Photo of the outside of the site.
Now this week I am going to be going off from the beaten trail and we will be visiting an abandoned site in Rockingham, Vermont. This site was one of those that was very out of nowhere and impossible to find. Later, it was so hard to find any information about it on the internet and half of me thought I had made it up on my own head if not for the pictures. This abandoned site is the Moore and Thompson Paper Mill. It was built right off the water but with increased vegetation and the town surrounding it becoming larger it fell more and more into the background. It was built in 1880 right around the Industrial Revolution. It was operated into the 1960’s but closed for unclear reasons. I am sure people claimed because of the decline of paper products, but of course my mind goes to supernatural occurrences. Also, Vermont, next to Connecticut, is one of the most haunted places in the country.
This specific building was one of 18 buildings owned by the company, but I only came across the one. The placement of all of these buildings is on this one island-like strip of land next to Connecticut River. All of the buildings were powered by the water itself, which was very ahead of its time, and they are interconnected by a tunnel system. Yes, another tunnel system. I think one of my greatest fears would be to get stuck in the underground tunnels of an abandoned site.
The most interesting thing about this place for me is the lack of information on the internet or really anywhere. As you can see from the postcard this was a massive operation and town at the time, and now you can barely find it in personal or online. Did something happen here to make everything get covered up? Where did all the information go? It is all very interesting.
When you go, it is extremely overgrown with literally no way to get in. Whoever boarded it up did an amazing job. By walking around though you could really get a sense of what it used to be like. You could almost see into the very top windows and imagine working in the mill at the time. As you walk up to it, it feels like you are right in the middle of your own thriller film. All of a sudden you come across it, you hear the water rushing down below. The building feels lonely and a bit sad, the infrastructure of it is slowly declining and seeming to wilt with time. It looms over you almost as if it were staring you down. It is interesting how after a long time a building or a site can take on it’s own personality or presence of it’s own. It has seen the times go by better than any of us could have. As I walked around it didn’t feel like there was “anyone else”, but it is also hard to tell with only being on the edge of it. Regardless, that moment definitely stuck with me.
As much as I would recommend visiting, this site is nearly impossible to find. There isn’t even an address on the internet and you just need to really explore the area of Bellows Falls. So, if you are in for a challenge I would urge you to try it, but if not just take my word for it.
As always, good luck!
November 12, 2020 at 2:47 pm
There is something about this spooky place not having an address that makes me want to find it even more! For my dad’s work, he was required to take business trips to states like Connecticut, New Hampshire, and most frequently, Vermont. I remember him telling me about the state’s beauty, but I would love to visit this interesting place!
November 12, 2020 at 2:50 pm
Wow this is really cool. I do agree it is very strange for a once prosperous industry building town to be completely abandonded and forgotten. Especially because the other buildings are missing and it has no location. Yeah something sinister happened and I am glad you did not go at night because heaven only knows what you may have saw.
November 16, 2020 at 4:55 am
I definitely agree with you on fearing getting lost in an underground tunnel system. It would be really interesting to explore though. My high school actually had a secret system of tunnels because it was initially built as separate academic buildings. Like one for all the math classes and another for all the english classes, for example. They were closed off a long time ago when they built above ground hallways to connect all of them. Even though they were closed off, there was a way to still access them. I was always too afraid to attempt it but now looking back on it, I wish I had.