September 30, 2025 • 34 mins
Deep in the quiet hills of Moodus, Connecticut, the ground groans, rumbles, and roars. For centuries, locals have heard the infamous “Moodus Noises”, phantom booms that shake the earth without warning. To the Indigenous people, they were the voice of angry spirits. To early colonists, they were a curse from the Devil himself. Scientists call them microquakes—but even they can’t explain the chilling frequency, nor why the sounds sometimes seem to happen when no seismic activity exists. In this episode, we’re digging into the legends, the history, and the science behind one of New England’s oldest and creepiest mysteries.
Contact Us: Thegang@WeirderAfterDark.com
Socials: Facebook | Reddit | Instagram @WeirderAfterDark
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In the town of Moodus, Connecticut, a strange and still
unexplained series of rumblings seemed to be coming from beneath
the ground. For as long as people can
remember, Native American medicine men, Puritan preachers,
alchemists, and scientists have all theorized to the source of
these strange noises. Up to this very day, none have
been able to decisively answer to the origins of the
Sumterranian rumble so far. From magic to seismology and
(00:21):
everything in between, Today we'll be exploring the Moodus
noises. I'm Chris.
I'm Kathy. I'm Sean.
And this is Waiter after dark. Sean, Kathy, you know what
(00:46):
tomorrow is, right? I do.
I do. Yeah, I mean, come on, October
1st, the kick off of spooky season, everything that fucking
runs through our blood 24/7. This is our, this is our month
guys. This is it.
I'm so excited for October. And it's our first fucking
spooky season with the pod because you remember last year
we started November. We did.
We missed it. We we can't fuck this up.
(01:06):
Yeah. We need to deliver.
Absolutely, absolutely. And like, just thinking about
some of the episodes, gang, thatwe've got coming down the
pipeline, we've got fucking aliens, we've got ghosts,
ghosts. We've got maybe a surprise
episode. That's like a pre tease.
Real. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Someone's coming down the pipeline.
We've got something cooking. We're working on something.
(01:27):
Yeah, you might get a bonus episode this month, you know,
because you know, why the fuck? Not it is October.
It is October. Exactly.
Exactly. It's not fucking pumpkin spice
latte October, it's scary as fuck October, and that's what we
do here. That's it, That's it.
We got the weird shit that pops off in New England and this is
our fucking month's shine. I do like a good pumpkin spice
doughnut though. I do love a good pumpkin spice
(01:48):
muffin. Chris is just like you could
scare it. I want like a pumpkin spice.
Is pretty good. Pumpkin spice scarves, hats,
warm weather. Call me basic weather, I'll eat
a fucking muffin. Get fucked.
But yes, Halloween. Do we have any like Halloween
rituals or favorite memories or what really be like get you
fucking going when October 1st comes?
(02:08):
Every October, we'll start off doing a classic horror movie run
through the entire month. Halloween, Friday the 13th, Not
Nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah.
Yeah. But The Conjurings and just all
those movies, I just. Yeah, I love those.
Movies. You.
You just let it. RIP, I do.
All those first comes, yes, I'm sending it all.
Right, we haven't been perfect about it, but usually we do at
(02:31):
least hit Salem once Salem, Mass, and do the ghost tours and
hang out for the day. Yeah, we did try to do Salem one
year and we had tickets to go ona ghost tour.
No, I'm talking about like a fewyears ago and Sean and I got
wasted and couldn't find where the tour was supposed to start.
Pretty sure you just did your own tour at that point.
We did that's. Just that's spooky over there.
(02:53):
Yeah, we have this. Great.
Photo that we can throw on the Instagram too about us with like
the the witches from that movie Focus.
Focus witches or not The real ones, maybe.
Maybe the real ones maybe. I don't think it was fucking
sale mess. Things got weird.
I feel like I've always been thetype of individual that's just
like zoned in on like horror movies and stuff.
So me and one of my buddies, Chris, we are not this Chris
(03:13):
different Chris every month. We do like horror movie nights.
So most recently we saw Weapons,which is sick.
I think that just probably amps up a little bit.
But who doesn't fucking love thefall weather?
Summer's winding down. You still get some good days,
but then you get those cold, crisp nights like, oh, I love
it. I love sitting around like a a
campfire, like at night when youjust like you're all hanging out
having some drinks. They're.
(03:34):
Doing an episode live around thecampfire.
Oh, that. 'D be so cool.
We can make that happen. Yeah, we totally figure that.
Out. Maybe that's part of our our
special. Oh, OK.
All right. Maybe.
Let's take a look at how not to burn any of the equipment.
Yeah, and we'll see if we can get our guests maybe to come in
person. Maybe that could happen.
That'd be cool. That'd be dope.
Well, hey, when we think of Halloween, you're thinking of
(03:54):
goblins, you're thinking of ghosts, you're thinking of
witches, you're thinking of aliens.
You might be thinking of Donald Trump.
Scary shit. I've got, I got some scary shit
for you. Floods, wildfires, air quality
warnings. I think we broke the record for
90° weather in New Hampshire this year.
Yeah, we seem to have 100 year storm or flood almost every year
(04:16):
at this point. Yeah, those once in a lifetime.
Yeah, once in a lifetime. Every year.
Every year it's getting a littlescary.
I don't know if you guys are a little concerned.
Yeah, I mean, who? How could you not be fucking
concerned at what's going on outthere?
You got fucking seems like forest fires every goddamn year
and tearing up the whole entire nation.
This summer was the strangest summer, right?
We thought we were getting that like abbreviated did change
(04:36):
where it was like wet for the first like 2-3 months which is
crazy where we had like no weekends and.
Stuck inside. Now massive drought, yeah, it's
fucking hot nonstop. So it's it's so strange.
Yeah, there was a a brush fire on Route 101.
I saw. Yes, yeah, I think someone like
flicked a cigarette or something, but it was so dry
that as soon as the amber like touched it, it just immediately
(04:57):
went up. Yeah, just the whole area went
up. That was it was all black that.
Was freezing so. Yeah, in the medium it was
intense. So guys, as a psychotherapist
I'm constantly reading new studies in my field and I've
read about a new term called ecoanxiety, common amongst
teenagers and young adults, and when I first read this I wanted
to dismiss it. As I read further you can see
there's some real fear backed upby real data.
(05:18):
Groups of young people are hesitant to have children given
the effects of climate change and the predictions of a
worsening climate could have on the next generation.
If you think about it, a lot of climate scientists are
predicting the year 20, fifty, 2060 as a catastrophic tipping
point for our planet. Children born today would be in
their 20s at that time. Not seeing any significant
progress on climate policy in their lifetime, I can see why
(05:40):
this cohort would struggle with the decision of having children.
Or not. That's definitely was part of me
and my significant other deciding not to have kids.
That was definitely a factor in it.
I'm not gonna say I was like thedeciding factor, but that was
definitely a part of our just taking a look forward and being
like, is it right? Is it fair to bring some, you
know, life into this world with so much uncertainty?
And, you know, I'm sure that canopen up a whole entire can of
(06:02):
worms as we dive down that conversation.
But it popped on our brains. Yeah, it's a whole different
conversation, but it'll play into the story we have today.
Oh OK, that did not cross my mind when we decided to have a
child. So that's crazy to think about
though. Like it wasn't like on your mind
at all during that time period. I think back to my childhood
growing up, born in 1990. So I remember, I don't know what
(06:22):
grade I was in. Call it like being 10/11/12
years old though. Like people were coming into our
schools and teaching us about the ozone and what was going to
happen to that if we didn't start taking care of it.
Recycling being like so blasted into our face.
Like I think it was just the pulling forward of all the
potential consequences, right? That probably speaks to our
souls. And you see a lot of like people
(06:43):
in my generation and younger, like the environment is an
important part of what we stand for, what we vote for.
So I can totally see. It, I think it started in the
70s and in the 80s we just took a decade off about caring, you
know, anything other than ourselves.
Say, like, I think like when I was that age, I think I remember
like hearing about stuff, but then also having such a pushback
on the opposite side. Being like, this is ridiculous.
(07:05):
We don't actually have to worry about these things.
Like who's going to buy bottled water we don't have?
Like our water is always going to be safe to drink.
Now it's an issue. Chris, you hit us with a splash
of depression. They're going to start and
you're welcome. This is going.
To be scary, this is just reallysad.
So I don't think eco anxiety is no, I think we have a collective
primal fear of Mother Nature that is sown into our DNA.
(07:25):
Humans have always had to contend with and we're at the
mercy of all kinds of natural and weather events.
I think it is something deep in our collective subconscious to
be an R of in fear of a violent and unpredictable natural world.
Our collective mythologies and religious texts call back
biblical floods, droughts, earthquakes and pestilence.
Ancient Greeks believed earthquakes were a sign of
(07:46):
Poseidon, the God of the ocean was angry.
The Vikings have a myth of Loki,the God of mischief was being
punished for killing his brotherand was tied to a rock
underground and poisoned by a serpent.
