# 'salem's Lot Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2002, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278 "2002-04-24T03:30:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Saint\_Sparky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Saint\_Sparky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Sparky)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/21 "2005-02-21T12:20:33Z")
Just out of curiosity I looked up Ghost towns in Vermont. Nothing about the one mentioned about, but [this one](http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/vt/glastenbury.html) is suppose to be haunted, and while [this one](http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/vt/rickerbasin.html) was only abondoned through being on a flood plain, it has some rather creepy looking photos in it. The forest has really reclaimed the place. Anyway I remember reading that 150 years ago Vermont had three times the population that it has today, it just had such a phenominal emigration level happening in the 19th century that entire towns just disapeared, where abandoned and the forest just swallowed them up. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Sparky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Saint\_Sparky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Sparky)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/22 "2005-02-21T12:24:12Z")
Sorry for the double post, but I just found, while there maybe no Monson, VT, there seems to be a [Monson Center, NH](http://home.att.net/~gobruen/ghosttowns.html). Also [here](http://www.milfordnh.com/Monson/index.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/23 "2005-02-21T13:57:27Z")
Concerning abandoned towns, look up Centralia, Pennsylvania. 'Course, it was abandoned for a concrete reason - mine fires that have burned for decades - instead of anything paranormal, but still creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/24 "2009-07-15T18:29:23Z")
Oooo! Zombie thread! A few years ago I asked my BIL, who works for the Vermont Historical Society, to check into whether or not Momson, Vt. existed, and he confirmed it never did. (The VHS has records of every town that ever existed, even those that long ago disappeared). I later read that King coined the name and considered Momson for the setting of his book before settling on Jerusalem’s Lot, and then used Momson in a fake newspaper article in the prologue instead. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/25 "2009-07-15T19:25:05Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > (The VHS has records of every town that ever existed, even those that long ago disappeared). My VHS just has an old tape of Family Ties episodes I recorded off TV. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/26 "2009-07-15T20:00:40Z")
We just might be talking about different VHSs… ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/27 "2009-07-15T20:21:51Z")
> [@Saint\_Sparky](#): > > Anyway I remember reading that 150 years ago Vermont had three times the population that it has today, it just had such a phenominal emigration level happening in the 19th century that entire towns just disapeared, where abandoned and the forest just swallowed them up. One of the cool things about living in Vermont is that you can be out hiking in the middle of nowhere and run across old stone foundations and walls from farms that used to be there and have long since been abandoned. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/28 "2009-07-15T20:52:29Z")
> [@Semp](#): > > I haven’t read the book in ages, but maybe the “historical authenticity” has less to do with history than his (short) story “Jesualem’s Lot”? That had to do with a deserted town and the dastardly Necronomicon, as I recall, and maybe he just tried to bridge the two. But I don’t recall Jerusalem’s Lot being in Vermont, it was either in Maine or Massachusetts (maybe a suburb of Arkham?). So I probably just shot my theory full of holes. _De Vermis Mysteriis_, actually, not the Necronomicon. Edited: :smack: Not only was this correction made immediately below the post I quoted, but it’s a 7-year-old zombie thread! ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/29 "2009-07-15T21:08:06Z")
Let’s see: OP - 2002 First resurrection - 2005 Second - 2009 I’ll be back in 2014. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/30 "2009-07-15T21:18:08Z")
This thread is HAUNTED! HAUNTED, I tells ya’! It is the Brigadoon of threads! ---
**Author:** ![PeacePlease](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@PeacePlease](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeacePlease)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/31 "2009-07-15T23:08:04Z")
There are vampires among us. ooooooOOOOOooooooooo ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/32 "2009-07-16T00:54:00Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > There _was_ a place called Dudleytown, Connecticut which was eventually abandoned entirely. Residents were besieged by paranormal phenomena as well madness, premature death, and a remarkable series of extremely bad luck, all of which was blamed on the paranormal. > [@Terrorcotta](#): > > Dudleytown is a place where the natural and supternatural meet and influenced the other. Some say it was the magetism, others give the theory of moldy bread, while others point to the dead buried in unsactified ground; it is all of the above and none of the above. Mostly none. The decline of this tiny settlement (it was never a proper town) was due to perfectly mundane factors. There is (of course) no reliable record of any paranormal event at the site. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/33 "2009-07-16T01:58:55Z")
This thread has been abandoned (twice now) but then others return, fascinated by the aura of vice, death and decay. Drive-by posters are strongly urged not to get out of their intellectual comfort zone. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/34 "2014-09-20T21:03:35Z")
> [@Wargamer](#): > > Let’s see: > > OP - 2002 > > First resurrection - 2005 > > Second - 2009 > > I’ll be back in 2014. 'Salem’s Lot LIVES!!! Just started re-reading this today. Googled Momson, VT and another zombie rises. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/35 "2014-09-20T21:38:01Z")
And on schedule too. spoooooky… _hides under bed_ ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/36 "2014-09-20T21:52:40Z")
I hiked to the former site of Dudleytown twenty years ago this month with my girl friend at the time. I don’t remember her telling me anything about alleged supernatural events. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/37 "2014-09-21T04:34:58Z")
> [@Wargamer](#): > > Let’s see: > > OP - 2002 > > First resurrection - 2005 > > Second - 2009 > > I’ll be back in 2014. > [@G0sp3l](#): > > 'Salem’s Lot LIVES!!! > > Just started re-reading this today. Googled Momson, VT and another zombie rises. This is the most awesome thread resurrection ever. Bar none. Somebody page **Wargamer!** ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/38 "2014-09-21T15:16:49Z")
> [@Saint\_Sparky](#): > > Sorry for the double post, but I just found, while there maybe no Monson, VT, there seems to be a [Monson Center, NH](http://home.att.net/~gobruen/ghosttowns.html). Also [here](http://www.milfordnh.com/Monson/index.htm). Hmm. It’s definitely a real abandoned town, and it took some digging to find, but there apparently _were_ vague rumors it was haunted too. I kind of want to drive up there now after [reading this](http://anhistoricallady.blogspot.com/2013/06/time-traveling-back-to-18th-century-new_6960.html). ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/39 "2014-09-21T15:41:00Z")
I did the same thing on the Dean Koontz book _Phantoms_. There’s an expository section where the quirky scientist explains past disappearances and one of the examples he gave was a Chinese battalion (or division or whatever) that disappeared in Manchuria in 1937. I read this pre-internet and did my best to find a reference in the local libraries, but to no avail. Even now the only reference I can Google up to this story leads me back to the Dean Koontz novel, so I must conclude that it’s purely hookum. ---
**Author:** ![whitjake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ee59a6/32.png) [@whitjake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitjake)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278/40 "2015-11-14T17:45:39Z")
there is a hidden empty town in New Hampshire called Momson that is in the middle of the woods with one house still standing and the other houses just have foundation holes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salems-lot-question/105278.md?page=3)