Hello World, and welcome into a special bonus episode of The in my footsteps podcast. I am the host Christopher Setterlund. Coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This is a special spooky, Episode 42. With Halloween coming up, I thought it was only appropriate to do this special bonus episode based on the scariest places that I've ever been. So I'm going to talk about how those were what made them scary why I went there. But then we're going to go on the other side of the coin, and I'm going to tell you about some places I thought would be scary, but weren't scary. And maybe some places that I hope to visit in the future that will scare the hell out of me too. Coming up right now on episode 42 of the in my footsteps podcast.
I love Halloween. I love doing that voice and having that different music just for this episode. I've literally waited an entire year because I started the podcast last year, the week after Halloween. So to finally get to use the music I grabbed and to be able to talk about scary stuff and do the creepier voice and have sound effects. I couldn't wait for that. I love Halloween, I love horror movies, I love being scared. And it's a lot of fun to go to places and try to get scared. And there are loads of places with Cape Cod being one of the oldest places in the country, you know, New England. So there are a lot of areas where there are old cemeteries, old broken-down buildings, and I wanted to share some of my favorite places that I've gone to that were just scary or creepy or unsettling. Maybe it'll give you ideas of places to go. But then I'm also going to talk about places I went to thinking they were going to be scary, but they were disappointing. And there are a couple of those. And then there are a few that I want to go to. So we'll get into that. This is actually it's not a season finale. But basically there's not going to be an episode next week and the week after it's going to start my second year of doing the podcast. So this is sort of a de facto season finale. And on November 5, that's going to be my one-year anniversary livestream. So hopefully you'll all will tune into that. I'm going to try to do a special q&a for that. So if you want to ask some questions about the podcast, anything that I've done over the last year, I'm going to put stuff up on Instagram like the Ask Me Anything type question. So we'll see how that goes. And if you like horror, the scary the true crime, got several different posts on my in my footsteps, podcast blog, you can go and look them up there. Rather than send you on quests to find things. Let's just dive into the scariest places that I've ever been. So most of these are able to be visited right now. Like you could listen to this and then go to them if you're in the area. But I wouldn't recommend that after dark. And ironically, the first place I'm going to talk about is one that I don't think you can go to and I wouldn't try it. The statute of limitations is probably expired on this but on old do lane road and Truro on Cape Cod is the former North Truro Air Force base. This base was an operation from 1951 to 1985. And it stretches out over about 110 acres of land that abuts the high cliffs of Truro facing the Atlantic Ocean, there's been a lot of money spent, and they're going to make it into a place that you can go and visit. It's been a part of the Cape Cod National Seashore since 1994, despite the money being spent on it, and some of the buildings having been torn down when I went and this was I would say six years ago, there were still several buildings just decaying there. And it's creepy on the outside. So right now the last time I went up in that area was well over a year ago, part of it was fenced off like you couldn't drive out to where the actual Air Force Base was. I don't know how it is. Now I'm not recommending you go and check it out and let me know. But I will say that when I was up there taking photos, and walking around some of these buildings, there just happened to be a body-sized hole in one of the doors. So I was able to slide inside one of these empty abandoned buildings. It was only lit up by the sun coming through cracks in Windows and it's filled with machinery and furniture that was covered in dust and cobwebs. And it's just silent. You'd hear noises but you would hope there's no one else in there. There were noises and there were hallways that just went off into the darkness. There was a stairway that went up to a second floor you couldn't see anything up there and it was just like I expected to see Jason Voorhees pop out at the top and come down. I spent maybe 10 minutes inside there I grabbed a couple of photos I'll post a photo up on Twitter if you want to see it or Instagram either or that's what I wouldn't recommend going and trying to get into. I just happened to be there. There happened to be a hole that I can fit my body through and the rest is history. Not far down the road. From the old air force base is the Pine Grove Cemetery on old County Road in Truro. This cemetery is horrifying, it is in the middle of nowhere. And I mean literally old county road is very rural, you find the entrance to the Pine grove cemetery and it's another dirt road that takes you a half mile even