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The Untold Story Of Dogtown - Massachusetts · Mystery Archives Episodes

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Hidden deep in the woods of Massachusetts lies a ghost town
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like no. Other a place.
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Abandoned by time, haunted by legend and etched with the.
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Whispers of witches. Curses and something even
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darker, Locals say the land. Itself is cursed.
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Paranormal investigators won't enter.
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After dark. And those who do don't always
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come back the same. This isn't just a forgotten
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village, it's a living. Graveyard of Secrets.
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Welcome to Dogtown. If you dare our story.
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Begins in the early days of New England by the late 17th
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century, English settlers on Cape Anne were drawn inland,
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seeking refuge from marauding pirates and the.
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Threat of coastal raids? In 1693, families began moving
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to a high. Rocky.
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Plateau safely away from the shore, they cleared the dense
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forest for timber and. Pasture Establishing.
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What was then called the common settlement, the first inland
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community. Of Old Gloucester.
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Over the next decades, the settlement grew.
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By the mid 1700s, as many as 60 to 100 families lived in
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Dogtowns cluster of simple farms and cottages.
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Children's laughter and the ring of blacksmiths hammers once
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echoed where now only the wind is heard.
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Life on this upland was hardscrabbled.
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But free. The common settlement houses
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were humble. One story.
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Structures. Some made of.
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Sod or wood? With small gardens.
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And cow pastures. The people who dwelt here were
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Hardy Fisher. Folk and farmers, many of
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Dogtown's men marched off to fight in the Revolutionary War,
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and local lore even holds that some helped to Rd.
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General Washington across the Delaware River on that fateful
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night in 17. 76. For the women, children and old
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men left behind, Dogtown was a haven far from the conflict.
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Henry David Thoreau visiting long after.
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The War Rd. Of coming upon boulders.
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Scattered over bare. Hills and a peculiar desolate
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landscape unlike any other on Cape Anne, yet even in those.
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Early days. Dogtown had an.
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Otherworldly quality. The terrain itself.
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Set it apart. Great granic erratics littered
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the land left by ancient glaciers and uncanny poses. 1
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famous formation, the whale's. Jaw stood.
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Like the gaping mouth of a leviathan breaching from the
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earth. 2 Massive rock. Spires eerily.
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Resembling a giant. Whale's jaws.
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Poised to snap in twilight, the silhouettes of gnarled trees and
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boulders could play tricks on the mind.
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The isolation, the strange rocks.
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The thick woods. Dogtown's atmosphere was primed
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for mystery even from the beginning.
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Originally, this upland haven was simply called The Commons,
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but it would gain a darker nickname in time for a while.
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Though. Dogtown prospered modestly by
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1750. Roughly 80 houses.
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Dotted the windswept Moors. Families eked out a living by
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grazing sheep and oxen on the common land, cutting timber and
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trading in the harbor town of Gloucaster a few miles.
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Away paths. Connected the little homesteads
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and a central Dog Town square as we now know it formed the heart
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of the community. In these years, Dog Town was.
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Poor but busy. A frontier.
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Village alive. With human voices.
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But that. Would not last.
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The American Revolution ended, and with it, the unique purpose
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of Dogtown began to fade by the early 1800s.
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The. Seas were safe once more.
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Gloucesters focus shifted back to its.
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Bustling fishing harbor and new roads opened along the coast.
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The rocky soil of. Dogtown yielded little and
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economic opportunity beckoned elsewhere. 1 by 1 the able
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families left loading wagons and heading for better farmland or
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moving down to the. Prosperous Ports.
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By 1815, Dogtown was unraveling. Only a stubborn few remained.
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War widows, Elderly couples, freed slaves.
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And Drifters with Nowhere. Else to go.
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And so the once lively common settlement fell into ruin.
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Abandoned houses. Collapsed or were.
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Scavenged for timber. Wild dogs left.
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Behind by departing owners roamed the overgrown lanes and
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feral. Packs.
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Their mournful howls at night only added to the settlements
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creeping dread. With the respectable families
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gone, Dogtown's reputation took a turn.
