FtV - The Strange Legends of Mt. Moosilauke
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Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Spring is here, which means it's time to do some spring cleaning because a clean home is a happy home. Now through March 25th, shop in-store or online and get great savings on all your spring cleaning essentials like Windex glass cleaner, Lysol disinfectant spray, scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner, and Febreze fabric refresher. Hurry in before those deals are gone. Offer ends March 25th. Promotions may vary. Restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details.

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. Good to have you here in The Vault, up here in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This episode first aired May 27th, 2021. Enjoy. I love being back up here in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Ray. It's a great time of the year, too. It's not too hot yet. The leaves have filled in to offer a little bit of shade. And Mount Moosilaki isn't very crowded today. Still, we need to be extra vigilant on a mountain like this one because...

This place is home to a buffet of deadly strangeness. Deadly? Like what? Okay, so there's a ravine near here where three kids went missing and were never seen again. And if that isn't enough, this mountain is also said to be home to an immortal mad scientist who still hunts for new victims.

I'm Jeff Belanger, and welcome to episode 197 of the New England Legends podcast. If you give us about 10 minutes, we'll give you something strange to talk about today. And I'm Ray Ogier. Mount Moosilaki in the White Mountains of New Hampshire is the next stop on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England, one story at a time.

We appreciate you riding along with us today. And we also appreciate all the nominations that have been pouring in for our first annual Boney Awards. We need your help to find the best of New England. Boney, get it? So, the best cemetery, pizza, beer, coffee shop, haunt, and more.

Just head to our website and find the link on the nomination form right on our homepage. Now, while you're on our website, you'll find links to join our super secret Facebook group, follow us on social media, see pictures related to each episode, and find all kinds of ways to get in touch with us.

So many of these story leads come from you legendary listeners, just like this one. Thanks to Reva Crow for emailing us the tip on this one. Now, before we go looking for missing people and an immortal mad scientist on Mount Moosilaki, we want to take just a minute to tell you about our sponsor, Nuwadi Herbals. This week, we caught up with Nuwadi Herbals founder, Rod Jackson.

So, Rod, how did Nuwadi Herbals get started? Well, the premise for our company began over 65 years ago when my grandma taught me how to gather the herbs and then we would make medicine. And I developed a respect for Mother Earth and those plants. And then in later years, when I had a health food store, I made my own remedies. But I lacked the marketing background to put my products out into the world.

Then in 2002, I met my wife Kimberly and with her marketing background, all the pieces fell into place. We introduced our first herbal remedies at a show in August of 2002.

Today, over 18 years later, Nuwadi Herbals can be found in hundreds of locations, and we're still growing. Thanks, Rod. The world is opening back up. We can shop in stores again. If you're a retailer looking to carry some of these great all-natural products, you need to reach out to Nuwadi Herbals and ask about their wholesale opportunities.

Tell them New England Legends sent you and get free shipping on your first wholesale order. Of course, you can always order Nuwadi Herbals online. These are herbal remedies from Mother Earth. Check out the Nuwadi Herbals website to see all of their great products. And you legendary listeners get 20% off your order when you use the promo code LEGENDS20 at checkout.

Visit NuwadiHerbals.com. That's N-U-W-A-T-I, herbals, with an S, dot com. All right, Jeff, I'm starting to get a little nervous. Okay. People go missing on this mountain, and there's some kind of crazed zombie doctor up here, too? Well, that's what they say. All right, here's a little more information about Mount Musulaki. The mountain is 4,802 feet high, and it's one of the famed 48 4,000-footers in New Hampshire.

It's located in the town of Benton, New Hampshire, here in the White Mountains. The name Musilaki is an Abenaki Indian word that roughly translates to bald place, which refers to the top of the mountain where the trees don't grow. It's a great mountain, a great hike, in a place with enough legends to fill a whole book. Most of what we know about the immortal mad scientist comes from legends told by students at Dartmouth College who come up here for hiking outings. As in Ivy League Dartmouth? The very same.

Okay, so we're making our way up the mountain coming up from the northeast. We parked off of Route 112 at Kingsman Notch, and we're following part of the famous Appalachian Trail, a trail that would take us all the way to Georgia if we followed it to the end. Now, hiking in the White Mountains has called to many people for more than a century and a half. Though it's beautiful up here, it's also dangerous, even deadly.

