Ten More Paranormal Triangles (Located Nowhere Near Bermuda)
Image credit: “Devil’s Sea” by ErikShoemaker on DeviantArt
(Originally published on WordPress on October 16, 2021)
Guess what, beautiful watchers! It's October! And you know what that means; it's once again time to delve into the spooky side of things.
You may recall my first supernatural post, where I last talked about so-called paranormal hotspots labeled "triangles" thanks to the infamy of Bermuda's supposed vortex. Today, I wish to continue that globe-trotting adventure by looking at ten more lesser-known paranormal triangles to tell you the stories and see whether any of them can hold up to scientific scrutiny. Let's not tarry about and jump right in.
1. Bass Strait Triangle (Australia)
Map of Australia and Tasmania with Bass Strait marked in blue.
Author Jack Loney identified this triangle in his 1980 book Mysteries of the Bass Strait Triangle. The strait has long been known for being treacherous for passing ships, but is this because of supernatural goings-on, or do these disappearances have a more earthly origin? Let us examine some individual incidents to find out:
1797: Bass Strait is first discovered by European explorers after the Sydney Cove wrecks on Preservation Island (its namesake, George Bass, becomes the first European to sail through it the following year while circumnavigating Tasmania, then known as Van Diemen's Land). Things take a turn for the mysterious when one of the salvage ships, a sloop named Eliza, vanishes during a return trip to Sydney.
February 1858: The Royal Navy brig HMS Sappho vanishes while en route from the Cape of Good Hope to Sydney, with a subsequent search turning up no trace of the ship or her crew. Most scholars believe she foundered in the Bass Strait, either holed by rocks or capsized in a gale (she was last seen off Cape Bridgewater on February 18). HMS Sappho is only one of several ships that went missing in the strait in the 1800s; other notable incidents included the Harlech Castle in 1870.
1901: The SS Federal disappears along with its 22 crew members and its cargo of coal. Its wreck was discovered in 2019.
1906: The German cargo ship SS Frederick Fischer vanishes en route to Tasmania.
September 10, 1920: A schooner named the SS Amelia J disappeared shortly after entering the Bass Strait. A barquentine named the SS Southern Cross and an Airco DH.9A aircraft also vanished while searching for her. The Southern Cross wreck is the only one discovered so far. Witnesses reported strange lights in the skies over Bass Strait around the time of the incidents.
October 21, 1934: A de Havilland DH86 airliner named Miss Hobart inexplicably went missing while flying over Bass Strait, despite being in perfect weather. All eleven people on board were lost with it. Only a small amount of wreckage was ever found on the coast of Victoria. Eerily, much like a similar incident 44 years to the day later, the pilots radioed that the passengers witnessed an "aerial machine" approaching the airliner before all contact was lost.
1935: The Loina, a Holyman airliner, vanishes near Flinders Island with five people aboard. Officially, the cause was human error compounded by the poor design of the craft. However, a small piece on the plane's floor was among the wreckage recovered, which showed a burned patch several centimeters wide, which someone had attempted to stamp out.
World War II (1939-1945): Several strange incidents were reported by pilots flying over the strait during the war. Seventeen military planes vanished during this period, despite no record of enemy combatants ever coming near the region (official sources blame inexperienced crew flying too close to the ocean's surface). One Bristol Beaufort bomber flying over the strait in 1944 claimed it was followed by a "dark shadow" for 20 minutes until it suddenly shot up into the sky. A fighter pilot claimed he was followed by a bronze disc-shaped craft in 1942 while investigating local reports of strange lights in the area.
April 6, 1966: Children and school staff in Melbourne witness a huge disc-shaped craft lazily drifting over their cricket field, which they follow until it vanishes over the tree line. Other witnesses later say that they saw five smaller vessels trailing behind it.
1972: A vintage de Havilland Tiger Moth owned by Brenda Hean and Max Price vanishes while en route to Canberra to protest the proposed hydroelectric dam on Lake Pedder. Investigators believe the plane crashed between the East Coast and Flinders Island and may have been sabotaged by pro-development interests.
October-November 1978: A flap of UFO sightings occurs along the coasts of Tasmania and Victoria. A husband and wife pair of motorists describe a bright light coming down from the sky and following their car on October 9. A month later, a taxi driver in Hobart slams on his brakes when he sees a green light on the road in front of him. The light vanishes when he takes his eyes off the road to tend to his radio, which is suddenly on the fritz. On November 25, a woman reported seeing a "doorway of light" in her driveway. Some ufologists have suggested a connection with the following incident in this list...
