There Are Monsters Among Us - On Downs Road, Anyways

The word most often associated with Downs Road, which begins in Woodbridge, cuts through Bethany and ends at the Hamden line is . . . "creepy." The second most popular descriptive word is "eerie." After that, it all begins to sound the same.

The rumors of supernatural occurrences in the densely wooded area are rife and include sightings of ghosts roaming the roadsides, UFOs hovering over the ridge at the far end of the reservoir, and the terrifying Downs Road Monster, an abbreviated version of a yeti, only four to five feet tall.

The area recently caught the attention of Jon Nowinski of the in Orange, which investigates all sorts of paranormal activity. Nowinski put the word out that he was interested in hearing people's stories of what they'd seen and heard in that area, and the responses came pouring in. Nowinski quickly had enough information to start a file on the subject and will be writing a series about Downs Road for his weekly blog on Bethwood Patch, starting on Monday.

We followed Jon during a scouting expedition to take some pictures and hear some of the stories. The tale of an in the house at the corner of Downs and Brooks Road is well-documented. One particularly popular tale is that of the “monster” lurking from one end of the road to the other, especially where the road turns into a dirt path at the very end.

“This used to be a high school hangout in the 1970s,” Nowinski said, gazing down the dirt road. “A lot of the people who hung out here after dark remembered seeing and hearing things in the woods. One group of four people who were there together one night all remember seeing the same creature, a four-foot tall, hairy kind of a Big Foot roaming in the woods.”

A beer-fueled apparition? A group hallucination? It’s hard to say, but over the past century there have been hundreds of reported sightings. On Monday you can read all about it in Nowinski’s blog, and if you have stories of anything you’ve seen in the area, feel free to send them in and we’ll add them to the collection.