further into the middle of nowhere. When I've gone there to take photos of the creepy gravestones that date back to the 17th century. I've never seen another car down there. I rarely if ever hear any animals. So what makes this even scarier is if you go all the way in the back on the left side, there's a brick crypt that's kind of a half-circle shape. The story is that in 1969, Tony Costa murdered and mutilated four women, and at least one of those women was mutilated in that crypt. So he brought the body in there and just cut her up and pulled organs out. I've been inside that crypt. There's no evidence in there. But there are these white eyes and teeth like three sets of them that someone spray painted in there that makes it just even scarier. But I will tell you, I went up there last week to shoot a few photos for an upcoming book and the crypt is actually chained shut. It's the first time I've I've been there that I've seen that. The first time I ever went there was by myself. It was near dark, it was foggy. And I went to take a few photos because I've heard about the legend of this cemetery and Tony Costa, I went there and my phone within two minutes was dead. It was 100% full. I sent one text message my battery drained instantly which I've been told it's paranormal stuff that can happen. It can drain your battery, you feel the cold. I then walk there, these fire roads down there. They're dirt roads. And if you head down one, it goes to the left of the cemetery. I think it's north, but you go back down there and walk way down and that's where the other three bodies that Tony Costa murdered were found in shallow graves. So I went walking down there to see if there was any creepy stuff down there. There was this weird phone that was nailed to a tree that said Tony chop chops phone. I've got a photo of that somewhere too. But that's also been removed, so you can't find it. But when I walked down there, there were mosquitoes and flies. So I had my windbreaker pulled up over my head to avoid getting bitten. And as I walked, all I could hear was the rubbing of the material on my ears. And from the side. It sounded like someone you know, when you whistle, you put your fingers in your mouth and that said high-pitched squealing whistle. I heard that right next to my head. And I stopped and looked around. There was nothing no birds, no people, no animals, just that whistle noise I turned around, it was almost dark. I said forget it. This is not worth that. I wouldn't walk him back to my car and I got the hell out of there. It was interesting because nothing physically happened to me. But I sent a text that was something like If anything happens to me know where I am. And then I took a picture of my car before I walked off into the woods, because I'm thinking if they find if they don't find me or they find me dead, there's the text and the photo that makes it really like a movie mystery. I definitely recommend that if you're into cemeteries and creepy true crime stories, definitely go check out the Pine Grove cemetery. I've mentioned in Episode 40 about the grave of Thomas Ridley. You can hear more about that and his story the Cape Cod's loneliest grave, but for those of you that didn't hear about it, it's a single solitary grave out in the woods of Truro boy Charles got a lot of these in here. But it's about a half mile or a little more out in the woods behind Montana's restaurant on Route six. Thomas Ridley was a normal man, he had a wife he had 10 kids, but as he got older, he got smallpox, which was a terrible terrible disease that thankfully vaccines got rid of. But back then you basically you either got horrible scars for life or you died from it one or the other. So when he died, they buried him far away from the village by himself in the woods, and it's terrifying when you walk in, it's just overgrown and brush. Eventually. There it is. There's this little grave it's like a foot tall. It mixes in with the color of the ground and you think about how few people have laid eyes on that. Because a Who the hell would know it's out there be who would actually go walking out there or, and see who could actually find it. It took me three different trips seven hours before I found it. I guess I would classify it as more sad than creepy because I've everyone has seen graves and everyone that seen cemeteries. But knowing that this man caught a deadly disease and then was buried so far away from his family, and he's been sitting out there for 240-something years, that one's a little harder to find. You have to have time on your hands if you want to go out there and find the grave of Thomas Ridley, or you can go to YouTube and watch my video about it. And speaking of smallpox, not far down the road on Route 6 in Provincetown is this hidden smallpox cemetery, which is in the woods. It's similar to Thomas Ridley, but it's not quite as far in the woods. My buddy Steve and I, went and found this a few years ago. Originally, this area, it was constructed in 1848. There was a pestilence house or a pest house where they kept these people that had smallpox. It was a tiny eight by 10 foot building, which stood until 1873. And then they tore it down. And there's this hole there from where the building