October 21, 1978: When 20-year-old amateur pilot Frederick Valentich set off from Moorabbin Airport that Saturday evening, he likely had no idea he was about to become the subject of one of the most infamous UFO incidents, not just in Australia but in the entire world. He radioed Melbourne air traffic control at 7:06 to inform them of a strange aircraft that seemed to be following him from about a thousand feet overhead. He described the craft as having a shiny metal surface and green landing lights. Over the next six minutes, he described the ship approaching him from the east and "orbiting" over him. He claimed his Cessna 182 was experiencing engine problems and then said these ominous words about the strange craft: "It's not an aircraft." When air traffic control asked Valentich to clarify, all they got in response was what they described as a "metallic scraping sound." When he failed to arrive at his destination at the King Island Airport, the search was on.
Despite the search covering 1,000 square miles, no trace of the aircraft has been found, although an engine cowl flap belonging to a Cessna 182 washed up on Flinders Island five years later. Theories for what happened to Valentich abound. Some say he faked his death and landed the plane elsewhere. Others say the strange lights he saw were because he was flying the plane upside down without realizing it and saw his own lights reflected in the water (something that should have been impossible with the Cessna's gravity-feed fuel system). Others speculate that he may have found himself in a graveyard spiral, in which a pilot thinks he is flying level when they are actually in a banking turn, which they didn't realize until it was too late. The supposed lights on the UFO were the planets Venus, Mars, Mercury, and the star Antares.
True, the graveyard spiral theory is probably far more likely than an alien abduction, but there is still one strange aspect of the Valentich incident that I feel I would be remiss not to discuss. On the same evening as the Valentich incident, a plumber named Roy Manifold was photographing the sunset near the Cape Otway Lighthouse (well within Valentich's flight path) when he and his son, Jason, heard the sound of a plane overhead. But instead of gradually fading off in the distance, Jason claims that the engine's sound cut off entirely at one point, "as if someone had turned a radio off." Later, when he and his dad developed the photos, one of them came back like this:
Some anonymous eyewitnesses came forward later to claim that they saw a plane flying toward the ground at a 45-degree angle while a green light floated 1,000-2,000 feet above it. They never saw the plane crash. None of this proves that Valentich was killed or abducted by aliens, but you never know...
December 1979: A yacht named Charleston vanishes en route to Sydney to join the Sydney-Hobart yacht race. Theories for what happened include wind damaging the mast or a loose container damaging the rudder, leaving the boat helplessly adrift. The family of the yacht's owner even contacted a clairvoyant who told them the vessel had come ashore on an island south of New Zealand. Whatever the case, no trace of the boat has ever been found.
Admittedly, the Bass Strait has long held a dangerous reputation for things other than UFOs. The prevailing winds and currents breaking up against King's Island in the east, combined with the strait's shallow depth (160 feet at the deepest) and numerous reefs and submerged rocks, can create very rough seas, especially in bad weather. Still, the strait's history with UFOs is hard to ignore, especially after the strange phenomenon was immortalized in the 2016 TV show The Kettering Incident. The series co-creator, Victoria Madden, has explained in interviews that the show was inspired by several odd incidents that occurred around the north coast of Tasmania while she was growing up. These included missing persons, cars suddenly coming to a halt, "dome objects in the Lake Country," memory loss, etc. Madden herself recalls a childhood memory where she and her friends witnessed lights hovering over the trees and making a weird noise before they suddenly vanished.
Some have even gone as far as to argue that there may be an underwater UFO base in the region. I'm not going to agree or disagree with this argument, even if I'm a bit on the skeptical side here.
Sources:
https://listverse.com/2018/02/11/10-truly-bizarre-incidents-from-the-bass-strait-triangle/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_Strait_Triangle
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4385
UFO Disappearance-Unsolved Mysteries
UFOs and Strange Vanishings at Australia's Mysterious Bass Strait Triangle
2. Little Egypt Triangle (Illinois)
The Illinois counties generally agreed to make up the Little Egypt Triangle.
Little Egypt is the colloquial name for the southern third of Illinois, bordered by the Wabash, Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers. Divided from the rest of Illinois by Interstate 64, the region is renowned for having a distinct cultural identity from the rest of the state, principally due to its association with the antebellum South (for better or for worse). However, several paranormal investigators have also argued that the area is a hotbed of paranormal activity, with a high concentration of haunted buildings, UFOs, and cryptid sightings.
For example, in Madison County, Alton has often been described as "the most haunted town in America," hosting hotspots like McPike Mansion, the First Unitarian Church, the Mineral Springs Hotel, and the Milton School. Other haunted locations that one can find in the triangle include (but certainly aren't limited to) Cave-In-Rock State Park (allegedly home to buried treasure and moaning cries), the Crenshaw House in Equality (ironically home to a place where free blacks were sold into slavery in a reverse Underground Railroad situation), the Coate Mental Health Center in Anna (a mental hospital that burned down twice. Need I say more?), and Lebanon Road in Collinsville (a local legend says that if you pass under all seven bridges on the road at midnight, a portal to Hell will open up!).
