Most Haunted Places in America: Camp Titicut

In the 1950’s Camp Titicut was opened in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, giving the local youth a place to learn about nature, animals, swimming, boating and the outdoors in general. As it turns out, the camp was built upon an old Native American Indian burial ground, and has quite a history behind it.

The actual camp no longer exists, now a public camping ground known as the Titicut Conservation Area, but to date, there are said to be at least three ghosts haunting the remains of Camp Titicut.

The word “Titicut” comes from the Wampanoag Native American tribe’s word for “the place of a great river”. It is a 33-acre reserve of woodlands that was once part of the Wampanoag reservation.

If you do enough reading on the subject, or even ask some of the locals of Bridgewater, MA, you’re likely to come across ghost haunting stories that state King Philip was killed, then drawn and quartered, on the land that later became Camp Titicut. You may even be told that late at night, deep in the woods, what sounds like rustling leaves is actually believed to be the spectral body of King Philip attempting to pull his quartered limbs back together.

Upon further investigation, however, one will discover that King Philip was shot, then his body drawn and quartered, but nowhere near Camp Titicut. He was murdered in Mount Hope, Rhode Island (now Bristol, RI), about 60 miles away from the haunted camp grounds.

Another story states that it was not King Philip, but rather Philip’s brother (Chief Wamsutta of the Wampanoag Native American Tribe, a.k.a. Alexander to the English) and his wife haunt Camp Titicut, having been murdered there. However, Wamsutta became suddenly ill after being summoned to the Plymouth Courts some 20 miles away over a land dispute.

Many suspect he was poisoned, and though that is not backed up by any documented facts, it’s not out of the question that he would return to his tribal land, or may have even been laid to rest within the tribal burial grounds. This would at least explain King Philip’s brother haunting Camp Titicut.

Yet another local legend speaks of a boy who drowned in the lake while attending Camp Titicut in the 1940’s. Folklore states his ghostly apparition can be seen wandering the old camp grounds. This story might be dismissible as the facts are all wrong. Camp Titicut was not even opened until the 1950’s. However, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a displaced story that occurred later, or perhaps the young boy did drowned there, but before the camp was officially opened.

The only remnants of Camp Titicut that remain are the flag pole, a stone pedestal that once held a sun dial and a partial structure that was once the camp grounds cafeteria. Stories of the haunting of the Titicut Conservation Area continue to circulate. Though some locals are adamant that no paranormal activity is truly present on the land, others vehemently maintain they have experience paranormal phenomenon, especially sightings of the young boy who is said to have drowned there so many years ago.

Related posts:

1. The Ghosts of King Phillip’s War
2. Paranormal Activity at Holy Cross Sanatorium
3. Haunted Places: Fort Ticonderoga
4. Haunted Places: Detroit’s Fort Wayne
5. Haunted St. Albans