The quakes from an earthquake were caused by his shaking and
pain. The Aztecs of Central America
believed that Toltec, the God ofreign of fertility, was
responsible for earthquakes and when he was displeased with
(08:07):
mankind, he would stomp his feetand cause the earthquakes,
resulting in elaborate offeringsand ceremonies to appease the
gods. So to me it seems like equal
anxiety is not a new term as thestudy claims, rather it's been a
condition since ancient times. So today I want to tell you
about one such primal fear, how it got filled with myth, legend,
and to this day, kind of surprisingly, is still
(08:29):
unexplained. Small village of Mudus,
Connecticut has become known forsomething called the Mudus
Noises, has been talked about and feared for centuries.
The Mudus noises are a series ofrumblings, crashing and cracking
sounds coming from beneath MountTom in the village of Mudus,
Connecticut. Sometimes sounding like Rolling
Thunder under the ground, other times sudden boom sounding like
(08:49):
can of fire. These sounds are enough to keep
the locals on edge and geologists and seismologists
awake at night. We have said before on this
podcast when we do not understand something, this is
fertile ground for legends to grow, and to this day we still
don't fully understand this phenomenon.
Even more curiously, these odd noises go back centuries, even
as far as Native American folklore predating European
(09:11):
settlers, continuing through history up to this day.
Sometimes these noises are heardseveral times an hour, other
times they'll go quiet for weeksat a time.
And the story about their meeting has been told hundreds
of times over thousands of years.
That is so crazy. So sometimes they're rapid fire,
sometimes there's weeks or months in between, but we've got
these crazy ass noises that eventoday people can't explain.
The obvious answer here is this is a series of small
(09:33):
earthquakes, right? As the ground is naturally
settling in, tectonic plates reposition themselves, right?
That'd be my. Guess so.
Going back to even when the Indigenous people were living on
the land, they have lore about these noises, Yes.
And it's still happening today. So that could that be
underground earthquakes? Oh, yeah.
Could be, yeah. Having like over like all of
that time. I mean, think of California
(09:54):
earthquake. But this sounds like it happens
more than California. Well, even thinking nowadays,
right, we have earthquakes that pop up in New England like a
couple times a year. You hear like reports of little
earthquakes happening, like in the same spot, though, is
fucking strange. Yeah, that's.
That's that's what I mean. Like at what point would if it's
happening over centuries? Like does the ground become
damaged? Well, that's an interesting
question, right? Because geologists agree that
(10:16):
Moon's kinetic is not on a geologic logical fault line.
Now, not being on a fault line does not mean you do not have
earthquakes, and several have been recorded in this area over
centuries, but they are much less common.
The absence of a fault line in places, say like LA or Tokyo.
But even more complexity, Not all of the strange sounds
coincide with seismic readings. So at times, no detected
(10:37):
geological phenomenon. But the underground ruckus
continues anyway. Now you got me hooked.
Are we going to explore at any point in time how they came to
the name Moodus at all? Yes, OK, cool.
Because I'm in my brain. I'm just like this.
Like he moved in there. Someone his family member was
causing a fucking ruckus. He's like more Moody than this
bitch. Is this fucking Brown freaking
out? So yeah, when I first started
(10:59):
researching the story, I was thinking old timing.
People were scared of naturally occurring earthquakes and told
elaborate stories. But now I'm kind of second
guessing my first take. So let's dig deeper into the
seismic activity angle because that's where my mind went first
too. In 1980, the US government
studied the strange subterraneansounds due to fear of seismic
activity being in the same area as a Hadam Neck nuclear power
(11:21):
plant. OK, OK, OK.
I'm sorry. I don't need to stop you
already. So now so many people are
recognizing and and acknowledging that this is
happening that the government iscoming in to.
Study it. The government has game in the
study. Universities have come in to
study it. It's been on the news.
Yeah. Oh man, this is so interesting.
And nobody has any idea. Well, we have ideas we do not
(11:41):
know for sure. OK, so the report did confirm
there was seismic activity area but was not immediate threat to
the nuclear facility. However, they also reported this
activity was not connected to the strange noises heard for
generations in the area. They went on to report small
shifts in the Earth's crust should not make such audible
inconsistent noises. Why we are not ruling out
(12:02):
earthquakes as a source of thesenoises?
We do not currently believe theyare connected.
Oh. Man, so the mystery kind of
endures. I mean, that's the most logical
explanation. So if that's out the window and.
Yeah, is it? Actual science is coming in now.
Now you're opening the doors to the spiritual, the mythical,
mystical, everywhere. I'm sure you're about to go,
Chris. So yeah, there's been some
(12:23):
theories throughout the days andI want to get into those.
I'm just envisioning like the underworld, like cracking the
the layers of the earth to open up to have like demons just take
over. I mean, it is Connecticut that's
up, yeah. Everything gets weird in
Connecticut. Guess.
So with this in mind, let's dig into the theories about what
these noises are. First, the town's name of Mudis
(12:43):
comes from the local Native Americans who called the area
Mache Mudis. Mache mudis.
Mache mudis. Mache mudis.
This was long before the European settlers came to
Connecticut. Mache mudis, roughly translated,
means place of bad noises. Oh no.
Weird. The natives believed that the
sounds were caused by the God Hopamoke or the spirit of death
(13:03):
and destruction. Oh.
I told you the underworld opening up to release the demons
from hell. I've got you fucking demons in
Connecticut, I figured. It out.
I'm only 15 minutes into the podcast and I've solved the
mystery. So when the natives heard these
noises, it was a warning, and important tribal decisions took
into consideration the amount ofrumbling coming from the
mountain. When they go on hunts, when they
(13:25):
go to war, when to migrate, evenwhen to hold ceremonies, often
was decided by how loud or quietthe mountain had been.
Lately I. Fucking love this.
So now you have a whole civilization of natives that are
basing their entire existence off these unknown noises.
Oh this is so good. So for the Native people, the
answer was clear. They had to live in harmony with
the land and these underground rumblings.
(13:46):
Was the land talking to and guiding them in everyday
decisions. Native American belief systems
being an oral tradition or stories handed down
generationally. Nobody knows exactly what when
these noises started or the stories explaining their
meaning, but they certainly didn't stop with the local
Native population. The Puritans, a religious group,
started to settle in the air in the early 1700s.
They too experienced these rumblings from below the
(14:07):
mountain. For them, the answer was
accredited to the devil. It was coming from underground.
It was horrifying. The devil lives on the ground is
horrifying. So good fit, right?
Yeah, yeah. I can't help but think that
culturally, like how granular does it get?
Like your decision making based off these noises.
Do you like wake up on a Saturday and you're like can't
take my shit? The noises haven't let me take
(14:27):
my shit yet. Holding it for a week.
Like I was, I was thinking more along the lines of like, I woke
up today, it's Saturday. Like we can't have our harvest
festival celebrating our bounty of food.
Yeah, I was like. No, I can't take a shit.
I was going to go collect wood but the mountains been loud so I
think I'll just chill here. Yeah, but if.
(14:48):
They are dictating everything that they do based on the sounds
of the mountain. I mean, does that also include
like they hear rumbling? It's not safe to go hunting.
That really could come down to affecting their everyday life
and survival. Yeah, I'm sure it's the bigger
decisions, right? Like, should we go to war with
the tribe? Should we migrate?
XYZI love the difference, though.
You have the natives that are just like, we're going to, you
(15:08):
know, make and base our decisions off this noise and the
Puritans like the fucking devil.Like how American these Puritans
so American fucking devil. So yeah, let's get into the.
Make sense how we got where we are today.
Let's get into the Puritans a little bit, because they get a
little fucking weird about it. Shocker.
So in 1729, the Reverend StephenHolmeser wrote a letter to his
(15:30):
friend in Boston, referring to the strange noises as fearful
and dreadful sounds that frighten most local residents.
I love how he throws in frightens most local residents,
indicating he's obviously not scared.
The the locals are terrified. So he's like a placido, His
friends, Yeah. I'm hard bitch.
I ain't worried about those noises.
So he continues in his letter. The Indians had somewhat of a
(15:50):
different take on the noises. An old Indian man told me the
Indian God was very upset that the English man's God had come
here and that's why the mountainspeaks.
So the first thing the white mandoes is try to start a holy war
with the natives. Fucking typical.
That's up. That's what we do.
Yeah, Yeah, he goes on to write.I have myself heard eight to 10
sounds successively imitating small arms fire, the space of 5
(16:10):
minutes. I have, I suppose, heard several
hundreds of them within the past20 years, some more, some less
terrible. Sometimes we hear them almost
every day in great numbers, a great number in the space of a
year. Oftentimes I've observed them
coming down from the north, imitating slow Thunder which
shakes the houses and all that'swithin them.
Now we've got a direction, they're coming from north.
(16:32):
This is we're starting to build something here.
And remember, this is a Puritan preacher.