stood. And that's not the creepiest part. The creepiest part are these little rectangular stones that are numbered, literally, just number one, number two, and they go in a straight line away from the hole where the building stood. And these are people. It's sad because the gravestones don't have names because basically when smallpox was so contagious, it was like people died from it. They just threw him in a hole and put the stone there. So let's get them buried. It can be so creepy and somber at the same time to be standing among the stones and knowing it's people with lives. But yet here they are buried in the woods and thickly overgrown woods, it took us a while to find it. It really shocks you when you are just walking like it'd be on a normal hike and then you find a gravestone. And the sad thing is that after more than 140 years of these stones being out in the woods, only four of the 14 that are there remain in good condition. Some are totally missing, some are broken. So on Route six A and West Barnstable again back in the woods, or the remains of the West Barnstable brick factory. The story is that a century ago this was a thriving business creating these popular bricks from the clay deposits underground from where the factory was in the 1920s. At its peak, the factory was making 100,000 bricks a day and upwards of 30 million a year. But in 1932, a test hole was dug into the clay to estimate how many years of brickmaking remained. This hole created an artisan Well, which flooded the clay pits and instantly put the West Barnstable brick factory out of business. Those bricks, by the way, they're very popular collector's items. I've seen them for $35 or more for brick on eBay. Today bits and pieces of the factory remain, they basically went out of business and left. So there are brick walls. If you go out there, there are no pathways, you have to bushwhack, I went out there tore my jeans up, you can't see the factory until you're within 20 or 30 feet of it. So I'm out there going through thorns and ripping my clothes, I was climbing trees 2030 feet up to see if I could find it. And at one point, I slipped up in the tree, and I'm holding on to the branch and I'm thinking this is going to be how I die. I'm going to fall out of this tree and I'm going to get killed and no one's going to know where I was. It is very dangerous. If you want to dare to try it. I would recommend doing it in the winter when it's not as overgrown. I always say don't be stupid like me. I go out and find things and get photos and stories to share. I don't want someone getting hurt. But I will say if you do go out there. There are hundreds and hundreds of West Barnstable bricks out there. Most of its broken bits and pieces. I couldn't find any whole ones. It's like a flashback to almost 100 years ago. But now we go off Cape at 28 Hospital Road in Medfield. Massachusetts is the Medfield State Hospital. This is possibly the creepiest place I've ever been. It's literally an old abandoned mental hospital. The campus is now open for people to walk. But when I first went there in 2010, you could walk it but I remember being told no cameras, so I snuck my camera in anyway. The buildings are all blood red and because of the rain that has fallen over the centuries, it has made the paint run where it looks like the windows are crying white tears. The first time I went there was no sound no wind, no animals. All there was this beige sedan driving around the property because it's like an abandoned neighborhood. It was like a nightmare out of Nightmare on Elm Street. I expected Freddy Krueger to pop out of one of the buildings. Even though it was the middle of the day and sunny it was just a feeling like there's spirits there because it's an abandoned mental hospital. Nothing really good happened there I've, I've written stories about it, the history of it. It's not a pleasant place. There is a cemetery right next to it as well, which I haven't been to yet, but that's on the list. The last time I went there, when there were people around walking, I was going around behind this. It was an old vocational building, and there was nobody inside but yet I could hear what sounded like a drill going in there. That was I got a video of it with the drill going and there was no one there. No one inside no one working. But yeah, that'll put fear into you. I did a story on the podcast about the Lizzie Borden murders. The Lizzie Borden house at 230 2nd street in Fall River is another one where you feel terror you feel that uneasiness when you go in there. It's a museum now in doubles as a bed and breakfast. But when you go in there, there are photos crime scene photos from the murders, where Lizzie Borden killed her mother and stepfather while she was accused of it and acquitted but there's never been another suspect. It's perhaps the creepiest place in Massachusetts. I'd vote for the Medfield state hospital but you be the judge. When I stood where Abigail Borden’s body was found, I felt this heaviness like standing there where she was killed. It's Oh, it gives you the chills. There's a replica of the couch where Andrew Borden was found with hatchet wounds to his face. And even though it's a replica, you can imagine what it looked like. And