By Tim Binnall
Just in time for the start of spooky season, Connecticut has created a huge 'Haunted History Trail' featuring over 130 peculiar spots worth visiting. Announced by the state's tourism office on Wednesday, the expansive list of locations is broken down into nine peculiar types of sites, including legendary haunted houses, cemeteries, restaurants, hiking trails, hotels, and lighthouses. Connecticut ghost and paranormal tours and famed "witch, occult, and metaphysical collections" also feature prominently on the list of stops along the trail. Rounding out the list are locations connected to the state's witch trails, which preceded the infamous events in Salem, Massachusetts, by nearly 50 years.
At a launch party on Wednesday night, Governor Ned Lamont conceded to a local TV station that "you know I'm a little skeptical, but I got to admit, as years go on, you realize there's more and more things you can't explain." Meanwhile, tourism director Rachel Lenda explained that the trail is aimed at encouraging people to explore the many unusual locations that can be found throughout the state. "There’s a difference between hearing that Connecticut has haunted history," she mused, "and standing in New Haven Evergreen Cemetery at the grave of Midnight Mary," a notorious apocryphal tale of a woman buried alive in the late 1800s. The 'Haunted History Trail' mirrors similarly spooky tourism programs in West Virginia, Nevada, and Kentucky.