And so in our story so far, we kind of have a theme with the
Puritans. We have the rock throwing devil.
We have the devil involved in Salem, devil causing underground
rumbling. Now a Puritan loses his comb and
it's the devil. So many devil reading things.
Smoke weed. You're the devils, Yeah.
(16:52):
The devil to the Puritans. The Puritans, they have a theme,
yes, that they follow. So grain of salt taken what he
says. Every time we mention the
Puritans, there's the devil. Yeah.
So most Puritans believed that this was another way that God
was showing them to be humble and pious and remind him of his
grace and power and their impurity and unworthiness and
their constant vigilance about the devil.
(17:14):
So this phenomenon and related stories might have started with
the natives, but the first European settlers also
experienced these noises and told their own stories to
explain them away. Tell me more, Chris.
All right. So it gets a little weirder.
In the mid 1700s another legend about the moodist noises came to
life. This legend goes that King
George of England heard about the strange noises, supposedly
(17:34):
sent an alchemist by the name Doctor Steele.
He uses magic to stop the rumbling in the year of 1760.
The rumor of all of the stuff happening in Connecticut made
its way all the way over to KingGeorge in England.
Yes. And he's like, I'm going to go
check this out. Yeah, he sent over a alchemist.
Now if you're unfamiliar, alchemists were the forbearers
to modern chemistry. Famously, Sir Isaac Newton, the
(17:57):
father of modern physics, was a self-proclaimed alchemist.
The practice mixed chemistry andmagic in all kinds of pursuits,
including turning lead into goldand finding the elixir that gave
eternal life. Each practitioner of alchemy
added to the work done by his predecessors from their past
notes and findings. In accordance to the Newton
Historical Foundation, Sir IsaacNewton's personal library had
(18:19):
over 140 books on alchemy, more than any of the topic of
scientific pursuit. So eventually the practice
dropped the belief in magic and became the modern practice of
chemistry as we know it today. So an interesting sidebar.
I like the idea of magic better.There's so much more flexibility
with the idea of magic than chemistry.
It's just like, look at me, I can throw some magnesium in this
shit and it starts a fire. Or you're just like, look at me,
(18:41):
I wave a wand and my house is cleaned.
I want that. Yeah.
So yes, so. We mix these two chemicals and
we throw in some magic and look what happens.
Let's be real, I want to be ableto put curses on some bitches.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Chemistry's so much more
disappointing. Yeah.
But also, you know, chemistry can fuck shit.
Up. It does, yeah.
So back to Doctor Steele. After investigating the area in
(19:04):
Moodus, CT, Doctor Steele told the locals that a great fossil
called Carbuncle they deep Nath the earth and was the cause of
the horrible noises. I'm sorry, Carbuncle.
Harbuncle. Yeah, it's just a fat uncle.
He eats a lot of carbs. He's stomping around over there.
Shake your shirt off. I'm envisioning.
Does anybody know The Muppets? I know this is awful.
(19:24):
Please take us, take us there. So I think it was on like HBO
when I was a kid. It's like these Muppets as
Fraggle Rock. And they had like the the guy,
he was like this big giant, likeMuppet Ogre.
And he was on the show. And it when you said that name,
that's immediately where my mindwent somewhere.
Out there a listener right now goes, I got you, Kathy.
Yeah, so Chris and I are like, what the fuck?
(19:47):
But someone's got you. Somebody understood that.
Yeah, I hit like, long, shaggy, like hair on the Muppet, and
he's just a big guy. That's exactly what I
envisioned. So, Carbuncle, Chris?
Yeah. So Doctor Steele said he could
use his magic to remove the carbuncle and stop the rumbling,
and Steele then moved into a blacksmith shop in town.
(20:08):
He covered the windows and doorswith heavy blankets and worked
at night in secrecy. People from town, obviously
interested, tried to sneak a peek, but Steele had the place
locked down like Fort Knox. Put blankets, yeah.
I just got a little. Color Knox of blankets.
So one night, the people of Mudus saw a cloud of smoke,
flame and sparks coming from theblacksmith shop, and the locals
(20:29):
could only guess as to what was going on behind the heavy
blankets. Rumors of witchcraft and demonic
rituals flew around the pious locals.
I was going to say, I think I'm blacksmith used to be considered
someone of like like respect. Blacksmiths and magic one
handed. Yeah, they did.
Yeah. So the next day, Doctor Steele
may be sensing his welcome running Short told the people of
Mudus he had removed the great Carbuncle.
(20:51):
He had discovered a smaller carbuncle that would cause more
noises. However, they wouldn't be as
awful as the noises by the largecarbuncle.
And you're welcome. Yeah, I got rid of the big
problem. There's still going to be a
little problem. And baby.
Carbuncle then baby carbuncle under under the ground and that
one I can't get rid. Of so he's full of shit, OK,
Noted. And then legend goes he just
(21:12):
left town and never returned. As one does, yeah.
Yeah, so Doctor Steele's intervention worked.
No way. No, at least for a while.
The town experienced less and less intense rumbling for
several years, so this most likely was just a coincidence.
And there's no historical records to confirm that Doctor
Steele ever visited Moodus, Connecticut or is even a real
person. So most likely just a cool
(21:33):
story, but it goes back into thelegend.
Are you saying magic's not real,Chris?
I'm saying Doctor Steele's probably not.
Leah, but he has a great. Name.
I mean, what a great name. Yeah, a great name.
I think he's real. All right, little carbuncle.
In early 1800s, people took a more geological and natural view
of the noises. Some locals describe the noises
as sounding like large boulders falling beneath the ground, So
(21:54):
large they shook the entire area.
Yeah, almost like a hollow cavern underneath ground where
boulders were suspended from theceiling.
And when they would give way, they would crash to the cabin
floor below. So more logical.
Still others theorized that the ocean had underground caverns
and tunnels that reached Mount Tom and Mudus.
The waves crashing would flood. These tunnels in the ocean could
crash in the caverns underground, causing the ruckus.
(22:16):
Just been a little feet. Ohh that's interesting.
How close is this place to the ocean about?
200 miles Shaw, that's. Not it.
It's gone. Yeah, so for me that theory does
not hold water. Can I get a dad joke count?
All right, so so far the best theory I've got is there are
huge boulders hanging from the ceilings that occasionally fall.
(22:37):
Or there's carbuncles. This is the carbuncle.
That's what I envision. Fucking look scary.
OK, that's. From the Muppet Kathy's just
looking up Muppets now. Got it.
Literally checked out the story.No, I.
Totally checked in. This is This is the carbuncle.
This is what I envisioned. All right, against we.
Will post on social. Media.
Someone up there Kathy's got. To you like what the?
Fuck. So in the mid 1800s, another
(23:00):
legend or folklore attached to the phenomenon reports that just
underneath Mount Tom lived 2 powerful witches, 1 practicing
light magic and one practicing dark magic.
The strange noise that came fromthe area was due to the epic
battle. The eventual victor of these
ongoing battles would usher in an age of light and prosperity
or darker desperation depending on the results of the battle.
(23:20):
This fight has reportedly raged for centuries in the caverns and
caves just beneath Mount Tom. Now, based on the way the
world's doing right now, I thinkwe need to send in
reinforcements. Like, can we get Laura Cabot to
report to Mount Tom, please? Yeah.
Yeah. This is pretty.
Yeah. Donald Trump's calling to the
National Guard. Going to mount Tom, Yeah.
Out of curiosity, I can't remember, we had a listener tell
(23:42):
at one point that talked about Mount Tom and seeing UFOs on the
top of Mount Tom. Was that in Connecticut or was
that mass? This is Mount Tom, New
Hampshire, so they could be. Everywhere.
OK, Yeah. I think that was mass all.
Right. Well, there's a weird Mount Tom
phenomenon going on. Then all the Mount Tom's are in.
The Mount Tom in New Hampshire. I had something weird happen in
New Hampshire. Mount Tom.
I was out there hiking with the lady and we were up there one
(24:02):
day. Then also I put my hand out and
this bird flew and landed on my hand on Mount Tom.
Weird shit. The weird part was just a great
lady friend. Fuck off.
It was a Gray Jay. The Gray Jay just landed on my
hand. All right, that was beautiful.
With a lady friend, OK. Let's move down.
So, adding to this story, an opening at Mount Tom called The
Cave of the Winds or Moodus Caveis said to be where the noises
(24:24):
are the strongest. The Cave is not actually a cave,
rather whether it's caused due to a space between two large
boulders leftover from the last Ice Age.
Moodist caves are on private property.
Many trespassers report that just beneath ground you can find
the spot with a source of these strange noises.
I'm so interested here what the source is.
So according to Steven Goncalia,a professor of folklore studies
(24:46):
at the University of Massachusetts, by the way, what
a fucking awesome gig that wouldbe.
Yeah, maybe we can get him on the podcast one day.
Yeah, or we can fucking start that as our gig.
We are the local folklorists. Of New England.