there are photos of it that are just horrible. It's purported to be haunted. If you have the guts to go and stay there, the Buzzfeed Unsolved supernatural shows Ryan and Shane went and stayed there and they heard noises, but I definitely recommend the tour. I don't know about spending the night there. But you can go and get the tour. I took the tour. And it was a lot of fun, but very creepy, even during the day. But those are the scariest places that I've been in New England. There are others that I haven't seen yet that I want to go see. But as far as places that I thought would be scary and weren't. There's a place called the Bridgewater triangle. It's about 200 square miles. There's the hockomock Swamp. It's in between Plymouth and Providence, Rhode Island. There's an area it's supposed to be UFOs and Bigfoot sightings. I wasn't sure if there'd be anything there. I drove around and never saw or heard anything. Maybe I was just there at the wrong time. And then old forts that I thought would be haunted. I guess they weren't because nothing really happened there. Fort revere and Hall and Fort Rodman in New Bedford. They're great to look at. They're creepy. They're kind of dilapidated, but there's nothing as far as haunting there. Although I will say at Fort Rodman, the first time I went there, the front gates, they weren't open. But there was a hole in the door. And I looked through the hole, I was going to try to get a picture of the inside courtyard of this fort, and they had a big cutout of a soldier standing in there. And the first time I saw it, I thought it was a ghost standing there. But then when I zoomed in on the photo I saw it was a cutout of a soldier, but that gave me a mini heart attack. The old forts in New England are neat, because a lot of them you can go inside, especially the earthen forts, where you walk in your underground and it's dark, and there's just nothing around. I've yet to ever see or hear anything, but it's definitely a cool feeling like you're in a scary place, but not in danger. I guess the most dangerous thing going in there is broken glass from idiots that go in there with their stupid beer bottles, and I've seen lots of those, but I've yet to step on the glass. As far as upcoming places that I want to go and visit and get scared to death by there's the Hoosac tunnel. It's an old railroad tunnel that goes through the towns of North Adams and Florida, Massachusetts. During its construction. 196 people died in explosions. The people that survived gave it the nickname The bloody pit and that's where the hauntings come from. It's supposedly really haunted that if you walk through there, you'll hear it 196 People that's a lot of death associated with it. There's the grave of Mercy Brown who was a purported vampire in Chestnut Hill Cemetery in Exeter, Rhode Island, I wrote an article about the story of Mercy Brown, so I don't want to get too deep into it. But she was thought to be a vampire. I think what it was was she really had tuberculosis, which back then 150 years ago mimicked what people thought vampire ism was. I'll link to the article but the neat thing about the cemetery is that her grave mercy Brown is shackled to a tree because people were stealing her gravestone. So you go out there and there's this big shackle around her tombstone shackled to a tree which is just creepy in itself. And finally in Stowe, Vermont, there's the gold Brook covered bridge also known as Emily's bridge, the story is that the woman Emily was supposed to meet her lover there and they were gonna elope and he didn't show and when he didn't show she took her own life by jumping off the bridge and now she haunts that bridge. There are tales of claw marks on cars that drive-thru there people getting scratched voices, so I definitely want to go there and check that out. But that wraps up this special bonus episode. That's all my creepy places. I've been the ones that weren't so creepy. The ones I want to see in the future. Did you go to any of those? Are you gonna go check any of them out? If you go after dark? Let me know how it is to any of those places, especially the ones on the cape that I'm familiar with. And everybody out there have a safe and happy Halloween enjoy the time hopefully the weather is good for all you parents bringing your kids trick or treating. Remember to tune into my live streams Friday at 8pm. Find me on social media, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter. Thank you to everyone who has tuned into any of these episodes over the first year of the podcast. Remember, there's no episode next week. Basically, this is the season finale. And then in two weeks, I'll be back for episode 43. That's going to include the legendary story of the Mill Hill club in West Yarmouth, my embarrassing stories of the times that I have dyed my hair the funniest As Seen on TV products of a visit to Appomattox, Virginia where the Civil War ended, and a special time capsule that has to do with my birthday so I get to share that with you. So come and celebrate that. Thank you so much for tuning into the in my footsteps podcast. I appreciate every one of you that has helped me along the way for this first year. And I'll see you in two weeks for year number two.