As for UFOs, St. Clair County hosted one of the most infamous so-called "black triangle" sightings when, for two hours starting at four in the morning on January 5, 2000, several eyewitnesses (including four police officers) saw a triangle-shaped object flying overhead. They described it as having three white lights on the vertices and a red light in the center. One officer even managed to photograph the object. Even though Skeptoid podcast host Brian Dunning has built a compelling case that the "UFO" was nothing more than an advertising blimp, the incident has remained a mainstay in Illinois urban legend, even earning a reference in Sufjan Stevens' landmark 2005 concept album Illinois.
As for cryptids, southern Illinois has played host to several sightings of animals that seem out of place. Out-of-place big cats seem to be very common in Illinois. Champaign County was plagued by a particularly vicious one in 1963 that killed a lot of livestock, including dozens of chickens. Shawnee National Forest has also been a historical hotspot for big cat sightings. One of the more dramatic reports to come out of this region happened to Mike Bubsy on April 10, 1970. He was tending to engine problems outside Olive Branch in Alexander County when a six-foot-tall black feline attacked him. It only stopped when a passing semi-truck startled it and allowed Bubsy to catch a ride to the hospital.
Phantom kangaroos have also been reported in the region, as have several Bigfoot-type creatures. One particularly alarming encounter occurred near Cairo on the evening of July 25, 1972, when Leroy Summers reported seeing a 10-foot hairy white creature standing near the Ohio River levee. The area also boasts its fair share of lake monsters, the most famous being Du Quoin's Stump Pond Monster, which was sighted several times between 1879 and 1968 when the lake was partially drained.
But by far the most infamous and strangest cryptid to come out of Little Egypt is probably the Enfield Horror, which stalked White County in April and May of 1973. On the 25th of that month, Henry McDaniel went to his front door to examine a strange scratching sound. He claims to have found the culprit squatting between two rose bushes. "It had three legs on it, a short body, two short little arms, and two pink eyes as big as flashlights. It stood four and a half feet tall and was grayish-colored." McDaniel fired on the creature, but the bullets did not affect it. It leaped away, covering a distance of fifty feet in three jumps.
The sighting sparked panic, with the police having their hands full arresting would-be monster hunters for hunting violations. The hysteria quickly vanished as suddenly as it first appeared. Nowadays, several skeptics have argued that the townsfolk mistook an escaped exotic pet like a kangaroo or an ape for "a monster from outer space."
Sources:
Alton, Illinois-The Most Haunted Small Town in America: Mysterious Universe
The 15 Most Haunted Places in Illinois-Haunted Rooms America
Loren Coleman, Mysterious America (NY, Paraview, 2001)
Skeptoid Episode #435: The St. Clair Triangle UFO
https://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2015/08/10Triangles.html
W. Haden Blackman, The Field Guide to North American Monsters (NY, Three Rivers Press, 1998)
3. Ossipee Triangle (New Hampshire)
This one covers a vast swath of the Granite State if this map is to be believed, with the vertices being in Franconia in Grafton County, Ossipee in Carroll County, and Salem in Rockingham County. The whole area is centered on Lake Ossipee and is sacred to the indigenous Abenaki tribes. The lake was surrounded by a 100 million-year-old volcano and several glacier-carved kettle lakes. One of these, Snake Pond (formerly known as Mystery Pond), is reputed in local legend to be bottomless. UFOs have been reported diving into it and other deep ponds in the region, leading some to argue that underwater tunnels connect the ponds.
Indeed, one of the most famous alien abduction incidents in UFO history occurred around the north edge of the triangle in 1961. Portsmouth residents Betty and Barney Hill were returning from a vacation in Canada on September 19 when they spotted a strange light just outside Lancaster around 10:30 in the evening. The craft, which they later described as "pancake-shaped" and covered in red lights, followed them until it caught them around Indian Head, near Franconia, and hovered about a hundred feet above them. They observed several humanoid figures in the craft's windows.
Suddenly, the Hills realized they had lost two hours and were driving about thirty-five miles south near Ashland. They later recalled under hypnosis that the aliens had taken them on board their ship and physically examined them. When Betty asked the beings where they came from, they showed her a map that astronomers later identified as being near the Zeta Reticuli constellation. Some astronomers have argued that the Hills inadvertently discovered a new star system in the process, although some skeptics, most notably Carl Sagan, disagreed. Indeed, many skeptics have argued that the incident was a hallucination triggered by the stress of being an interracial couple in the early 1960s (Barney was black, Betty was white).
