The Black Dog of West Peak
The Damned Story: Animal lovers, beware!
Looming over the city of Meriden are the scenic Hanging Hills, allegedly the highest spot on the East Coast that’s within 25 miles of the shoreline. A range of rocky peaks created by an ancient lava flow, they have drawn countless visitors over the years to Hubbard Park thanks to their rugged beauty and spectacular views. The distinctive Castle Craig (yes, that castle thingy you see from I-691) is a century-old stone observation tower and sits atop East Peak, over 1,000 feet above sea level. On a clear day, you can literally see from Long Island Sound to the south all the way to the foothills of the Berkshires in Massachusetts to the north.
But it’s not the panaromic beauty you see from Castle Craig that’s the problem. It’s the supernatural canine of West Peak that can cause you despair — and possibly death — if it comes your way.
Over the years, people have told of encounters with a small, vaguely spaniel-like, short-haired black dog. Often, it is described as having come out of nowhere, and despite its sad eyes, being quite happy to have human companionship. Like any good phantom, it leaves no footprints and makes no sound when it barks or howls, yet it leaves quite an impression. For it is said of the Black Dog: “If a man shall meet the Black Dog once, it shall be for joy; and if twice, it shall be for sorrow; and the third time, he shall die.”
As you might expect, there are numerous tales of those who have met their end after seeing the Black Dog a third time — it wouldn’t be a proper legend if there wasn’t, right? Stories of the Black Dog’s victims go back as far as the 1800s; as many as a half dozen people are believed to have been cursed to death by the creature, including as recently as the 1970s.
Our Damned Experience: I’ve hiked stretches of the Metacomet Trail, which runs through Hubbard Park, and have visited both peaks as well as Castle Craig. I can’t recall ever having seen a black dog in my visits, but I do know that the Hanging Hills can be a hazardous hike if you don’t pay attention — there are dramatic elevation changes, deep gorges and treacherous rock formations, all of which can be quite treacherous even under ideal conditions. It’s not hard to picture someone getting seriously hurt or killed while hiking, especially if they are distracted by a friendly dog and don’t watch their step.
If You Go: Hubbard Park is open to the public year-round and offers over 50 miles of blue-blazed hiking trails. For the lazy, a road runs up the Hanging Hills between East and West Peak and right to Castle Craig, and is open during daylight hours from April to October. Make sure whenever you visit to bring a camera — if you don’t see the Black Dog, you’ll at least get some great images from a gorgeous vantage point.
By the way, as far as we know, the Black Dog of Meriden is not related to the “Black Dog” of Led Zeppelin fame. Although with spectral creatures, one can never be sure.
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I have been here a couple times having family in Meriden as well as my hubby’s job and I have never encountered the black dog.I also heard a story a long time back that supposedly a spirit of a young girl is seen or heard in this park,I don’t know if there is any proof or merit to this rumor since I have not encountered her either. =)
I have lived in meriden most of my life, I’ve seen the dog once, and have heard the little girl, hers is a sad story.
I’ve never seen it yet, but have seen the city council walking the streets that’s a truly bad omen.
um what if its just a dog?a normal dog?okay a normal dog with no voice but other than that normal.some dogs,especially the annoying ones can have a surgery to remove there voice box so they cant bark/howl.
im just saying look at it from a ” its not real ” point of view.
Oddly enough my brothers dog jumped to its death at this site.. For some reason it just leaped off the cliff. My brother went to the bottom and try to save the dog but it was dead on arrival. Strange coincidence I guess. This was the mid to late 80s. It was quite sometime before I heard the legend.
I have been hiking there for the last 2 years. In Winter after work I hike On the trail above the res. at nite since it gets dark so early……A couple of times I started getting the creeps being so far out there at nite alone. I have not seen the dog and don’t want to… after learning of this story I will only be hiking there during the day now. If I ever see a dog like that I will never hike there again!!!
My children and myself hiked up the mountain to the castle. We never saw the black dog but I can sure say that one wrong step and it could be your last!. It was a nerve wracking hike on the rocks with my two children. If I had known of this black dog story we may have not gone it alone. Since this hike we have driven up to the castle and I will tell you what breathtaking sights!
