Meriden

The Black Dog of Meriden, Connecticut is a small, ghostly dog who leaves no footprints and makes no sound, even when it appears to be barking or howling. According to legend, if you see the Black Dog once it means joy, twice it means sorrow, but if you see it a third time, it means death.

According to Meriden’s local legend, the Black Dog can be seen barking, but it makes no sound. Where it trods the ground it raises no dust, in snow it makes no footprints. Ghostlike, the dog appears as if out of nowhere, and takes its leave just as mysteriously, as it roams over a large area around the hills.

In the early 1900s, a geologist by the name of Pynchon was surveying a mountain in Meridan called West Peak. He saw the black dog was following him, keeping it’s distance, but still staying in view. When Pynchon turned to go home, the dog disappeared into the trees.

The second time he saw the dog was a few years later, while hiking in the same spot with friends. One of the friends he was climbing with said he had seen the same dog twice before. As they approached the peak, the dog was already ahead of them.

Pyncheon heard a terrible scream and turned in horror to see his friend had lost his footing and had fallen hundreds of feet to his death on the rocks below.

When Pynchon got back to Meriden, locals told him about the legend of the Black Dog but he refused to believe it. The locals told him never to go back to the mountain because if he saw the dog again, it would mean his death.

A few years went by, and Pynchon decided to climb the same mountain. He left his lodgings bright and early one morning and never returned. His dead body was later found at the bottom of a ravine. People say the night he died, he must have seen the Black Dog a third time and fallen to his death.

Over the years several lives have been lost on the Meriden mountain, including an experienced Alpine climber in 1972. Although all the fatalities are listed as accidental, the old timers know they were brought about by the Black Dog of Meriden. So if you are hiking the West Peak in Meridan, Connecticut… be careful!