Another notable UFO sighting occurred near Exeter on September 3, 1965, when a hitchhiker named Norman Muscarello witnessed a large red glowing object descending upon two houses. When Muscarello persuaded a police officer to follow him back to the site, they saw the same UFO hovering about a hundred feet off the ground. The incident inspired the "Exeter UFO Festival," which started as a fundraiser to benefit children's charities in 2010. New Hampshire was also the site of what is often considered the very first photo ever taken of a UFO, which was taken over Mount Washington in 1870.
Finally, there is the mystery of America's Stonehenge in North Salem, a thirty-acre archeological site whose origins are hotly debated. It is reputed in local lore to have a pre-Columbian origin and to have been created either by local indigenous tribes, by monks of the Irish Culdee order, or even by ancient Minoan or Phoenician explorers. However, most archaeologists disagree, as no artifacts from pre-Columbian times have been found in the area. They conclude that white settlers built the site in the 18th/19th centuries for farming purposes and that William Goodwin, who purchased the land in 1937, started the fantastical stories to drum up business. Either way, it certainly seemed to attract the attention of horror literature icon H.P. Lovecraft, who may have based his story "The Dunwich Horror" on the megalith.
Sources:
http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2015/08/10Triangles.html
Dennis William Hauck, Haunted Places: A National Directory
4. Aroostook Triangle (Maine)
This tiny sliver of Aroostook County, Maine, which occupies a 10x25x25 mile sliver of wilderness south of Presque Isle, occupies a rather prominent spot in the work of local folklorist Michelle Souliere. Aroostook is the largest county in New England, which, in Souliere's eyes, makes it a perfect spot for a colony of Bigfoot to hide. Indeed, the area she and fellow Mainer cryptozoologist Loren Coleman have dubbed "the Aroostook Triangle" has long been a hotspot of activity commonly associated with Bigfoot lore: wood knocks, snapped trees, large rocks being thrown about, unidentifiable roars, etc.
What follows is a sampling of alleged Sasquatch encounters in Aroostook County collected by Souliere in her book Bigfoot in Maine, presented in chronological order:
c. 1983, E Plantation: An anonymous John Doe claims that he was camping out in his cousin's backyard when they were woken up by what sounded like rocks being banged together. They went back to sleep, thinking it was a horse in a nearby barn. But the horse wasn't there when they checked the barn the next morning.
They had more sleepovers that summer and more weird encounters. Something followed them while they were walking in the woods and growled and ran off when they tried to get a closer look. They later saw a long, humanoid arm reaching over their tent one night after they were woken up by something brushing up against it.
Later in life, John Doe would learn that his sister had once seen an ape-like face peering through her bedroom window, that his brother had seen what he thought was a rock stand up on two legs and walk away, and that one incident in which his mother had ordered him and his siblings back into the house, shotgun in hand, was because she had seen a black shape lurking around the bushes.
May 1990, near Island Falls on Mattawamkeag River: Mike Dunphy Sr. was out on a Memorial Day fishing trip with his son Mike Jr. when a creature walking on two legs and covered in dark brown hair emerged from the woods and crossed an old logging road. They immediately packed up and left and didn't speak about the incident for years afterward.
May 2007, Moro Plantation: Jeff Kaine was fishing in Green Pond when the peaceful silence was broken by two loud knocks, followed by what sounded like a small tree being snapped in half. Around 7 p.m., Kaine was getting ready to pack it in when a monstrous roar ripped through the evening air. Scared out of his wits, he immediately made a break for his truck and tore out of there. Kaine would later learn that a friend had had large rocks thrown at him during another fishing trip to Green Pond.
Of course, there are probably others, but that's all I could find from Souliere's book. Maybe you have your own. Let me know in the comments!
Sources:
http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2019/07/Aroostook-Triangle.html
Michelle Souliere and Loren Coleman, Bigfoot in Maine (SC, Charleston, The History Press, 2021)
5. Pag Triangle (Croatia)
This location is a rarity because it is one of the only paranormal triangles that is an actual, physical triangle. The triangle takes its name from the island that houses it, Pag, and can be found just outside the small town of Novalja. It was discovered by geologist Zlatko Grabovac in 1999 while surveying the region around Velo Tusto Celo Hill (which means "Big Fat Forehead" in English).
The triangle itself, officially known as the Pag Venture Star, is unusual in several ways. It seems to form a perfect isosceles shape, with two sides measuring 72 feet and another measuring 105 feet. It also consists of rocks of a different structure than those surrounding it, being of a much lighter color. Since science still has not explained how the triangle came into existence, many fringe theorists have come up with their own answers.
Some, like Stjepan Zvonaric, have noted that Pag Island seems to be a UFO hotspot and has accordingly suggested that the rocks within the triangle were superheated when an extraterrestrial spacecraft landed on the spot 12,000 years ago, which is the scientists' best guess on when the triangle was first formed. Some have pointed out that one of the angles of the triangle seems to point to the star Sirius as further proof of this theory.