I'm gonna go to college and teach this, yeah.
Can we get Staffs? Like I feel like if you're
focus, you need a staff and a beard.
Chris, you gotta grow beard, buddy.
Yeah, probably. So according to the this
(25:09):
professor, there's three cycles to these myths.
The three cycles we've discussedso far, the devil, The Alchemist
and the witch, correspond to three ages of anxiety for the
people in the area and the US atlarge.
First, the Puritans take on the Rumble taps into colonial
anxieties about indigenous people and their fear of local
and native populations as being different and perceived danger
(25:30):
to their way of life. The Puritans lived in constant
fear that the natives could attack at any time.
Several squirmishes between the Europeans and natives have
already taken place and the two groups lived in fear of each
other. So hypothetically, it's the
supernatural natives out there making scary noises in the
woods. So the natives were the reason
that the devil was there, because remember, they weren't
(25:50):
Christians. Thank you.
For landing that. Plane So yeah, so this spark
story is about the devil and thenatives.
Well, yeah, because that's what was needed at the time.
More fear of the natives. Yes, from the white settlers.
Yeah, so the second story, The Alchemist, was about fears of
new waves of immigrants in the mid 1700s with their own
traditions coming to the area. It was a warning not to trust
(26:11):
new ideas and fear of change. Again, the local saw a threat to
their way of life in these foreign ideas and traditions.
Hence the mysterious traveler. The Alchemist became entwined
with the story about the strangenoises.
I'm sorry, I'm just going to point something out here.
It's either the natives who werehere first or the immigrants
coming over. But it's never the fact that the
white guys obviously are just like making shit up.
(26:33):
We're like, yeah. Perfectly.
Like no responsibility or blame whatsoever.
Puritans. They're other pure right, right,
right. They're.
Perfect. At least we haven't blamed
women. Not yet.
Oh, wait. Hold on, it's coming.
So the introduction of witches in the third cycle of the
stories times up nicely with theincreased presence of women in
(26:54):
public life through the suffragemovement in the mid 1800s,
women's rights and changing social roles again creating
anxiety about the status quo andfear of change.
So the strange noises became 2 witches like magic representing
the status quo and dark magic representing a change in
culture. I believe Laurie Cabot would
have practiced light magic wouldhave taken the side of women's
(27:15):
rights and progressive culture. So in a way, all these local
collective fears and anxieties were explained away by the
rumbling underneath the mountain.
The rumbling did not change. Our collective fears and
storytelling seemed to change tofit the stressors and anxieties
of the day. That's what legends and
folklores are all about, right? They're all stories that are
created to teach you something, that's what.
(27:35):
It's interesting that this adapts though, right?
Yeah. You think a lot of mythology and
a lot of legends, they have to explain something, but it's
almost like this story is adapting every couple decades to
fit whatever the. Whatever is actually happening.
Yeah, current politics are there.
To me it was fascinating. Yeah, it is interesting.
So Boston College in 1992 set upseismic equipment around Mount
(27:56):
Tom area along with sensitive audio recording devices to put
this question to bed once and for all.
Interestingly, the area did experience hundreds of quakes
during the three month long observation.
These readings were used, usually followed by recordings
of the moodist noises caught on the audio equipment.
However, the moodist noises wererecorded even when there was no
seismic activity recorded on their detectives, keeping the
(28:19):
mystery alive. So the current theory among
scientists is that the unique and porous bedrock of the Mount
Tom area is working as an amplifier for geologic activity
that otherwise shouldn't be heard above ground.
Now, one interesting report similarly to support this theory
is from 1724, when an earthquakein Newbury, MA, 230 miles away,
was reportedly heard in Mordis, Connecticut.
(28:41):
Such a cool idea. Yeah, so there's an earthquake
in Maine, but because of the strange geology of it, you're
able to hear it in Mordis, Connecticut.
That was going to be one of my theories.
I was going to ask if like maybeit was like an echo of something
happening further away. So I guess that would.
That's actually that's one of the theories they have.
All right. The other thing I'm thinking
about is they said that there were two huge boulders that were
(29:04):
set and it was beneath the boulders that they were hearing
the sounds and where they were coming from.
Well, if you think of two boulders set side by side from
each other when the wind blows, yeah.
Could that be creating just likethe perfect element of some type
of resonance that is then sending noises and a certain
frequency out that the town's hearing?
Like I could see that, but wouldyou feel your house rumbling
(29:24):
from it? Depends on what resonance is,
right? Like you can hear certain
resonances with like think of like how people play the glasses
and stuff like that, how the water shakes and the whole
tables will shake. Like it depends on what
frequency it's going out. So maybe.
That's this is really interesting theory and I didn't
read anything about about that. I think you.
I cracked it. He solved.
It John solved it. Yeah, but the truth is, these
are all theories and stories about the strange noises that
(29:47):
come from the town of Moodus, Connecticut.
I can only speculate that these theories must seem as real to us
today as the theories were to people in their time frame.
So magic gods, subterranean caverns, witches, alchemists,
seismic activity have all been woven into the reason for
generations of locals experiencing these rumbles.
Each generation connects the noises to their own stressors
(30:08):
and fears through elaborate and clever storytelling.
Each retelling of these stories seems to coincide with the
period of fear and change. Today our telling of the story
is unexplainable earthquakes. This might be said to feed into
our eco anxiety. As I mentioned the beginning of
the story. Or in other words, we are
currently playing out our anxieties of the time in a very
similar way to our ancestors in the way we are currently telling
(30:30):
the story of the Moodus noises. While we might believe that our
latest science and latest thinking makes sense in this
phenomenon, did not the Puritansbelieve the sound was in fact
the devil? My big take away is that while
our culture has leaned into a more rational and scientific
mind and away from the supernatural, our fears of the
unknown have not changed. Whether a product of the
naturalist supernatural world, we still fear they are unknown.
(30:53):
And even with our latest detectives and predictive
models, Mother Nature is still an unknown.
And this fact is embedded into our collective consciousness at
our deepest levels. In our most primal fears, fires,
hurricanes, floods, the next bigearthquake are all going to
happen. It's not a matter of if, but
rather a matter of when. These explanations for these
events might change, but our primal fears remain static and
(31:14):
alive with all of us. Well, my first thought is it's
clearly got to be the devil. It's probably the devil.
I have to agree with Sean. It's either echoing happening
from pockets underneath deep in the ground, or the devil his
demons break out to take. Over the OR when you die, right?
We always talk about like our ghosts, real what's happening.
(31:35):
Maybe they all just go to Moodus, Connecticut.
They don't want a fucking party.Hey, this is where we go.
It's super interesting to me that even to this day, with all
of our understanding of the natural world, they still can't
truly explain that they have good theories, but we've had
theories for thousands of years,which made the story
fascinating. I don't know, I.
(31:56):
Have to admit, I think that there's something kind of nice
about not knowing sometimes. Not everything needs to be
explained. Maybe it does come back to
geology or geography, but it's different than the rocks
underneath the earth. Like is Moodus Connecticut in a
valley where all of a sudden just like gunshots and stuff can
like echo through the valley andstuff and again, like you can
(32:17):
hear it hundreds of times over a20 year period is.
Crazy. You see, I really like that
theory and I was my mind was going the same place.
But then the Native Americans, pre gunpowder, pre firearms,
we're hearing the same noises. Shocks Bigfoot.
Shocks. Bigfoot.
Fucking. Shock, I was on to something.
(32:38):
Hillbilly, you got like a straw shoot shoot piece of hay shocks.
Yeah. Then next thing I got is Bigfoot
knocks and now I'm tapping out here.
I don't know. Yeah.
I don't, I don't know why I. Feel bad because scientists,
seismologists, university professors have not been able to
figure out either. It's still a mystery to this
day. I love a good fucking mystery.
(33:00):
Especially when we have actual recordings and actual evidence,
right? I feel like we've got to go to
Moodist and we got to spend likea week down there and just be
like, can we hear one of these sounds?
Yes, take it in. Like, I don't know.
Verbo, I got it. Verbo, Verbo, let's go.
Yep. Well, for me for spooky season,
it's the devil and we're going to wrap it up there.
So Chris, thank you so much for sharing this episode on the
(33:20):
moodist noises in Connecticut again.
Fucking Connecticut. Am I right?
Because what the? Fuck, it's always in.
Connecticut always in Connecticut and with that gang.
We hope that you enjoyed this episode as well.
And if you did, be sure to make sure you check out our
Instagram, our Reddit, and our Facebook because we are here
building communities. So if you want to talk to us or
talk to other individuals just like you, make sure to go check
(33:41):
in over there and drop us a line.
And no, we are always, always onthe hunt for weird New England
stories. Have you heard these noises?
Have you heard Bigfoot in the woods?
Have you had an alchemy moment where you turned water to wine?
Because if you have, we want to hear those stories.
And if you have, send them to the gang at
weirderafterdark.com. And don't forget, October's upon
(34:03):
us. Things are about to get weird.