There are bears, weather conditions that can change in an instant. And now we also have to worry about some crazed doctor from almost two centuries ago. It's about a three-mile height to the summit, but our first stop is the halfway point. This is the ravine where they say three boys went missing. Okay, here's the name of the ravine on the trail map. It says—okay, this isn't going to be easy to pronounce—

Jobeldunk Ravine. Okay, to figure out what happened, we're going to head back to the year 1880 and meet these three boys. If we really wanted to start at the beginning, we'd have to go back thousands of years to the time when mighty glaciers retreated north in the White Mountains, leaving behind this ravine, which is technically called a glacial cirque. It looks almost like a giant bowl depression sunk in the mountain to form the ravine. Yeah, that's pretty much what it is.

Now, this region is becoming more popular for hikers ever since the late 1700s when settlers first arrived. But once roads were built here about 60 years ago, and then the railroad just a few years ago, now these mountains are accessible to the adventurous. Though roads and rails make getting here easier, the mountains are still dangerous and wild. It's a winter day in 1880 when three friends head out on a hike on Mount Moosilauke.

There's William in the lead right now, followed by Duncan and then Joseph in the rear. It's chilly today, but not too bad. Besides, these are strong and hardy young men who are dressed for a cold weather hike. The trio are making their way up through the big ravine on the northeastern slopes of Mount Moosilaki. There's frozen streams and plenty of snowpack, so they're on their snowshoes right now.

The thing about the White Mountains is the weather can change extremely fast. Though it was only partly cloudy when the three young men started this morning, the sky's been filling in and getting darker. After three hours of winter hiking, the men are now about six miles from the nearest road. William is the first to speak up about the weather, but Joseph doesn't seem so concerned. He figures even if snow starts to fall, if they take a direct path back, they could get to shelter within maybe two hours.

Pretty soon, a few snow flurries start to fall, and the wind is picking up. This time, Duncan speaks up and declares it's time to leave this ravine and get back to shelter. The others are disappointed, but they agree. They should head back. It doesn't take long for the wind to pick up and the snow to fall at a steady clip. The trio follow their footprints back to where they came. As the weather worsens, they pick up their pace.

But pretty soon, it's white-out conditions. There's no way to know which direction to go anymore. Getting back to the shelter is not an option right now. They need to find some kind of covering now. Joseph finds a huge pine tree and breaks off some of the lowest branches so they can get underneath, so the tree forms kind of like a natural umbrella over them. After snapping a few branches and pushing others aside, the three men hunker down on the ground next to each other, using the tree for shelter.

Now the shelter is helping. The three men huddle together for warmth. They just need to wait out the worst of it. Maybe this is just a squall and it'll be over in a few minutes. But as the minutes melt into hours, it becomes clear this is no squall. This is a real storm. Joseph is shivering and now there's another concern. It's getting later in the day. There's only a few hours of daylight left. If they don't get out soon, they'll be here all night and may not survive.

That's when Joseph tells his friends that he's too cold to sit still. He needs to get his body moving or he'll freeze. He's going to find their tracks and head back for help as fast as he can. Duncan and William don't like splitting up, but they're getting desperate. A few more hours pass, and there's still no sign of the storm letting up. William and Duncan agree that if they stay put, they'll freeze overnight when the temperature drops. Cold and tired, they leave their meager shelter and try to find their friend.

Joe, Bill, and Duncan are never seen again. Search parties are sent the following day, but soon any hopes of finding them alive fade with the following day's sun. Maybe they survived one night, but the odds are remote of surviving two. At this point, the searchers give up. No remains are ever found. The only thing that survives is the story of Joe, Bill, and Duncan. That, and the name locals slap on this glacial cirque of a ravine. The name?

Joe Bulldunk. Ah, for Joe, Bill, and Duncan. Joe Bulldunk. That's what they say. What about the mad, immortal scientist lurking around in the woods, though? Right, so the strange tale of Dr. Thomas Benton. To meet him, let's head back to 1816 to the town of Hanover, New Hampshire, about 30 miles to the southwest of Mount Moosilauke. It's the spring of 1816, and love is in the air. But so is illness.