Others, pointing to a local legend stating that Jesus Himself visited the island after His resurrection, argue that it is a sign from God and that the three vertices symbolize the Holy Trinity. Father Zlatko Sudac, a famous priest with stigmata, even claims that he received his wounds while conversing with a friend about the triangle.
Whatever you believe about the triangle, there is no denying that it is a fairly popular tourist destination, with half a million people visiting in the two decades since its discovery. Several of them have claimed to have experienced unusual activity inside the triangle, including GPS' turning off or connecting with six satellites at once, batteries on electronic devices spontaneously draining, and overall eerie feelings.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pag_Triangle
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pag-triangle
https://croatiaundiscovered.info/en/blog/pag-triangle/
https://unexplainedfile.blogspot.com/2014/01/pag-triangle-ufo-landed-site.html
6. Broad Haven Triangle (Wales)
This UFO hotspot, also known as the Welsh Triangle and the Dyfed Triangle centers on St. Brides' Bay in the province of Pembrokeshire, located on the tip of Wales' southern peninsula. Although it was the wave of sightings that occurred in this region in 1977 that really put this area on the ufology radar, at least one previous sighting has also been recorded.
Taking place near the town of Castlemartin in 1952, it involved a Mr. Thomas, who was taking a lunchtime stroll on the dunes when he noticed something unusual. A group of men was standing over a metallic object that was partially buried in the sand. When Mr. Thomas approached the men, they warned him not to come any closer, as he was not adequately protected from the deadly rays that the object was giving off. After warning him that Earth was on a self-destructive path and that they had been monitoring the planet for hundreds of years, they told Mr. Thomas the name of the planet they came from, a detail that Thomas had forgotten by the time he finally came forward with his story.
As for the 1977 wave of sightings, as usual, here are the most notable incidents recorded in chronological order:
February 4: A group of fourteen schoolchildren is playing football outside Broad Haven Primary School when a yellow cigar-shaped craft lands in a nearby field. Six of them also see a humanoid figure with long ears and a silver suit emerge from the craft. When the headmaster asks the witnesses to draw what they saw, he is struck by the similarity of their drawings. A teacher later came forward to say she saw a shiny oval-shaped object with a slight dome departing from the same field, making a humming noise as it did so. The same craft allegedly made a repeat appearance at the school on February 17, witnessed by three teachers.
March 13: 13-year-old Steven Taylor sees a domed object land in the field near his house. When he goes outside to investigate, he is approached by a tall humanoid wearing a shiny one-piece suit. After he punches at the figure, it vanishes. That same evening, a 17-year-old Milford Haven resident claims she was menaced by a three-foot-tall humanoid standing on her windowsill.
April 7: 64-year-old Cyril John, another Milford Haven resident, is woken up at 5 a.m. by a light shining through his window. He sees an egg-shaped object about four feet wide floating above a nearby field, colored silver-grey with a reddish-orange light on top. A faceless humanoid wearing what looks like a silver-grey boiler suit is floating beside it. The being and the object hovered like that for 25 minutes before slowly moving off.
April 19: One of the more infamous sightings during this flap happens to Rosa Granville, the owner of the Fort Haven Hotel in Little Haven. She was woken by a light shining through her window around 2:30 in the morning. She looked out her window to see a craft shaped like an upside-down saucer in a nearby field, spouting flames of all different colors from its underside. The heat was so intense that Granville claimed her face felt burnt afterward. She also sees two faceless humanoids with pointed heads next to the craft. The saucer disappears in the time it takes her to gather other witnesses. She investigates the site the following day and discovers that the grass has been compressed and scorched.
April onward: Whatever was behind these incidents seems to have held a grudge against the Coombs family, the owners of Ripperston Farm. The family included Billy, his wife Pauline, and their three children. They experienced numerous incidents throughout 1977 that some paranormal enthusiasts have compared to Utah's infamous Skinwalker Ranch. These include lights that chased Pauline as she drove the nearby country lanes, whole herds of cattle being transported to different fields in the time it took Billy to brew a cup of tea, electrical items in the house constantly going haywire, and perhaps most disturbingly, a seven-foot faceless humanoid staring through their living room window.
This is not an exhaustive list, as there were also several cases of people claiming to have been abducted by the aliens haunting the region at the time. The reports were compelling enough that the British Ministry of Defense sent an investigator to see what he could find. He became convinced that the sightings were all the work of a practical joker, which seems to be backed up by local businessman Glyn Edwards coming forward in 1996 claiming that he was the silver-suited spaceman.