So if you like aliens, Gremlins story, we ain't got no Gremlins
stories. But if you like all that shit,
you come check out this podcast because we're going to have a
special event popping off for you on Halloween itself.
So make sure that you give us a listen, and don't forget it
always gets a little weirder. After dark.
Bye. Thank you guys.
In the town of Moodus, Connecticut, a strange and still
unexplained series of rumblings seemed to be coming from beneath
the ground. For as long as people can
remember, Native American medicine men, Puritan preachers,
alchemists, and scientists have all theorized to the source of
these strange noises. Up to this very day, none have
been able to decisively answer to the origins of the
Sumterranian rumble so far. From magic to seismology and
(00:21):
everything in between, Today we'll be exploring the Moodus
noises. I'm Chris.
I'm Kathy. I'm Sean.
And this is Waiter after dark. Sean, Kathy, you know what
(00:46):
tomorrow is, right? I do.
I do. Yeah, I mean, come on, October
1st, the kick off of spooky season, everything that fucking
runs through our blood 24/7. This is our, this is our month
guys. This is it.
I'm so excited for October. And it's our first fucking
spooky season with the pod because you remember last year
we started November. We did.
We missed it. We we can't fuck this up.
(01:06):
Yeah. We need to deliver.
Absolutely, absolutely. And like, just thinking about
some of the episodes, gang, thatwe've got coming down the
pipeline, we've got fucking aliens, we've got ghosts,
ghosts. We've got maybe a surprise
episode. That's like a pre tease.
Real. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Someone's coming down the pipeline.
We've got something cooking. We're working on something.
(01:27):
Yeah, you might get a bonus episode this month, you know,
because you know, why the fuck? Not it is October.
It is October. Exactly.
Exactly. It's not fucking pumpkin spice
latte October, it's scary as fuck October, and that's what we
do here. That's it, That's it.
We got the weird shit that pops off in New England and this is
our fucking month's shine. I do like a good pumpkin spice
doughnut though. I do love a good pumpkin spice
(01:48):
muffin. Chris is just like you could
scare it. I want like a pumpkin spice.
Is pretty good. Pumpkin spice scarves, hats,
warm weather. Call me basic weather, I'll eat
a fucking muffin. Get fucked.
But yes, Halloween. Do we have any like Halloween
rituals or favorite memories or what really be like get you
fucking going when October 1st comes?
(02:08):
Every October, we'll start off doing a classic horror movie run
through the entire month. Halloween, Friday the 13th, Not
Nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah.
Yeah. But The Conjurings and just all
those movies, I just. Yeah, I love those.
Movies. You.
You just let it. RIP, I do.
All those first comes, yes, I'm sending it all.
Right, we haven't been perfect about it, but usually we do at
(02:31):
least hit Salem once Salem, Mass, and do the ghost tours and
hang out for the day. Yeah, we did try to do Salem one
year and we had tickets to go ona ghost tour.
No, I'm talking about like a fewyears ago and Sean and I got
wasted and couldn't find where the tour was supposed to start.
Pretty sure you just did your own tour at that point.
We did that's. Just that's spooky over there.
(02:53):
Yeah, we have this. Great.
Photo that we can throw on the Instagram too about us with like
the the witches from that movie Focus.
Focus witches or not The real ones, maybe.
Maybe the real ones maybe. I don't think it was fucking
sale mess. Things got weird.
I feel like I've always been thetype of individual that's just
like zoned in on like horror movies and stuff.
So me and one of my buddies, Chris, we are not this Chris
(03:13):
different Chris every month. We do like horror movie nights.
So most recently we saw Weapons,which is sick.
I think that just probably amps up a little bit.
But who doesn't fucking love thefall weather?
Summer's winding down. You still get some good days,
but then you get those cold, crisp nights like, oh, I love
it. I love sitting around like a a
campfire, like at night when youjust like you're all hanging out
having some drinks. They're.
(03:34):
Doing an episode live around thecampfire.
Oh, that. 'D be so cool.
We can make that happen. Yeah, we totally figure that.
Out. Maybe that's part of our our
special. Oh, OK.
All right. Maybe.
Let's take a look at how not to burn any of the equipment.
Yeah, and we'll see if we can get our guests maybe to come in
person. Maybe that could happen.
That'd be cool. That'd be dope.
Well, hey, when we think of Halloween, you're thinking of
(03:54):
goblins, you're thinking of ghosts, you're thinking of
witches, you're thinking of aliens.
You might be thinking of Donald Trump.
Scary shit. I've got, I got some scary shit
for you. Floods, wildfires, air quality
warnings. I think we broke the record for
90° weather in New Hampshire this year.
Yeah, we seem to have 100 year storm or flood almost every year
(04:16):
at this point. Yeah, those once in a lifetime.
Yeah, once in a lifetime. Every year.
Every year it's getting a littlescary.
I don't know if you guys are a little concerned.
Yeah, I mean, who? How could you not be fucking
concerned at what's going on outthere?
You got fucking seems like forest fires every goddamn year
and tearing up the whole entire nation.
This summer was the strangest summer, right?
We thought we were getting that like abbreviated did change
(04:36):
where it was like wet for the first like 2-3 months which is
crazy where we had like no weekends and.
Stuck inside. Now massive drought, yeah, it's
fucking hot nonstop. So it's it's so strange.
Yeah, there was a a brush fire on Route 101.
I saw. Yes, yeah, I think someone like
flicked a cigarette or something, but it was so dry
that as soon as the amber like touched it, it just immediately
(04:57):
went up. Yeah, just the whole area went
up. That was it was all black that.
Was freezing so. Yeah, in the medium it was
intense. So guys, as a psychotherapist
I'm constantly reading new studies in my field and I've
read about a new term called ecoanxiety, common amongst
teenagers and young adults, and when I first read this I wanted
to dismiss it. As I read further you can see
there's some real fear backed upby real data.
(05:18):
Groups of young people are hesitant to have children given
the effects of climate change and the predictions of a
worsening climate could have on the next generation.
If you think about it, a lot of climate scientists are
predicting the year 20, fifty, 2060 as a catastrophic tipping
point for our planet. Children born today would be in
their 20s at that time. Not seeing any significant
progress on climate policy in their lifetime, I can see why
(05:40):
this cohort would struggle with the decision of having children.
Or not. That's definitely was part of me
and my significant other deciding not to have kids.
That was definitely a factor in it.
I'm not gonna say I was like thedeciding factor, but that was
definitely a part of our just taking a look forward and being
like, is it right? Is it fair to bring some, you
know, life into this world with so much uncertainty?
And, you know, I'm sure that canopen up a whole entire can of
(06:02):
worms as we dive down that conversation.
But it popped on our brains. Yeah, it's a whole different
conversation, but it'll play into the story we have today.
Oh OK, that did not cross my mind when we decided to have a
child. So that's crazy to think about
though. Like it wasn't like on your mind
at all during that time period. I think back to my childhood
growing up, born in 1990. So I remember, I don't know what
(06:22):
grade I was in. Call it like being 10/11/12
years old though. Like people were coming into our
schools and teaching us about the ozone and what was going to
happen to that if we didn't start taking care of it.
Recycling being like so blasted into our face.
Like I think it was just the pulling forward of all the
potential consequences, right? That probably speaks to our
souls. And you see a lot of like people
(06:43):
in my generation and younger, like the environment is an
important part of what we stand for, what we vote for.
So I can totally see. It, I think it started in the
70s and in the 80s we just took a decade off about caring, you
know, anything other than ourselves.
Say, like, I think like when I was that age, I think I remember
like hearing about stuff, but then also having such a pushback
on the opposite side. Being like, this is ridiculous.
(07:05):
We don't actually have to worry about these things.
Like who's going to buy bottled water we don't have?
Like our water is always going to be safe to drink.
Now it's an issue. Chris, you hit us with a splash
of depression. They're going to start and
you're welcome. This is going.
To be scary, this is just reallysad.
So I don't think eco anxiety is no, I think we have a collective
primal fear of Mother Nature that is sown into our DNA.
(07:25):
Humans have always had to contend with and we're at the
mercy of all kinds of natural and weather events.
I think it is something deep in our collective subconscious to
be an R of in fear of a violent and unpredictable natural world.
Our collective mythologies and religious texts call back
biblical floods, droughts, earthquakes and pestilence.
Ancient Greeks believed earthquakes were a sign of
(07:46):
Poseidon, the God of the ocean was angry.
The Vikings have a myth of Loki,the God of mischief was being
punished for killing his brotherand was tied to a rock
underground and poisoned by a serpent.