A little bit about Dr. Thomas Benton. He comes from a prominent family and has the money to travel to a university in Germany to study medicine. Though Tom is doing well in his studies, he doesn't really fit in with the other students. He's a loner. Still, one older professor takes a liking to Tom. Maybe because he's lonely, Tom ignores the rumors and whispers regarding some of the ungodly experiments this old professor has been conducting.

After the old professor dies, Tom takes some of his ancient books and an old locked chest back to New Hampshire. But whatever he learned, either in his regular classes or from this mysterious professor, is not enough to save the life of his fiancée, who is sick with typhoid.

After she passes away, Tom snaps. He walks away from his life and away from his medical practice, and he takes those old books and that locked chest into the woods of Mount Moosilauke. Now that's when things get weird on the mountain. Dr. Benton is experimenting with elixirs that can grant eternal life. Over the years, farm animals go missing. Sometimes loggers go missing, and even hikers. After all, Dr. Benton needs subjects for his experiments.

By the time Joe, Bill, and Duncan go missing in the winter of 1880, some wonder if the boys were lost to severe weather or if maybe they were snatched up by Dr. Benton. Either way, Dr. Benton must have had success with his immortality elixir, but at a steep price, because now he's lost his mind.

Hikers report seeing him run through the woods and then vanish. Or they'll hear his maniacal laugh in the wind that whips around the mountain. By the turn of the 20th century, students at Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, make regular outings to Mount Moosilaki. The story of the crazed and immortal Dr. Benton is the tale they tell the freshmen every year. And that brings us back to today. ♪

So the Dartmouth Outing Club still tells the tale of the immortal Dr. Benton to this day. Okay, wait a minute. I still have some questions. Yeah, me too. Now, is there any historical Thomas Benton? It's not lost on me that the closest town to Mount Moosilauke is Benton, New Hampshire. Yeah, so to answer your question...

Yes and no. There is a Thomas H. Benton. In fact, Benton, New Hampshire is named for him. Originally called Coventry, New Hampshire, the town was renamed Benton in 1840 in honor of Thomas. But here's the weird thing. The Thomas H. Benton, who is the namesake of the town, is actually a senator from Missouri. It was New Hampshire Governor Isaac Hill who proposed naming the town after the senator who was champion of Western expansion.

Okay, but what about Jobeldunk Ravine? That one's even more hazy. I mean, another version of the story suggests it was named after the first three people to explore the ravine, and yet another suggests that it's a Native American term whose meaning has just been lost to time. Either way, this mountain blends legends and words from the two worlds that collided here. I mean, there's the Abenaki name of the mountain colliding with the British and European names of people who came here.

Now, no matter what you believe, the White Mountains are beautiful. Sure. But they can be a dangerous place. Hikers can and do go missing. People do die up here. Maybe that's why Dartmouth warns their freshmen of the strangeness that might be lurking in the woods. Plus, we know from some of the other legends we've explored that sometimes people do go feral. Hermits, wild men, and others have been known to terrorize locals. Maybe those people can't live forever, but their story does. ♪

We'd like to thank people who've been walking the path of the weird with us since we started the podcast almost four years ago. Thank you. Talking about our Patreon patrons, these folks kick in just three bucks per month to get early access to new episodes, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. If you want to become an even bigger part of the movement, head over to patreon.com slash New England Legends to sign up.

Please tell a friend or two about our podcast. So many stories come from you legendary listeners. We're a community of legend seekers and we love it when you guys get involved. Please also consider posting a review for us on Apple Podcasts. Those reviews go a long way in helping others find us. We'd like to thank our sponsor, Nuwadi Herbals, and our theme music by Jon Judd. Until next time, remember, the bizarre is closer than you think. We'll break it down right after a word from our sponsor.

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Spring is here, which means it's time to do some spring cleaning because a clean home is a happy home. Now through March 25th, shop in-store or online and get great savings on all your spring cleaning essentials like Windex glass cleaner, Lysol disinfectant spray, scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner, and Febreze fabric refresher. Hurry in before those deals are gone. Offer ends March 25th. Promotions may vary. Restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details.

Still chilly up here in the mountains. It is. Spring takes a little while to settle in. So Joseph, Bill, and Duncan. Joe Bulldunk, Levine. Love that. Oh, that's right. I didn't put that together when I re-listened. Right. Joe Bulldunk, Joseph, Bill, and Duncan. I love that. So kind of like two stories for the price of one with possible connections. Or could be combined. Yeah, which is why we did it the way we did. Yeah.