Even so, sightings of cigar-shaped UFOs have continued to trickle out of the region sporadically, and several witnesses have continued to stick by their stories, including the boys from the primary school incident and Rosa Granville.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Haven
BROAD HAVEN-THE WELSH TRIANGLE: sjhstrangetales
https://www.specialaccesspodcast.co.uk/post/broad-haven-the-welsh-triangle
https://www.ufoinsight.com/ufos/close-encounters/broad-haven-school-ufo-incident
7. Falkirk Triangle (Scotland)
This sliver of the Scottish lowlands covers the area between Falkirk, Stirling, and Bonnybridge and lies relatively close to the capital Edinburgh. It has been described as the UFO capital of the world, with 300 sightings being recorded annually!
The sightings in the area seem to date back as far as 1979 in the nearby town of Livingston when a forestry worker named Robert Taylor was chased by a metallic black flying dome in Dechmont Wood and may have been the victim of alien abduction (he reported being grabbed by metal rods around his hips that pulled him toward the ship before he blacked out). The sightings in the triangle itself would begin in earnest about ten years later:
1989: A firefighting crew is battling a blaze in Gradrum Moss when a red object approaches them. It hovers over them for several minutes before speeding away. Suddenly, a second object approaches them, glowing white before it, too, hovers and then speeds off.
November 12, 1991: Two photographers at the Polmont Reservoir see two flashing lights over Kincardine Bridge. Despite first thinking it was a helicopter, the pair noticed it made no sound. The craft approached them, and the pair reported hearing a quiet, pulsing hum.
1992: Local businessman James Walker becomes the subject of the most famous encounter to emerge from the triangle. On his way home from work, he encounters a star-shaped UFO that starts following him and eventually cuts him off. As he exits his car to take a closer look, the UFO shoots off at blinding speed. It never makes a sound at any point during the encounter.
March 1992: The Sloggett family is out on an early morning walk outside Bonnybridge when they spot a ring of strange lights over a nearby moor. When the family books it back toward their house, a blue football-shaped craft lands in front of them and opens a door, out of which a howling roar bellows.
August 1992: Gary Wood and Colin Wright are driving along the A70 highway through West Lothian near the Harperring Reservoir when a UFO intercepts their car. They suddenly experience a case of missing time lasting two hours. Under hypnosis, they claim to have been taken to an underground base, where they were experimented upon and saw walls lined with people frozen in glass jars.
January 19, 1994: A motorist in the town of Larbert is chased by a white light, which a bystander manages to capture on tape in an 18-second film.
September 1996: An airforce family reports a truly bizarre encounter in Falkland when they claim to have seen a field swarming with ant-like beings seemingly being commanded by taller white entities to make nests out of saliva and hay. They also claim these beings were being teleported out of a black triangle the size of a stadium via an array of strange lights.
1999: The town of Gorebridge is claimed to have been under siege by UFOs. Reports range from a 737 jet being buzzed by three glowing objects while approaching Edinburgh Airport to two men being chased by a "floating green eye" while looking for Christmas trees near Blinkbonny Mine to an apparent alien being who was photographed standing on someone's roof.
Again, those are just some of the more infamous sightings. As the 300-a-year figure noted above indicates, there are far more sightings where those came from. There are, of course, many theories as to why this area is such a significant hotspot.
Some have seized upon the Wood-Wright account to posit that there is indeed an underground base in the region out of which the UFOs are operating. Others argue that the area's rich history has something to do with the sightings. For example, not only did the celebrated Battle of Bannockburn occur within the confines of the triangle, but some legends state that the town of Camelon was the site of the Battle of Camlann, in which King Arthur fought his battle to the death with his bastard half-son Mordred. Not only that, but Midlothian also houses Rosslyn Chapel, which is popularly believed to hide the Holy Grail, among other holy artifacts, within its walls. This legend was popularized by Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, although most scholars agree the story has no basis in fact.
Many ufologists have noted the similarities between alien abduction stories and old legends of encounters with fairies and elves, suggesting that the fair folk were just how people in the Middle Ages and before conceptualized extraterrestrial beings. Indeed, Scotland and other Celtic countries have a long history of fair folk traditions.
Then again, many residents have accused local leaders of making it all up to turn Bonnybridge and other towns into tourist traps, arguing that the strange craft are just experimental military technology being tested on one of several military bases in the region. That is the most plausible explanation, but one can never really know for sure...
Sources:
https://www.ufoinsight.com/ufos/close-encounters/falkirk-triangle-rosslyn-chapel
http://www.andrewhennessey.co.uk/STA1/falkirktriangle.html
UFOs and High Strangeness at Scotland's Falkirk Triangle- Mysterious Universe
https://www.parkdeanresorts.co.uk/discover-more/places/the-falkirk-triangle/
8. Molyobka Triangle (Russia)
This town is nestled within the southern reaches of the Ural Mountains in the Kishertsky District of Perm Krai. The town is located on ground sacred to the indigenous Mansi people, who believed it was a gathering place for gods and spirits. Maybe that explains the wealth of paranormal phenomena recorded in this triangle, also often known as the Perm Anomalous Zone or the M-Zone.
