature herself recoils in fear.

I think we're getting close. I can see we're approaching an outcropping of rocks up ahead. They look like stone pillars. Yeah, this is our first destination. And there's that uneasy feeling again. I get it. Of all the woods we've ever explored, this one may be the most sinister haunt. Oh my god, what was that? It sounds like a baby crying. Well, the Narragansett call this place the Crying Rocks.

I don't like this place at all, Jeff. So there was a time when people couldn't risk caring for children who might have been born with severe health problems or birth defects.

When you're hunting, gathering, and even when you're farming, there's no room for error. Every hand is needed or the entire group can suffer. Oh, no. Don't tell me. Well, the legend goes that those babies who didn't look like they could make it were brought here to this stone pillar to die. That's horrible. It is. Those were different times. Yet people pass this story around, and sometimes those who wander out here by the rocks, either by accident or to test the legend...

Well, they sometimes feel uneasy. Or they hear things in the woods. Yeah, I think we should get out of here. This place doesn't feel right at all. No, I agree. Let's head south back toward the pond. Schoolhouse Pond is a little less than half a mile from the Crying Rocks, but this place has its own evil tale to tell. It's winter here by the pond in the late afternoon, and though it's cold and the pond is frozen, it's busy with activity.

There's a few school kids sliding on the ice, and some of them even have ice skates. It's one of those crisp winter days. A little overcast, but it doesn't look like it's going to snow. Still, it's going to be dark soon. That's when a boy named John Onion approaches the frozen pond. John is a Narragansett Indian who lives close by. He's tall and strong, a natural athlete. And the thing about John Onion, he loves ice skating.

Wow, look at him go. Yeah, look at him. I can see some of the other kids are trying to race John, but they're not even getting close. No, John Onion is good at ice skating. I mean, really good. Pretty soon, the other kids give up the race and head to the banks of the pond to take off their skates and head home. I mean, after all, it is starting to get dark.

But the darkness doesn't seem to matter to John. He intends to keep skating. He's so confident that he announces he could out-skate the devil. I could out-skate the devil. It's dark now, and all the other kids have gone home except John Onion. He's still skating on the pond, but suddenly he hears the sounds of someone else skating just behind him.

John turns to look, but he sees no one. Yet he can hear another set of skates. And the faster and fancier John skates, the closer the sound gets to him. John is nervous. Now he sees this dark, shadowy figure close behind him. His own words echo in his head. "I could out-skate the devil!" Now John is petrified. He skates toward the shore as fast as he can. All the while, this specter's close behind.

John reaches the shore, but he doesn't stop to take off his skates. He runs right into the woods and hobbles all the way home on skates. That was the last time John Onion tried to challenge the devil. And that brings us back to today.

Man, that devil shows up a lot in New England, huh? He does. Those Puritan roots run deep. For the Puritans, the devil isn't a concept or a metaphor. He's a literal being hiding behind the next tree, or under your floorboards, or just over that next hill. Jeff, this story reminds me of a song. What song?

Come on. Devil went down to Georgia. Oh, okay, right, all right. Anytime you say you're better than the devil at something, old Scratch seems to show up and accept that challenge. So true. Maybe Charlie Daniels heard this story while passing through Rhode Island way back when and got inspired.

Well, Charlie Daniels wrote more than one song about a legend. There's also his song Legend of Woolly Swamp. Ah, right. So this isn't our first devil in Rhode Island story. Way back on Podcast 48, we explored the devil's footprint in North Kingstown. There's a rock by the train tracks with these strange holes that look almost like hoof prints. A place where they say the devil abducted a woman, then jumped across the harbor to the other side.

We've talked before about how devil-named places and devil stories kind of serve our moral compass. When you hear about the devil, it's a reminder to keep yourself in check. Right. And pride, of course, is one of the seven deadly sins. If you think you're the greatest at something, like ice skating, then the devil is ready to take you down a peg or two. Maybe all the way down, if you know what I mean. I do know what you mean.

The other story we covered this week is so disturbing. Yeah, it really is. Now, do we know if it's true? We know the story comes up enough that the rocks are officially called crying rocks and sometimes referred to as baby crying rocks.

These rocks show up in maps and trail guides, and the story of the babies being left or killed here shows up in multiple places, including an interview with an Arrogant's at Chief that I read in Rhode Island Monthly magazine. Which really doesn't mean it's absolutely true, but it does mean the story has been passed around for a long time. It's easy to put our modern-day judgment on the past. Our medical care has come a long way, especially with infants.

There was a time when people didn't even name newborn babies for a while because they knew they could die, and giving a child a name would make it all the more heartbreaking if they were lost. Long ago, infant mortality was really high. If there's a health problem with the baby, it's even higher.

There's no question people in every culture have had to make some gut-wrenching decisions with babies. It's also worth noting the Crying Rock story sits in close proximity to a pond where they say the devil once ice skated, and near a church where a preacher tried to convert the indigenous people to Christianity. No doubt that preacher told the locals about God and the devil and made it clear those battles of good and evil took place as close as their own backyard. ♪

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Yeah, this was creepy. And we've done devil stories many times. Yeah, but there was an added element of the darkest part of humanity, you know, when someone couldn't take care of a kid or when a kid was beyond help. Yeah. We forget. We take our modern medicine for granted. Right. That we can help children that, you know, might be born too early or whatever. We can help get them over the hump and they'll be okay in some cases. Yeah.

And there was a time when that just was not the case. No hope. Yeah. I mean, I can't even fathom when like a child's born and you're like, oh, it's too early. It's sickly. Yeah. Don't get attached. Can't take it to the hospital. Right. This is all we got is like, you know, keep the baby warm and don't name it.