So we've covered many a story of hermits over the years. Usually hermits are either just want to be left alone or cash in on the fact that they want to be left alone. They write books. They sell merch in their gift shops. I'm a hermit. Come see me nine to five, Monday through Saturday. Photos. Yeah. So not the most hermit-like. However, Doc Benton would have to fall more on the line of like, no, I don't want to be seen. Right. Because he's potentially...

and murdering people. Yeah, I love that story because now when you're out in the woods or on the mountain, there's that history to the mountain and there's that legend of this mad scientist that could jump out of a tree

and just snatch you. You're already watching for bears. Right. Now you've got to watch for mad scientists. Bears and mad scientists. Yeah, those are two things you've got to worry about. So many layers. It's like a warning to people that travel up that way. Don't stay too long. Could get snatched. The thing about the White Mountains, I'll say this, the weather can change on a dime. Yeah. Like truly. And if you're two hours, just two hours from your car, you think you're out for a nice hike and the weather turns really fast and you're not prepared for that,

You know, I mean, if it's like whiteout conditions and a snowstorm... Being turned around. Yeah, and you don't know where you're going, and you don't have a good sense of the trail or whatever, I mean, you know, are you ready to spend the night in the snow? Well, you lose the trail, too. I mean, once the snow starts, they lost their tracks. Yeah, it's...

it's, it's more dangerous. People just think it's a, it's a stroll in the woods. Yeah. And sometimes it is when it's good weather. That's all it is. It's just a real nice stroll in the woods, but it can be dangerous and people forget that. And people die up there all the time. Go to Mount Washington, right? Go to the top, go ahead, drive your BMW all the way to the top if you want. And then put the bumper sticker on your car, put the bumper sticker. Everyone can roll their eyes. But when you go inside to get the cafeteria food,

yeah look at the wall of names of people who have died on just that mountain right it's a lot yeah it's not like four is it worth it at the end are you like i'm so glad i this is what happened to me but to do i died on this mountain oh that bummed me out you know what i mean it's one thing if you're on like k2 and then you know or but even that i mean or like you know is that really how you want to end things no and you know too so why weren't you prepared

Well, so, I mean... You hike a lot. Yeah, sure. So, but, yeah, no, those mountains are not where you want to say, like, oh, I died on Mount Moosilauke. Because I... Because you can hardly pronounce it to begin with. Right, there's that. Yeah. Because you know what it is? The hardcore hikers would laugh at you.

They'd be like, you get up to heaven and all the hikers are up there. Musa Lockie, huh? Okay. Junior, did you, did you break a training wheel? What happened? You're not sitting at the cool kids table. No, no. In heaven. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, see those guys over there? They died on Everest. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like bosses. Yeah. Those are the, that's the varsity team over there. Yeah. Oh yeah. See, see my leg broken into Everest and I, and I laid there looking at it going, this is where I die. Yeah. Uh,

You're like, oh, did you break a nail? What are the stories with Kilimanjaro? Because you climbed Kilimanjaro, and that was quite a... There's a book. There's a whole book about it. Yeah, I've heard. Yeah. And it's really good, but it's very detailed. The Call of Kilimanjaro by Jeff Belanger. I think that's it. It's a classic. I mean, I'm not trying to plug it. We should plug it. We just did. But I did really enjoy it, and it really was a...

I felt like I was there. You know what I mean? The way you described it. Thanks. You can really feel the stress that you went through getting up to the top. As soon as you got close to the top, you talked about... And you trained for the breathing and everything. Yeah. But it was still difficult once you get up there. It was frightening. So people die on these mountains. When...

I remember it was a sobering moment when I passed a plaque and this was nowhere near the top. This was at like 10,000 feet where we passed the plaques in memory of someone who died right there, right there. And you just went, Oh my, you know, like they died here. Like we're not even in the tough part yet. And, um, what was your condition like at that moment?

physically when you saw that plaque where you're like, oh yeah, this could happen to me. I can feel it already. Well, no, because I remember thinking, okay, wait a minute. We're not high enough for it to be really dangerous yet. We're not in the terrain. Isn't that difficult? I'm like, what happened here? Okay. So you were fine yourself. You're not like, oh, I can see that happening later on when I saw one, when I saw another plaque very high up, I went, oh, I get it. This one I didn't get until I asked.