The M-Zone first gained international attention from ufologists in 1983, when Russian UFO enthusiast Emil Bachurin led an expedition into the village's thick forests. Not only did he witness a purple light rising out of the trees that left behind a patch of melted snow 206 feet across, but the team was also chased by orbs of light that burned them with rays and even knocked one of them unconscious.
Over the years, various people have reported mysterious lights in the sky, luminous translucent beings stalking through the trees, sightings of Chuchunya (Russia's answer to Bigfoot or the Yeti), weather anomalies like strange-colored lightning, disembodied singing voices, malfunctioning compasses and electronics, and watches stopping or even ticking backward.
Another ufologist expedition in 2005 reported seeing a giant glowing ball above the trees. Chillingly, one of the team members went missing afterward, and the last photograph of him allegedly shows a beam shining on the man from the UFO.
The American TV series Sightings also filmed a segment on the Perm anomalies in the early 90s and allegedly had their camp surrounded by orbs of light later that evening. Not only did locals confirm that the mysterious phenomena had long since been accepted as a fact of life among them, but government officials warned the TV crew that staying more than 24 hours in the M-Zone might be hazardous.
Despite this, several people believe that the region has healing properties. Sure, ill health effects like headaches, nosebleeds, muscle aches, nausea, and dizziness have been reported. But others have claimed that the unique energies have a refreshing and enlightening effect and can even cure various ailments.
Perhaps the most famous case of the M-Zone's alleged healing abilities comes from journalist and cosmonaut Pavel Mukhortov. After being turned away from the cosmonaut program due to physical disabilities, Mukhortov traveled to the M-Zone to do a possible story. While he didn't see any UFOs, he and his traveling companions did fall ill. But soon after, they became filled with "an intense sense of well-being" and claimed to have suddenly had their heads filled with visions and knowledge that seemingly came from nowhere. Mukhortov claims that these effects allowed him to pass the Soviet Space Program with flying colors when he reapplied and thus finally fulfilled his dream of becoming a cosmonaut.
Whether or not this is because UFOs are drawn to the strange electromagnetic forces endemic to the region, or it's the electromagnetism combined with infrasound that is causing hallucinations of UFOs, one cannot deny that there is something weird going on in the woods around Molyobka. However, if you want to check it out for yourself, be forewarned; the area is overcrowded with other "pilgrims" seeking answers to the phenomena. Just make sure you're not placing too much strain on the locals.
Sources:
Molebka's triangle- MYSTICAL RUSSIA
A Bizarre Anomalous Zone in the Wilds of Russia- Mysterious Universe
9. Great River Triangle (New York)
This is undoubtedly the smallest triangle I've covered in either triangle list regarding the total area it covers (except for the Pag Triangle, of course). It spans only a tiny 4 1/2 square mile area of Suffolk County on Long Island, New York, between the towns of Islip, Oakdale, and Heckscher State Park. What sets this area apart, according to local urban legend, is its history of UFO sightings. Indeed, with 554 sightings recorded between 2001 and 2015 alone, Suffolk County has been described as the UFO capital of New York. Some notable sightings include:
May 1908: Several residents witness what they describe as "a string of lighted beads" flying across the sky. At one point, the lead UFO stops, causing the others to merge with it and "spin like a Fourth of July pinwheel" before taking off at great speed.
July 1954: An Oakdale resident calls his wife and son, Tom, out to the yard. They witness three glowing objects in a V formation in the night sky. Tom remembers seeing a discharge that reminded him of Christmas tinsel pouring out of the back of the objects before they disappeared behind the trees.
May 1997: A female motorist, several police officers, and many people in a nearby building witnessed six golden-colored lights hovering in the sky. Oddly enough, several other people in the area later claimed they saw nothing unusual.
July 2014: Several Islip residents report seeing a bright orange fireball traveling east-southeast around 10:30 in the evening.
According to ufologist Cheryl Costa, there have been 40 sightings of UFOs within the perimeter of the Great River Triangle between 1918 and 2014. What attracts them to the region is unknown.
