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Spotlight On: Anawan Rock Rehoboth, Massachusetts

Rehoboth, Massachusetts has been called the commonwealth’s most haunted town. There are six well-known sites that have produced numerous reports of apparitions, strange lights, and disembodied voices. The Hornbine School, an historic, one-room schoolhouse located at the intersection of Hornbine Road and Baker Street is said to be haunted by the spirits of its former students and their teacher. On Reed Street, a mysterious man in black has been seen walking around the ruins of the Shad Pond Factory. When witnesses have gone to look for him, he disappeared without a trace.

The old Palmer River Burial Ground on Lake Street is haunted by the ghosts of a little boy and a Colonial soldier. During two separate, independent investigations, paranormal investigators Brianne Pouliot and Michael Markowicz both recorded electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) of a woman singing in the burial ground. My colleagues and I have dubbed this spirit “The Singing Lady of Palmer River.”

The Shad Pond Factory

The Village Cemetery on Bay State Road contains no fewer than three specters. This graveyard has a ghost of a little boy that is seen dancing about the graves. There are also reports of a floating woman in white and a dark shade of a man in eighteenth-century garb that yells obscenities at women visiting the cemetery. This angry ghost has also been heard to cry out the name “Catherine” while positioned on his knees, pounding the ground with his fists.

On Route 44, near the Seekonk, Massachusetts, town line, a phantom referred to as “The Redheaded Hitchhiker” is said to walk the road late at night in the dead of winter. Dressed in denim jeans, work boots, and a flannel shirt, this redheaded ghost (some reports say he has a matching beard) harasses drivers by stepping out in front of their vehicles, forcing them to slam on the brakes. When the badly shaken driver looks for a body in the road, none is ever found. Stories claim that an awful, maniacal laughter, which seems to come from all directions, terrorizes the motorists.

Perhaps the most active haunted site in Rehoboth is a place called Anawan Rock. Located off of Route 44 East (about a half mile before the intersection with New Street), the rock is accessible by a short footpath that leads from a small, but well-marked parking lot. In 1676 the bloody “King Philip’s War” came to an end. In June 1675, the English authorities in the Plymouth colony had pressured the Wamponoag sachem (chief), Metacomet, into a war he didn’t want. His Christian name was Philip, and he defied King Charles II’s rule over his people and their land. On August 12, 1676, Philip was betrayed and brutally executed at Mount Hope, Rhode Island. His last surviving general, Anawan, was hiding in Rehoboth at this rock formation, using the surrounding swamp as concealment while he and a small band of warriors debated their future. Captain Benjamin Church and a company of militia moved in through the swamp on August 28, taking Anawan and his men completely by surprise, and demanded their unconditional surrender. The Indians were then marched off in shackles to Plymouth, Massachusetts, and later executed. Their severed heads were displayed on pikes for all to see. For many years, people visiting this historic site have reported experiencing strange phenomena. Some claim they have seen phantom fires that gave off no heat, burned nothing, and then quickly faded away before their eyes like an image on film. Visitors have also reported the strong smell of burning wood as if they were standing right by a campfire that they could not see. It is believed these are the ghostly campfires of Anawan and his men.

Further astonishing encounters involve witnesses hearing voices speaking in what is believed to be a dialect of Algonquin, the language of the Wampanoags. Luann Jolly and Gabrielle Lawson, cofounders of the paranormal research group, Whaling City Ghosts, have recorded voices at Ananwan Rock speaking Wampanoag words meaning “friend” and “kinsmen.” They also captured a voice speaking in English. One cold night in February, as the two ladies were approaching the rock from the parking lot, Luann reminded Gabrielle to be very careful and avoid injury in the dark. At that moment, their audio recorder captured a voice saying, “Here we go.” When I heard this audio clip, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the trapped spirit of a militiaman, moving in on Ananwan and his men for all eternity.

That very same evening, Gabrielle Lawson videotaped balls of light moving past her while she was standing at the top of the rock. There was no wind that night and the weather was dry and cold. Whatever the orbs were, they could not have been snowflakes, and they certainly were not flying insects. The big shock of that night came towards the end of their investigation when Luann Jolly saw the figure of a man standing only a few feet away from her. Luann told me she only saw him briefly, but there was enough ambient light to make out the detail of his garments. She is certain the figure was an American Indian. Even though she cannot prove it, Luann’s gut feeling tells her that it was Anawan’s ghost.

On the evening of August 31, 2008, Matt Moniz of Spooky Southcoast Radio and I conducted our own investigation of Ananwan Rock. The first strange thing that occurred that night was a ball of light I saw hovering in the air behind the rock. It disappeared as soon as my mind acknowledged that it was there. I said nothing to Matt. A few minutes later, Matt saw the same floating orb himself. I asked him where he saw it and he pointed his flashlight beam to the exact same spot as my sighting.

Then Matt asked me to stand next to him and look out into the swamp. I saw nothing at first, but then I was astounded by the unmistakable sight of firelight flickering on the underside of the forest canopy. The light was fleeting, but anyone who has sat around a campfire knows what firelight looks like when it illuminates the underside of the leaves on the trees above. There was no visible light source that could have created this effect. We kept an eye out for it throughout the night, but never saw the firelight again.

The third thing that happened on our vigil really shook us up. Matt and I were standing only a few feet apart with our backs to one another. That August night was quite warm and there was no breeze to speak of. All of a sudden, the air between us became as cold as ice. It felt like someone had walked right between us, turning our skin into gooseflesh. Later Matt and I laughed as we recalled the looks on our faces at the very moment we turned around to face each other, not knowing what we were going to see.