The quakes from an earthquake were caused by his shaking and
pain. The Aztecs of Central America
believed that Toltec, the God ofreign of fertility, was
responsible for earthquakes and when he was displeased with
(08:07):
mankind, he would stomp his feetand cause the earthquakes,
resulting in elaborate offeringsand ceremonies to appease the
gods. So to me it seems like equal
anxiety is not a new term as thestudy claims, rather it's been a
condition since ancient times. So today I want to tell you
about one such primal fear, how it got filled with myth, legend,
and to this day, kind of surprisingly, is still
(08:29):
unexplained. Small village of Mudus,
Connecticut has become known forsomething called the Mudus
Noises, has been talked about and feared for centuries.
The Mudus noises are a series ofrumblings, crashing and cracking
sounds coming from beneath MountTom in the village of Mudus,
Connecticut. Sometimes sounding like Rolling
Thunder under the ground, other times sudden boom sounding like
(08:49):
can of fire. These sounds are enough to keep
the locals on edge and geologists and seismologists
awake at night. We have said before on this
podcast when we do not understand something, this is
fertile ground for legends to grow, and to this day we still
don't fully understand this phenomenon.
Even more curiously, these odd noises go back centuries, even
as far as Native American folklore predating European
(09:11):
settlers, continuing through history up to this day.
Sometimes these noises are heardseveral times an hour, other
times they'll go quiet for weeksat a time.
And the story about their meeting has been told hundreds
of times over thousands of years.
That is so crazy. So sometimes they're rapid fire,
sometimes there's weeks or months in between, but we've got
these crazy ass noises that eventoday people can't explain.
The obvious answer here is this is a series of small
(09:33):
earthquakes, right? As the ground is naturally
settling in, tectonic plates reposition themselves, right?
That'd be my. Guess so.
Going back to even when the Indigenous people were living on
the land, they have lore about these noises, Yes.
And it's still happening today. So that could that be
underground earthquakes? Oh, yeah.
Could be, yeah. Having like over like all of
that time. I mean, think of California
(09:54):
earthquake. But this sounds like it happens
more than California. Well, even thinking nowadays,
right, we have earthquakes that pop up in New England like a
couple times a year. You hear like reports of little
earthquakes happening, like in the same spot, though, is
fucking strange. Yeah, that's.
That's that's what I mean. Like at what point would if it's
happening over centuries? Like does the ground become
damaged? Well, that's an interesting
question, right? Because geologists agree that
(10:16):
Moon's kinetic is not on a geologic logical fault line.
Now, not being on a fault line does not mean you do not have
earthquakes, and several have been recorded in this area over
centuries, but they are much less common.
The absence of a fault line in places, say like LA or Tokyo.
But even more complexity, Not all of the strange sounds
coincide with seismic readings. So at times, no detected
(10:37):
geological phenomenon. But the underground ruckus
continues anyway. Now you got me hooked.
Are we going to explore at any point in time how they came to
the name Moodus at all? Yes, OK, cool.
Because I'm in my brain. I'm just like this.
Like he moved in there. Someone his family member was
causing a fucking ruckus. He's like more Moody than this
bitch. Is this fucking Brown freaking
out? So yeah, when I first started
(10:59):
researching the story, I was thinking old timing.
People were scared of naturally occurring earthquakes and told
elaborate stories. But now I'm kind of second
guessing my first take. So let's dig deeper into the
seismic activity angle because that's where my mind went first
too. In 1980, the US government
studied the strange subterraneansounds due to fear of seismic
activity being in the same area as a Hadam Neck nuclear power
(11:21):
plant. OK, OK, OK.
I'm sorry. I don't need to stop you
already. So now so many people are
recognizing and and acknowledging that this is
happening that the government iscoming in to.
Study it. The government has game in the
study. Universities have come in to
study it. It's been on the news.
Yeah. Oh man, this is so interesting.
And nobody has any idea. Well, we have ideas we do not
(11:41):
know for sure. OK, so the report did confirm
there was seismic activity area but was not immediate threat to
the nuclear facility. However, they also reported this
activity was not connected to the strange noises heard for
generations in the area. They went on to report small
shifts in the Earth's crust should not make such audible
inconsistent noises. Why we are not ruling out
(12:02):
earthquakes as a source of thesenoises?
We do not currently believe theyare connected.
Oh. Man, so the mystery kind of
endures. I mean, that's the most logical
explanation. So if that's out the window and.
Yeah, is it? Actual science is coming in now.
Now you're opening the doors to the spiritual, the mythical,
mystical, everywhere. I'm sure you're about to go,
Chris. So yeah, there's been some
(12:23):
theories throughout the days andI want to get into those.
I'm just envisioning like the underworld, like cracking the
the layers of the earth to open up to have like demons just take
over. I mean, it is Connecticut that's
up, yeah. Everything gets weird in
Connecticut. Guess.
So with this in mind, let's dig into the theories about what
these noises are. First, the town's name of Mudis
(12:43):
comes from the local Native Americans who called the area
Mache Mudis. Mache mudis.
Mache mudis. Mache mudis.
This was long before the European settlers came to
Connecticut. Mache mudis, roughly translated,
means place of bad noises. Oh no.
Weird. The natives believed that the
sounds were caused by the God Hopamoke or the spirit of death
(13:03):
and destruction. Oh.
I told you the underworld opening up to release the demons
from hell. I've got you fucking demons in
Connecticut, I figured. It out.
I'm only 15 minutes into the podcast and I've solved the
mystery. So when the natives heard these
noises, it was a warning, and important tribal decisions took
into consideration the amount ofrumbling coming from the
mountain. When they go on hunts, when they
(13:25):
go to war, when to migrate, evenwhen to hold ceremonies, often
was decided by how loud or quietthe mountain had been.
Lately I. Fucking love this.
So now you have a whole civilization of natives that are
basing their entire existence off these unknown noises.
Oh this is so good. So for the Native people, the
answer was clear. They had to live in harmony with
the land and these underground rumblings.
(13:46):
Was the land talking to and guiding them in everyday
decisions. Native American belief systems
being an oral tradition or stories handed down
generationally. Nobody knows exactly what when
these noises started or the stories explaining their
meaning, but they certainly didn't stop with the local
Native population. The Puritans, a religious group,
started to settle in the air in the early 1700s.
They too experienced these rumblings from below the
(14:07):
mountain. For them, the answer was
accredited to the devil. It was coming from underground.
It was horrifying. The devil lives on the ground is
horrifying. So good fit, right?
Yeah, yeah. I can't help but think that
culturally, like how granular does it get?
Like your decision making based off these noises.
Do you like wake up on a Saturday and you're like can't
take my shit? The noises haven't let me take
(14:27):
my shit yet. Holding it for a week.
Like I was, I was thinking more along the lines of like, I woke
up today, it's Saturday. Like we can't have our harvest
festival celebrating our bounty of food.
Yeah, I was like. No, I can't take a shit.
I was going to go collect wood but the mountains been loud so I
think I'll just chill here. Yeah, but if.
(14:48):
They are dictating everything that they do based on the sounds
of the mountain. I mean, does that also include
like they hear rumbling? It's not safe to go hunting.
That really could come down to affecting their everyday life
and survival. Yeah, I'm sure it's the bigger
decisions, right? Like, should we go to war with
the tribe? Should we migrate?
XYZI love the difference, though.
You have the natives that are just like, we're going to, you
(15:08):
know, make and base our decisions off this noise and the
Puritans like the fucking devil.Like how American these Puritans
so American fucking devil. So yeah, let's get into the.
Make sense how we got where we are today.
Let's get into the Puritans a little bit, because they get a
little fucking weird about it. Shocker.
So in 1729, the Reverend StephenHolmeser wrote a letter to his
(15:30):
friend in Boston, referring to the strange noises as fearful
and dreadful sounds that frighten most local residents.
I love how he throws in frightens most local residents,
indicating he's obviously not scared.
The the locals are terrified. So he's like a placido, His
friends, Yeah. I'm hard bitch.
I ain't worried about those noises.
So he continues in his letter. The Indians had somewhat of a
(15:50):
different take on the noises. An old Indian man told me the
Indian God was very upset that the English man's God had come
here and that's why the mountainspeaks.
So the first thing the white mandoes is try to start a holy war
with the natives. Fucking typical.
That's up. That's what we do.
Yeah, Yeah, he goes on to write.I have myself heard eight to 10
sounds successively imitating small arms fire, the space of 5
(16:10):
minutes. I have, I suppose, heard several
hundreds of them within the past20 years, some more, some less
terrible. Sometimes we hear them almost
every day in great numbers, a great number in the space of a
year. Oftentimes I've observed them
coming down from the north, imitating slow Thunder which
shakes the houses and all that'swithin them.
Now we've got a direction, they're coming from north.
(16:32):
This is we're starting to build something here.
And remember, this is a Puritan preacher.
And so in our story so far, we kind of have a theme with the
Puritans. We have the rock throwing devil.
We have the devil involved in Salem, devil causing underground
rumbling. Now a Puritan loses his comb and
it's the devil. So many devil reading things.
Smoke weed. You're the devils, Yeah.