Sources:
Syracuse New Times- The Great River Triangle UFOS
NBC New York- Suffolk County Leads NY State in UFO Reports
UFO Digest- Long Island's Great River Triangle UFOs
10. Romblon Triangle (Philipinnes)
This one comes to us from the Philippines. With its three points resting on the Conception municipality in the north, Sibuyan in the southeast, and Dos Hermanos in the southwest, the triangle encompasses the entirety of the Romblon island archipelago, hence the name. The Sibuyan Sea surrounding the archipelago has gained a nasty reputation over the years for being involved in several of the worst maritime disasters in history, wartime or peacetime. For example:
October 24, 1944: The Battle of the Sibuyan Sea was part of the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf, which is often considered not just the largest naval battle during World War II but the largest battle in the entire history of naval warfare. Of the 200,000 naval personnel involved in the battle, 15,500 died, all but three thousand on the Japanese side. The Allied Forces' victory in this battle allowed them to take the Philipinnes back from the Japanese and leave the Japanese navy as a shell of its former glory.
One big reason for this was the loss of the Musashi in the Sibuyan Sea, the first of four significant engagements in the Leyte Gulf affair. The Musashi, alongside her sister ship Yamato, was the largest battleship ever constructed, displacing 72,000 tons. Not that it did her much good in the end, as she was sunk by 19 torpedos and 17 bombs in 4430 feet of water with the loss of 1376 of her 2399-man crew. The Yamato would suffer a much worse fate off Okinawa on April 7, 1945: struck by 11 torpedos and six bombs, she capsized and exploded, losing 3055 of her 3332 crew.
April 22, 1980: The MV Don Juan, belonging to the Neros Navigation shipping company, collides with the oil tanker MT Tacloban City at 1 p.m. between Dos Hermanos and Conception islands. The Don Juan sank with the loss of only 18 lives, although 115 were reported missing. Still, 745 survivors were recorded, which is far more than I can say for the next shipping disaster on this list...
December 20, 1987: The severely overcrowded ferry MV Dona Paz sets out from Tacloban on Leyte en route to Manila. Around 10:30 that evening, the ferry collided with the oil tanker MT Vector in the Tablas Strait off the island of Marinduque and subsequently burst into flames. Both ships sank within two hours and four hours, respectively. Although the ferry's official capacity was 1424 passengers, survivor testimony places the actual number of people aboard closer to 4000. Indeed, out of the only 24 passengers who survived (plus one crew member), only five were recorded in the ship's manifest. Current estimates place the death toll over 4300, making the Dona Paz incident the worst peacetime shipping disaster in history.
June 21, 2008: The Romblon archipelago suffers another deadly ferry disaster, thanks to Typhoon Fengshen. The MV Princess of the Stars was on a voyage from Manila to Cebu City when the typhoon, then a Category Two storm, unexpectedly changed course. The ferry was caught in the middle of it, and after being battered by the stormy seas for twelve hours, it capsized around 1 p.m. off the municipality of San Fernando on Sibuyan Island. The heavy seas prevented rescue ships from reaching the foundering vessel for another twelve hours. By the time help finally came, only 56 of the 870 people on board were left alive.
So far, there doesn't seem to be anything particularly mysterious about this triangle. Indeed, as the Philippine Coast Guard has pointed out, there hasn't been much we've talked about in this entry that typhoons, high tides, hidden rocks or reefs, or navigational errors couldn't have caused. That is unless you think Lolo Amang is somehow involved.
Lolo Amang can be described as the Philippines' answer to the Flying Dutchman. He reportedly sails the waters around Romblon in a shiny golden ship that can be seen from a mile away. Those who approach close enough have reported seeing a massive party on the decks, full of food, music, and fair-skinned dancing women. Indeed, if we believe some eyewitness accounts from the MV Don Juan incident, the ships collided because the Don Juan's captain was steering to avoid colliding with Lolo Amang's ship.
Of course, many are inclined to believe that the Lolo Amang legend is nothing more than a sailor's fairy tale born from booze or an attempt to escape liability for a shipping accident. Still, legends of strange incidents in the region date back to the Spanish colonies in the 16th century, with many galleons plying the Manila-Acapulco route leaving offerings to the spirits and mermaids living in the cursed seas around Sibuyan.
Who knows? Maybe the age of myths from the indigenous tribes of the Philippines is still alive and well in the seas around Romblon.
Sources:
https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/romblon-triangle-a00289-20210104
https://www.wattpad.com/18533801-urban-legends-romblon-triangle
https://statusbookph.blogspot.com/2012/03/romblon-triangle.html
https://manilastandard.net/news/-provinces/139634/the-curse-of-the-romblon-triangle.html
And there you have it; ten more paranormal triangles profiled and examined! I will most definitely be returning to this subject again at a later date. I’d like to determine whether the Vile Vortices are really that vile and examine some famous incidents in the Bermuda Triangle to see if they really are all that strange. But that will have to wait until sometime after May when I do a retrospective on a franchise inspired by a classic novel about rabbits that helped me rediscover my love of fiction and animation during high school, and without which this blog almost certainly wouldn’t exist. Until next time, beautiful watchers.