And one of our, I said to one of our guides, I'm like, what happened here? Like, this is not where, you know, it'd be like dying in the parking lot of Mount Washington, right? You'd be like...

We're putting a plaque here? What happened? Heart attack. But then once they told me what happened, that changed my perspective too. They said, oh, well, he got caught in a lightning storm and was killed by lightning. Oh, okay. And I was like, oh. You don't think of that when you're training, do you? Didn't even occur to me. I was like, because there's clouds moving right through where you are. Right. You were literally in the middle of a lightning storm. No, no, no. I was not. But you could be. That's what I mean. Yeah. And I'm looking at all the metal I'm covered in.

like carabiners and my backpack and my hiking poles and everything else. And I was like, so what would we do if he's like, well, you drop your pack and you hide behind a rock.

And I just went, oh. That's amazing. So there's a plan. Good. Yeah, yeah. Got it. Okay. I didn't think about dying by lightning up there. Why would you? So when you're on the ground, we see lightning far above us, right? But when you're up in a mountain, it's next to you. It's like right there. Yeah. Like flashes right next to you. Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. There was one night where we saw a lightning storm, but we were already above the clouds. So it was below you? So you would see it. Oh, yeah.

It's just like coming in on a plane. That must mess with your head. It was, it's pretty, I guess. Yeah. I guess we've all been in planes. We've seen that before, but if you're on the ground, you're standing on the ground and below you is lighting up. Yeah. That's going to mess with you mentally. Why? I actually felt safer because I'm like, Oh, well we're up here. The lightning doesn't go up. Yeah. It goes down. So, um, still though. Yeah. It was weird. It was weird to see, but it was, but it was clearly below us. I mean, after a couple of days on the mountain, we, we stayed above the clouds after that. It could be raining. I don't know. Like we're,

We were above the cloud bank. And so it was, and that's when like, uh, trees and grass, it doesn't grow up that way. Just, just a little like lichen and stuff and a few things here and there, but yeah, very little vegetation. Are the animals different up there? No animals. There's no animals, right? Because there's no food.

after 10,000 feet we stopped seeing birds and stuff I saw like a little rodent I mean down below when we were walking up I saw monkeys monkeys yeah because we were walking through the forest but then once we got above that the tree line ends no more monkeys saw a few birds but then once we got a little higher then no more

birds. We shouldn't be higher than birds. I don't think we were meant for that. God did not give us wings. No, you're right. Uh, and once Red Bull gives you wings, not God. And I didn't have any Red Bull with me, but when it's not a, not a, uh, um, customer, by the way, or advertiser, not a sponsor, right? Sponsor. Once you got up that high, uh,

there was a moment where I realized that nobody belongs up here. There's nothing for you. There's no water. Yeah. It's not like, Oh, there's this, or there's no like nice field of vegetables that you could eat. There's nothing up there for you. So you get stranded, you're in trouble, whatever's in your pack. Well, that's why you got to prepare. And I guess that's the, that's the reason you do it. Right. It's like, it's person versus nature. It's like, can I overcome this thing and then get back down? And so, yeah, no, that was a, it was quite an experience. Um,

Nomad scientists. I didn't have to worry about that. That's good. Which was nice. But we did have very little air. Yeah.

and people dying were right where you were standing. And that's a thing, right? When you are somewhere where you know someone died, we've talked about this at the Lizzie Borden house, when you look at the couch, and I know it's not the actual couch. I laid down right where... Yeah, but that's the spot. Mom was murdered, I think. Dad was on the couch down there. Dad was on the couch, but... Oh, upstairs. Upstairs. I laid right on that spot next to the bed. Yep, right where you were, exactly where you were. Someone was murdered.

And that, I don't know, you become aware. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That you are not immune from being murdered. Yeah. You know, you just go, ooh. So it's a frightening thing. And then, you know, Joe Bildunk, Ravine. Yeah.

You're standing there and you go, oh, those are the three kids that went missing. Yeah, there's a story there. So now you feel a bit vulnerable and I am not going to live forever. This could happen to me. They were out here doing what I'm doing right now. Right. Just going for a walk in the woods. Yeah. And if a storm came up, would I get snatched by a mad scientist and get murdered and become his food or whatever else he does with the victim?