(16:52):
The devil to the Puritans. The Puritans, they have a theme,
yes, that they follow. So grain of salt taken what he
says. Every time we mention the
Puritans, there's the devil. Yeah.
So most Puritans believed that this was another way that God
was showing them to be humble and pious and remind him of his
grace and power and their impurity and unworthiness and
their constant vigilance about the devil.
(17:14):
So this phenomenon and related stories might have started with
the natives, but the first European settlers also
experienced these noises and told their own stories to
explain them away. Tell me more, Chris.
All right. So it gets a little weirder.
In the mid 1700s another legend about the moodist noises came to
life. This legend goes that King
George of England heard about the strange noises, supposedly
(17:34):
sent an alchemist by the name Doctor Steele.
He uses magic to stop the rumbling in the year of 1760.
The rumor of all of the stuff happening in Connecticut made
its way all the way over to KingGeorge in England.
Yes. And he's like, I'm going to go
check this out. Yeah, he sent over a alchemist.
Now if you're unfamiliar, alchemists were the forbearers
to modern chemistry. Famously, Sir Isaac Newton, the
(17:57):
father of modern physics, was a self-proclaimed alchemist.
The practice mixed chemistry andmagic in all kinds of pursuits,
including turning lead into goldand finding the elixir that gave
eternal life. Each practitioner of alchemy
added to the work done by his predecessors from their past
notes and findings. In accordance to the Newton
Historical Foundation, Sir IsaacNewton's personal library had
(18:19):
over 140 books on alchemy, more than any of the topic of
scientific pursuit. So eventually the practice
dropped the belief in magic and became the modern practice of
chemistry as we know it today. So an interesting sidebar.
I like the idea of magic better.There's so much more flexibility
with the idea of magic than chemistry.
It's just like, look at me, I can throw some magnesium in this
shit and it starts a fire. Or you're just like, look at me,
(18:41):
I wave a wand and my house is cleaned.
I want that. Yeah.
So yes, so. We mix these two chemicals and
we throw in some magic and look what happens.
Let's be real, I want to be ableto put curses on some bitches.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Chemistry's so much more
disappointing. Yeah.
But also, you know, chemistry can fuck shit.
Up. It does, yeah.
So back to Doctor Steele. After investigating the area in
(19:04):
Moodus, CT, Doctor Steele told the locals that a great fossil
called Carbuncle they deep Nath the earth and was the cause of
the horrible noises. I'm sorry, Carbuncle.
Harbuncle. Yeah, it's just a fat uncle.
He eats a lot of carbs. He's stomping around over there.
Shake your shirt off. I'm envisioning.
Does anybody know The Muppets? I know this is awful.
(19:24):
Please take us, take us there. So I think it was on like HBO
when I was a kid. It's like these Muppets as
Fraggle Rock. And they had like the the guy,
he was like this big giant, likeMuppet Ogre.
And he was on the show. And it when you said that name,
that's immediately where my mindwent somewhere.
Out there a listener right now goes, I got you, Kathy.
Yeah, so Chris and I are like, what the fuck?
(19:47):
But someone's got you. Somebody understood that.
Yeah, I hit like, long, shaggy, like hair on the Muppet, and
he's just a big guy. That's exactly what I
envisioned. So, Carbuncle, Chris?
Yeah. So Doctor Steele said he could
use his magic to remove the carbuncle and stop the rumbling,
and Steele then moved into a blacksmith shop in town.
(20:08):
He covered the windows and doorswith heavy blankets and worked
at night in secrecy. People from town, obviously
interested, tried to sneak a peek, but Steele had the place
locked down like Fort Knox. Put blankets, yeah.
I just got a little. Color Knox of blankets.
So one night, the people of Mudus saw a cloud of smoke,
flame and sparks coming from theblacksmith shop, and the locals
(20:29):
could only guess as to what was going on behind the heavy
blankets. Rumors of witchcraft and demonic
rituals flew around the pious locals.
I was going to say, I think I'm blacksmith used to be considered
someone of like like respect. Blacksmiths and magic one
handed. Yeah, they did.
Yeah. So the next day, Doctor Steele
may be sensing his welcome running Short told the people of
Mudus he had removed the great Carbuncle.
(20:51):
He had discovered a smaller carbuncle that would cause more
noises. However, they wouldn't be as
awful as the noises by the largecarbuncle.
And you're welcome. Yeah, I got rid of the big
problem. There's still going to be a
little problem. And baby.
Carbuncle then baby carbuncle under under the ground and that
one I can't get rid. Of so he's full of shit, OK,
Noted. And then legend goes he just
(21:12):
left town and never returned. As one does, yeah.
Yeah, so Doctor Steele's intervention worked.
No way. No, at least for a while.
The town experienced less and less intense rumbling for
several years, so this most likely was just a coincidence.
And there's no historical records to confirm that Doctor
Steele ever visited Moodus, Connecticut or is even a real
person. So most likely just a cool
(21:33):
story, but it goes back into thelegend.
Are you saying magic's not real,Chris?
I'm saying Doctor Steele's probably not.
Leah, but he has a great. Name.
I mean, what a great name. Yeah, a great name.
I think he's real. All right, little carbuncle.
In early 1800s, people took a more geological and natural view
of the noises. Some locals describe the noises
as sounding like large boulders falling beneath the ground, So
(21:54):
large they shook the entire area.
Yeah, almost like a hollow cavern underneath ground where
boulders were suspended from theceiling.
And when they would give way, they would crash to the cabin
floor below. So more logical.
Still others theorized that the ocean had underground caverns
and tunnels that reached Mount Tom and Mudus.
The waves crashing would flood. These tunnels in the ocean could
crash in the caverns underground, causing the ruckus.
(22:16):
Just been a little feet. Ohh that's interesting.
How close is this place to the ocean about?
200 miles Shaw, that's. Not it.
It's gone. Yeah, so for me that theory does
not hold water. Can I get a dad joke count?
All right, so so far the best theory I've got is there are
huge boulders hanging from the ceilings that occasionally fall.
(22:37):
Or there's carbuncles. This is the carbuncle.
That's what I envision. Fucking look scary.
OK, that's. From the Muppet Kathy's just
looking up Muppets now. Got it.
Literally checked out the story.No, I.
Totally checked in. This is This is the carbuncle.
This is what I envisioned. All right, against we.
Will post on social. Media.
Someone up there Kathy's got. To you like what the?
Fuck. So in the mid 1800s, another
(23:00):
legend or folklore attached to the phenomenon reports that just
underneath Mount Tom lived 2 powerful witches, 1 practicing
light magic and one practicing dark magic.
The strange noise that came fromthe area was due to the epic
battle. The eventual victor of these
ongoing battles would usher in an age of light and prosperity
or darker desperation depending on the results of the battle.
(23:20):
This fight has reportedly raged for centuries in the caverns and
caves just beneath Mount Tom. Now, based on the way the
world's doing right now, I thinkwe need to send in
reinforcements. Like, can we get Laura Cabot to
report to Mount Tom, please? Yeah.
Yeah. This is pretty.
Yeah. Donald Trump's calling to the
National Guard. Going to mount Tom, Yeah.
Out of curiosity, I can't remember, we had a listener tell
(23:42):
at one point that talked about Mount Tom and seeing UFOs on the
top of Mount Tom. Was that in Connecticut or was
that mass? This is Mount Tom, New
Hampshire, so they could be. Everywhere.
OK, Yeah. I think that was mass all.
Right. Well, there's a weird Mount Tom
phenomenon going on. Then all the Mount Tom's are in.
The Mount Tom in New Hampshire. I had something weird happen in
New Hampshire. Mount Tom.
I was out there hiking with the lady and we were up there one
(24:02):
day. Then also I put my hand out and
this bird flew and landed on my hand on Mount Tom.
Weird shit. The weird part was just a great
lady friend. Fuck off.
It was a Gray Jay. The Gray Jay just landed on my
hand. All right, that was beautiful.
With a lady friend, OK. Let's move down.
So, adding to this story, an opening at Mount Tom called The
Cave of the Winds or Moodus Caveis said to be where the noises
(24:24):
are the strongest. The Cave is not actually a cave,
rather whether it's caused due to a space between two large
boulders leftover from the last Ice Age.
Moodist caves are on private property.
Many trespassers report that just beneath ground you can find
the spot with a source of these strange noises.
I'm so interested here what the source is.
So according to Steven Goncalia,a professor of folklore studies
(24:46):
at the University of Massachusetts, by the way, what
a fucking awesome gig that wouldbe.
Yeah, maybe we can get him on the podcast one day.
Yeah, or we can fucking start that as our gig.
We are the local folklorists. Of New England.
I'm gonna go to college and teach this, yeah.
Can we get Staffs? Like I feel like if you're
focus, you need a staff and a beard.
Chris, you gotta grow beard, buddy.
Yeah, probably. So according to the this
(25:09):
professor, there's three cycles to these myths.
The three cycles we've discussedso far, the devil, The Alchemist
and the witch, correspond to three ages of anxiety for the
people in the area and the US atlarge.
