About Town’s dinner companion was prepared to provide some proof sources to support his theory that the Nepaug Reservoir had a disproportionate number of accidents, tragic circumstances and mysterious goings on to be written off as coincidence. Armed with a folder of photos, personal testimonies and newspaper articles, he made his case. Perhaps, there was a haunting of the Reservoir due to events that harkened back to its inception?   

What About Town had learned about the building of the Reservoir was that there was once a small, agrarian community on the banks of the Nepaug/Nepash River, which had been named after a drowned Indian ancestor. Nepaug Village itself now lay at the bottom of the vast basin of the Reservoir. And while the state of Connecticut had taken pains to move and/or compensate Village residents and businesses, there was perhaps one final detail regarding the re-internment of Mr. and Mrs. Omni Ford and their daughter Caroline, that had been forgotten.

Could a case be made for a type of karmic retribution for the area in and surrounding the Reservoir?

In the 1980s, dinner companion started hearing stories from his friends about a disproportional number of pedestrian and motor vehicle accidents, in and around the same relative spot at the Reservoir.  It was these friends who first broached the idea to dinner companion, that there was something bizarre and perhaps not coincidental going on at the Reservoir. A haunting perhaps?

Dinner companion was unconvinced. Over the years, however,  after his own serious motorcycle accident at the Reservoir and other high-profile incidents, he was persuaded that something was at work at this property; something that could not be explained by everyday means. 

Dinner companion then reviewed some of the more frightening and tragic incidents, of the past 15 years, at the Reservoir property. There was the 1997 motor vehicle accident which took the life of a beloved Canton Police Officer. In that same year, a woman walking her dog at the Reservoir was found strangled. Convicted Cheshire killer, Steven Hayes was at the Reservoir in 2004. He was arrested by MDC police for breaking into a minivan to steal a purse. And in 2010, there was the suicide of a Canton man, at the dam.

It was with the deepest respect for these losses that dinner companion started wondering why such a small area, in such a small town, could be the vortex for so much horrible news. He asked, "Is Nepaug Reservoir Canton’s Bermuda Triangle? What’s going on there? How come so much that goes bad in Canton, happens in this same area?"

While the December 13, 1999 purported sighting of a UFO over the Reservoir may not necessarily be described as bad or even frightening in some circles, does it beg the question, "again, at the Reservoir?” 

That Monday in December at about 3:30 p.m., a father and son standing outside what was then Collinsville Antiques, reported seeing a trail of light heading vertically, straight down from the sky. Moving slowly, the trail of light disappeared behind Sweetheart Mountain, after several bright bursts of light.

A second sighting, with two additional witnesses, involved two blue-grey objects; one shaped like a bullet and the other a ball. They appeared to move in a unified fashion until the ball shaped object veered off on its own, disappearing. The other object passed over the witnesses, making a humming sound, then turned towards Collinsville Canoe and Kayak where it also disappeared. 

The Mutual UFO Network, an organization started in 1969 to research and disseminate information on UFO sightings, dispatched two investigators to Canton. Using geometric models, witness sketches, interviews and mapping techniques, they spent over 40 hours researching the UFO. If the results of their research warranted, their investigation would include a search for evidence at Sweetheart Mountain, near the Reservoir.

After ruling out conventional explanations: meteors, aircraft, balloons or a hoax, MUFON’s investigators officially concluded that the objects observed over the Reservoir that day were of, "Unknown” origin or explanation.   

Considered en masse, both the incidents on the ground around the Nepaug Reservoir and the one witnessed in the sky above it would give anyone pause in a big city, much less a small town like Canton. So, it is not surprising that some have tried to find meaning or explanation through historic perspective.

That will remain a challenging task, however, as you have a history here that’s part mystery.

Here’s the Deal

Thank you to About Town’s dinner companion, who while preferring to remain anonymous, provided personal information, insights and queries that supported the development of these last three columns.