That was, forget that. There was a time where you didn't name a kid until they turned like. Oh, is that true? Oh yeah. I mean, you'd wait a year or two before you even name, because you don't want to get attached. Absolutely. But can you imagine? I mean, that's just a natural thing. Now you're attached to your children as soon as they're born. We're both dads. The instant you hold your child. Yeah. And for the mother, it's, you know, you know.

even more. Instinctual. They carried what they carried. Oh, yeah. We were drinking beer. You're told, though. You're told you have the baby. Now, just relax. Don't get close to it because it might not stick around. Yeah. So we'll wait a little bit. Just let it sit in the other room. Feed it once in a while. Yeah. I'm sure we all know people that may have lost a child. It's devastating. Absolutely devastating. Well, I mean, as a dad of a teenager, don't you still check on...

your teen every night? Yeah. Just stare and make sure that, well, no, I don't get creepy. Well, not like that. No, no. But you, you hold onto that fear your whole life. Yeah. It's not just as when they're babies. Yep. Um, it's kind of, um,

upsetting and of course you know it ruins you it does in the best possible way to be a parent it ruins you yeah you're trashed you're never the same nope my buddy Dave Schrader who's done Voices for Us when my daughter was first born he's like and Dave's got a lot of kids he goes being a dad means that you're scared all the time for the rest of your life all the time and I'm like I saw Dave this past weekend and I was just like yep you're still right it's true it's still right every time they leave the house yeah absolutely especially in this world

So I just want to say, like, this location is on an active reservation. And so, you know, it's not easy to get to and things like that. But the story sort of persists, you know, the idea that you've got this thing that's sort of like left a mark on the land. And then you add the second element, which is, you know, which we've done plenty of these stories where you...

You make a wager with the devil. Yeah. Right? Or you claim that you can do something better than the devil. He shows up. Whether that be fiddling or ice skating or whatever. The thing about wager with the devil stories is the devil always loses. Right.

It's a short bet, Ray. I'm just saying, if you're ever out there playing poker or something and the devil sits down, you might want to be like, you know what? I know from legend and lore, you always lose. I'll find a way to trick you. Usually in the movies, though. I don't know if I trust that. Yeah, right. I'd still walk carefully around the devil. Sure, right? But that's the thing. I was watching the thing about... The thing about evil is that evil is very difficult because...

We recognize evil usually, and we rally around it. Once you spot evil, everybody rallies to say, like, that's not good. Let's manage this, get rid of it, suppress it, whatever. Stupid, however. Stupid. You're instinctually like, oh, they're just, you know, they're not too bright or they're ill-informed or whatever. And so you don't attack. Stupid. Stupid's more dangerous than evil if you think about it.

It is. Going back to fearing for your kid's life your whole life. Yeah. And kids are stupid. That's what I mean. We all were. They do dumb things. I should have died 15 times in high school. We've said it so many times where we're just like, yeah. Remember like, hey, let's ride our bikes off this like dirt hill and try to jump like 20 feet down and to our death. Yeah. And you're like, yeah. And then you do it. Yeah. And you land in some bushes and stuff and you're all scraped up and you're like, huh.

Rub some dirt on it. Yeah. Get up and walk away. But it could have gone bad. Yeah. I mean, who thought it would be a good idea to car surf on a back road at Friday night at 10 p.m.? I'll tell you. Michael J. Fox. That's right. Teen Wolf. Teen Wolf.

It was irresponsible for them to make that scene in that movie because we all wanted to do it. I'm a victim. I tried it only because I saw it in the movie. Yeah. I wasn't smart. You know, I wasn't smart enough to say like, boy, that looks really dangerous. Well, sure. And then your friends do whatever they can to knock you off the roof. Which is funny. Thinking it's funny and you're not going to get hurt. We're only doing 40. Exactly. It'll be fine. Not on the highway. We're just doing 40 on a back road with tight turns.

Yeah. So, yeah, no, this is one of those cautionary tales. But in the end, he did outskate the devil and got away. Yeah. But the devil was there because of this, you know, dark past to it. Did you ever try to walk with skates on? It's not easy. Not easy at all. He ran home. Yeah, not easy at all.

I think I would have taken them off. Did you ever try to skate with skates on? That is equally as difficult. Also not easy. It's ice. It's slippery. But yeah, no, it's one of those tragic stories. And the crying rocks. Oh, could you imagine hearing that out in the woods? No. And you did a masterful job with the audio production on this. Because I remembered as I was listening to it, that baby cry in the distance. I was just like, oh.

That is... Oh, no. And then when you know why. Yeah. It's one thing to hear a baby cry. Like, we've all heard a baby cry, but then to know why you hear that. Yeah, and the fact that it is legend and lore, and it could actually be very true. Right. I can't put myself in that place walking through the woods and hearing that. So one of the...

I think one of the biggest factors when it comes to hauntings is that it's, it comes down to mostly human empathy, empathy for us, the living, where we can only imagine the pain someone would go through to have to like leave their kid at these rocks saying, I can't help. There's nothing I can do. Oh my gosh. While the baby's crying. While the baby's crying. As you're walking away. Oh, oh yeah. Yeah. There's, I, it, it rips your heart out. It haunts you. Yeah. And so you connect to that and you just say, okay, what can we do to make sure we take care of

I don't remember. Was it some kind of an offering? As well as the baby's not going to make it, we have to leave it here. Why was the rock, why was it left there? Yeah, you know what? I think I missed that part. Maybe it was some kind of a tradition that they had. Yeah, like, well, there's burial grounds and there's just places that happen. But tragic story mixed with a devil story. And yeah, we still talk about it.