First, the Puritans take on the Rumble taps into colonial
anxieties about indigenous people and their fear of local
and native populations as being different and perceived danger
(25:30):
to their way of life. The Puritans lived in constant
fear that the natives could attack at any time.
Several squirmishes between the Europeans and natives have
already taken place and the two groups lived in fear of each
other. So hypothetically, it's the
supernatural natives out there making scary noises in the
woods. So the natives were the reason
that the devil was there, because remember, they weren't
(25:50):
Christians. Thank you.
For landing that. Plane So yeah, so this spark
story is about the devil and thenatives.
Well, yeah, because that's what was needed at the time.
More fear of the natives. Yes, from the white settlers.
Yeah, so the second story, The Alchemist, was about fears of
new waves of immigrants in the mid 1700s with their own
traditions coming to the area. It was a warning not to trust
(26:11):
new ideas and fear of change. Again, the local saw a threat to
their way of life in these foreign ideas and traditions.
Hence the mysterious traveler. The Alchemist became entwined
with the story about the strangenoises.
I'm sorry, I'm just going to point something out here.
It's either the natives who werehere first or the immigrants
coming over. But it's never the fact that the
white guys obviously are just like making shit up.
(26:33):
We're like, yeah. Perfectly.
Like no responsibility or blame whatsoever.
Puritans. They're other pure right, right,
right. They're.
Perfect. At least we haven't blamed
women. Not yet.
Oh, wait. Hold on, it's coming.
So the introduction of witches in the third cycle of the
stories times up nicely with theincreased presence of women in
(26:54):
public life through the suffragemovement in the mid 1800s,
women's rights and changing social roles again creating
anxiety about the status quo andfear of change.
So the strange noises became 2 witches like magic representing
the status quo and dark magic representing a change in
culture. I believe Laurie Cabot would
have practiced light magic wouldhave taken the side of women's
(27:15):
rights and progressive culture. So in a way, all these local
collective fears and anxieties were explained away by the
rumbling underneath the mountain.
The rumbling did not change. Our collective fears and
storytelling seemed to change tofit the stressors and anxieties
of the day. That's what legends and
folklores are all about, right? They're all stories that are
created to teach you something, that's what.
(27:35):
It's interesting that this adapts though, right?
Yeah. You think a lot of mythology and
a lot of legends, they have to explain something, but it's
almost like this story is adapting every couple decades to
fit whatever the. Whatever is actually happening.
Yeah, current politics are there.
To me it was fascinating. Yeah, it is interesting.
So Boston College in 1992 set upseismic equipment around Mount
(27:56):
Tom area along with sensitive audio recording devices to put
this question to bed once and for all.
Interestingly, the area did experience hundreds of quakes
during the three month long observation.
These readings were used, usually followed by recordings
of the moodist noises caught on the audio equipment.
However, the moodist noises wererecorded even when there was no
seismic activity recorded on their detectives, keeping the
(28:19):
mystery alive. So the current theory among
scientists is that the unique and porous bedrock of the Mount
Tom area is working as an amplifier for geologic activity
that otherwise shouldn't be heard above ground.
Now, one interesting report similarly to support this theory
is from 1724, when an earthquakein Newbury, MA, 230 miles away,
was reportedly heard in Mordis, Connecticut.
(28:41):
Such a cool idea. Yeah, so there's an earthquake
in Maine, but because of the strange geology of it, you're
able to hear it in Mordis, Connecticut.
That was going to be one of my theories.
I was going to ask if like maybeit was like an echo of something
happening further away. So I guess that would.
That's actually that's one of the theories they have.
All right. The other thing I'm thinking
about is they said that there were two huge boulders that were
(29:04):
set and it was beneath the boulders that they were hearing
the sounds and where they were coming from.
Well, if you think of two boulders set side by side from
each other when the wind blows, yeah.
Could that be creating just likethe perfect element of some type
of resonance that is then sending noises and a certain
frequency out that the town's hearing?
Like I could see that, but wouldyou feel your house rumbling
(29:24):
from it? Depends on what resonance is,
right? Like you can hear certain
resonances with like think of like how people play the glasses
and stuff like that, how the water shakes and the whole
tables will shake. Like it depends on what
frequency it's going out. So maybe.
That's this is really interesting theory and I didn't
read anything about about that. I think you.
I cracked it. He solved.
It John solved it. Yeah, but the truth is, these
are all theories and stories about the strange noises that
(29:47):
come from the town of Moodus, Connecticut.
I can only speculate that these theories must seem as real to us
today as the theories were to people in their time frame.
So magic gods, subterranean caverns, witches, alchemists,
seismic activity have all been woven into the reason for
generations of locals experiencing these rumbles.
Each generation connects the noises to their own stressors
(30:08):
and fears through elaborate and clever storytelling.
Each retelling of these stories seems to coincide with the
period of fear and change. Today our telling of the story
is unexplainable earthquakes. This might be said to feed into
our eco anxiety. As I mentioned the beginning of
the story. Or in other words, we are
currently playing out our anxieties of the time in a very
similar way to our ancestors in the way we are currently telling
(30:30):
the story of the Moodus noises. While we might believe that our
latest science and latest thinking makes sense in this
phenomenon, did not the Puritansbelieve the sound was in fact
the devil? My big take away is that while
our culture has leaned into a more rational and scientific
mind and away from the supernatural, our fears of the
unknown have not changed. Whether a product of the
naturalist supernatural world, we still fear they are unknown.
(30:53):
And even with our latest detectives and predictive
models, Mother Nature is still an unknown.
And this fact is embedded into our collective consciousness at
our deepest levels. In our most primal fears, fires,
hurricanes, floods, the next bigearthquake are all going to
happen. It's not a matter of if, but
rather a matter of when. These explanations for these
events might change, but our primal fears remain static and
(31:14):
alive with all of us. Well, my first thought is it's
clearly got to be the devil. It's probably the devil.
I have to agree with Sean. It's either echoing happening
from pockets underneath deep in the ground, or the devil his
demons break out to take. Over the OR when you die, right?
We always talk about like our ghosts, real what's happening.
(31:35):
Maybe they all just go to Moodus, Connecticut.
They don't want a fucking party.Hey, this is where we go.
It's super interesting to me that even to this day, with all
of our understanding of the natural world, they still can't
truly explain that they have good theories, but we've had
theories for thousands of years,which made the story
fascinating. I don't know, I.
(31:56):
Have to admit, I think that there's something kind of nice
about not knowing sometimes. Not everything needs to be
explained. Maybe it does come back to
geology or geography, but it's different than the rocks
underneath the earth. Like is Moodus Connecticut in a
valley where all of a sudden just like gunshots and stuff can
like echo through the valley andstuff and again, like you can
(32:17):
hear it hundreds of times over a20 year period is.
Crazy. You see, I really like that
theory and I was my mind was going the same place.
But then the Native Americans, pre gunpowder, pre firearms,
we're hearing the same noises. Shocks Bigfoot.
Shocks. Bigfoot.
Fucking. Shock, I was on to something.
(32:38):
Hillbilly, you got like a straw shoot shoot piece of hay shocks.
Yeah. Then next thing I got is Bigfoot
knocks and now I'm tapping out here.
I don't know. Yeah.
I don't, I don't know why I. Feel bad because scientists,
seismologists, university professors have not been able to
figure out either. It's still a mystery to this
day. I love a good fucking mystery.
(33:00):
Especially when we have actual recordings and actual evidence,
right? I feel like we've got to go to
Moodist and we got to spend likea week down there and just be
like, can we hear one of these sounds?
Yes, take it in. Like, I don't know.
Verbo, I got it. Verbo, Verbo, let's go.
Yep. Well, for me for spooky season,
it's the devil and we're going to wrap it up there.
So Chris, thank you so much for sharing this episode on the
(33:20):
moodist noises in Connecticut again.
Fucking Connecticut. Am I right?
Because what the? Fuck, it's always in.
Connecticut always in Connecticut and with that gang.
We hope that you enjoyed this episode as well.
And if you did, be sure to make sure you check out our
Instagram, our Reddit, and our Facebook because we are here
building communities. So if you want to talk to us or
talk to other individuals just like you, make sure to go check
(33:41):
in over there and drop us a line.
And no, we are always, always onthe hunt for weird New England
stories. Have you heard these noises?
Have you heard Bigfoot in the woods?
Have you had an alchemy moment where you turned water to wine?
Because if you have, we want to hear those stories.
And if you have, send them to the gang at
weirderafterdark.com. And don't forget, October's upon
(34:03):
us. Things are about to get weird.
So if you like aliens, Gremlins story, we ain't got no Gremlins
stories. But if you like all that shit,
you come check out this podcast because we're going to have a
special event popping off for you on Halloween itself.
So make sure that you give us a listen, and don't forget it
always gets a little weirder. After dark.
Bye. Thank you guys.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!