Haunted Dogtown, Cape Ann, Massachusetts

There are a lot of haunted places in Massachusetts, and the Patriot Ledger newspaper spotlights them
each month. Here are the hauntings of Dogtown, Cape Ann, Massachusetts.

Once a somewhat prosperous inland settlement on Cape Ann in the 1600s, with nearly 100 families and plenty of pasture, the tides of war were not kind to this village north of Gloucester. First, the Revolutionary War brought a new economic boom around fishing and other marine industries, sending people past the village and to coastal Gloucester. Then, the War of 1812 took the rest of the farmers still living there, creating a perfect place for pirates and other unsavory types to hide out away from the busier cities like Rockport.

After the war, the village’s seedy reputation stuck. At one point, it was reportedly inhabited by witches, including Thomazine “Tammy” Younger, known as the “Queen of the Witches,” who would stand in the road and intimidate travelers as they passed by.

Eventually even the unsavory residents moved elsewhere — often leaving their pets behind to turn feral, hence the name “Dogtown” — and the last buildings were demolished in 1845. Now, the area is a public trust and open to hikers — just keep an eye out for the numerous cellar holes that still dot the land, as well as the 36 boulder carvings commissioned by Roger Babson sporting such ominous phrases as, “When work stops, values decay.”

FROM THE BOOK OF DOGTOWN - According to the book Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town it was during this time that the village acquired its name “Dogtown,” either from the plethora of dogs some of the village women used for protection or from the low-level inhabitants it attracted:

“In the 1890s, the area and its named piqued the interest of Gloucester Daily Times editor Charles E. Mann, who documented its history and interviewed ‘sweet-faced old ladies’ and ‘men with whitened locks’ to produce a slender little volume titled In the Heart of Cape Ann or the Story of Dogtown. ‘The name Dogtown,’ Mann wrote, ‘…came from the canines kept by the so-called ‘widows’ of the place, when the evil days came that saw their natural protectors either in their graves or buried beneath the ocean.’ But other than this explanation there are no stories about dogs in this place. What changed the Commons Settlement to Dogtown was the people: women who dressed like men, men who did housework, alleged witches, and former slaves, who lived, according to what Roger W. Babson called ‘Gypsy Ways.’”

Babson Boulder in Dogtown, Cape Ann, Massachusetts