Went hiking up there one November evening around 5:00pm and saw what looked like a black dog peering down at me from a rocky ledge. I called out to the dog but it just stood still looking at me so I picked up a stick that was near my right foot and when I looked back where the dog was it was gone. Huh? I thought, so I threw the stick in the direction where I saw the dog and when I got up there to see where it was the dog was nowhere in sight. It seemed strange to me because I would of definatly been able to see where he was by the time it took me to retrieve the stick where it was watching me. I shrugged it off and began to head back down the trail and about 10 minutes later I thought I felt like I was being watched and when I turned my head back to look there it was again just looking at me from a distance of about 100′ up the trail. This time I quickly grabbed my pistol from my side and pointed it at the black dog and yelled to it to see if it would come at me but it turned and walked up the trail. I was a little scared cause it was just getting dark and it looked like it was a wild dog. I left and never seen it again. Hopefully I see it again cause I will kill it next time or maybee it will kill me.
I have lived here all my life and i really haven’t seen a black dog until two years ago. I was hiking up the hill with my mom and i saw a black dog staring at us. Of course, i went up to greet it because it seemed friendly, but when i got up were it was it was gone. And just remember the ground was wet and there were no paw prints there. I freaked out and told my mom, but she said she saw nothing and I forced her to go back down with me. I’m not sure if it was a ghost, but it sure scared me half to death. Now that i hike there without my mom i don’t really see it……
One time I went hiking on the trail, and all was normal, until I felt a cool breeze brush past me, and to my surprise, and small timid black dog walked out from the behind a tree, and just stared at me like it had half a brain. I through a stick at it because I thought it was cute, and it peed, AND THEN IT WAS GONE. So I decided to leave the site as quickly as possible, and I whistled for a cab and when it came near the liscence plate said “Fresh” and there was dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought “naw forget it yo holmes to bel-air!”. I pulled up to a house about 7 or 8 and I yelled to the cabby “Yo holmes smell ya later!” I looked at my kingdom, I was finally here, to sit on my throne, as the prince of Bel-Air. I never saw the dog again.
Supposedly it is the following, see the dog once: good luck is upon you; see the dog twice: a bad omen/curse is set upon you; the third time – your death is imminent. Now, I am an avid hiker, and have been to practically every state park, and hiked almost every trail that is supposedly haunted. Including the trails that link near Dudleytown. Castle Craig is beautiful but have never even seen or confronted a dog. People have claimed to have seen a dog walking aimlessly, and thats fine, the only time I have ever seen a dog is when a guy and his wife were walking a black pug down the mountain. The dog came over and sniffed my leg. I haven’t really felt any more luck, nor a bad omen, but maybe thats just me…
Its strange to have stumbled upon this story because I have hiked this trail several times and never heard of any rumors. About 5 or 6 years ago a couple of my friends pushed for the summit to have a breakfast at Castle Craig before graduating high school and had encountered a black dog. Being so early we had assumed it stray, it never bothered us just sat in the distance on the other side of the closed off parking lot (from the castle). Naturally, hiking in the dark gives one the spooks but the creepy sensation of feeling like you are being watched was with me until we had finished and headed back down. It isn’t uncommon for a dog to follow but keep their distance so I didn’t really find this to be too abnormal. I normally don’t buy into this stuff, but I thought I’d share this experience.
The most famous account of the Black Dog was written by William H. C. Pynchon and published in the April-June, 1898 issue of Connecticut Quarterly (Volume 4), which is on Google books. Link: http://books.google.com/books?id=n_8aAAAAYAAJ&source=gbs_similarbooks and go to page 153. but could not find easily when I tried again. Pynchon recounts a long tale that ends with his friend and fellow geologist slipping to his death after seeing the dog three times on Feb. 5 of an unspecified year. Since it was Pynchon’s second sighting, “it shall be for sorrow” and for Marshall, “and the third time he shall die.” Fanciful stories would like to say that Pynchon returned to the site at a later time and slipping to his death on the same spot. Pynchon actually died Jan. 2, 1910 in Oyster Bay, L.I., information I verified from two different websites, one of which is here: http://www.americanancestors.org/novelist-thomas-pynchon/
There are a couple of oddities about the Pynchon article in Connecticut Quarterly. One oddity is that he refers to years as 18–, a literacy style of the time used in stories to keep them somewhat timeless. The other oddity is that the article is full of pictures of the ill-fated trip, yet there are no pictures of the black dog, which supposedly followed them the whole day.
From a lack of common sense point of view, they were up there in February in icy and snowy conditions, presumably without any sort of crampons. I will not hike at West Peak under anything but dry conditions because there are far too many places to slip and go over the edge. I have never seen the legendary black dog up there and I have a friend who does trail maintenance there, and he has never seen this mysterious mutt either.