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The neighbors down in Gloucester began to whisper that.
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Those who stayed. Behind.
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Did so for. Sinister reasons by the 1820s.
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Locals called the. Place, Dogtown and some say.
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Because of those. Feral dogs hunting the Moors.
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Others say it is. A slur implying that it was a
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town only. Fit for dogs or the lowest of
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society? This is when Dogtown's legends.
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Truly took hold. Travelers passing through the
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abandoned village at. Dusk.
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Reported strange phenomena, distant booming sounds echoing
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across the hills with no. Clear source.
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And flickering ghost lights dancing among the.
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Trees as Gloucaster. Citizens heard tales of uncanny
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lights and noises. Fear of the deserted village
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grew. The impoverished women who
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remained in Dogtown, many without family scraping by on
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charity or odd jobs, became. Objects of gossip.
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In suspicion, people muttered that these reclusive inhabitants
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were practicing witchcraft and the lonely Uplands.
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What else, they reasoned, could explain the uncanny sounds and
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lights, the eerie misfortunes that seemed to emanate from
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Dogtown? By 1820, Dogtown was a ghost
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village in all but name. Only a dozen or so souls still
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lived among the sagging cabins. And cellar holes.
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These last. Residents were.
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A rough lot. The sorts of.
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People, 19th century society didn't know what to do.
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With. They were widowed or unmarried,
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women without means, eccentric old men and fugitive from life's
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disappointments, isolated and proud.
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They were the outcasts of Cape. Anne, and among them a handful
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of formidable women, gained infamy.
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As the so-called. Witches of Dogtown, These women
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likely never thought of themselves as true practitioners
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of dark magic, but they knew that.
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Others did. They skillfully played the part.
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Using superstition to extort a living from those.
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Who crossed their paths over? Time their names and deeds grew
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into Cape Anne legend. The most infamous was Thamazine
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Tammy Younger, remembered as the Queen of the Witches of Dogtown.
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Tammy Younger lived in a ramshackle Hut on.
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Fox Hill near. Brook on the.
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Village outskirts. By the 1820s, her home was known
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as the Fox Hill Homestead. It was a.
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Collapsing Shack. But inside Tammy and her aged
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aunt created an atmosphere of menace and mystery.
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Tammy was a formidable figure, Toothless.
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Wild haired. And sharp tongued.
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She told. Fortunes and hosted late night
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card games for Drifters. She was even said to entertain
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pirates and criminals. Who sought?
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Shelter in Dogtown, providing them with homemade rum and a
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safe. Hideout.
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But Tammys most infamous trick? Was highway robbery by curse?
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When carts laden with. Fish or firewood?
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Passed through Dogtown, Tammy would hobby out onto the road
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and glare at the. Teamsters with fierce.
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Sunken eyes and a gravelly. Voice.
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She demand a toll, maybe a few coins or.
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Share of their goods if the startled.
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Driver refused Tammy would threaten to hex him on the spot.
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According to legend, she and her aunt bewitched the oxen teams,
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causing the animals to halt in their.
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Tracks pay up. Or I'll curse you in your cargo.
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She'd croak superstitious travellers.
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Usually surrendered some fish or corn rather than risk.
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The Wrath. Of the Dogtown, which only then
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would Tammy. Supposedly release the.
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Oxen from her spell, allowing the journey to continue.
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It was essentially extortion, and it worked.
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Tammy Younger's intimidation tactics earned her.
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A fearful respect. Mothers and Gloucester would
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quiet naughty children by saying that Tammy will get you if you
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don't behave. When Tammy Younger died in 1829,
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her legend only grew. John Hodgkins, the Carpenter
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tasked with building her coffin, left the finished coffin in the
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workshop overnight. Before the burial.
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His family later reported feeling an unearthly chill
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emanating from the box. Misses Hodgkins refused to sleep
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under the same roof as Tammy's coffin.
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Tammy was laid to rest in Gloucester's third.
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Parish burial. Ground.
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But some say that her spirit never left Dogtown.
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Living with Tammy was her aunt. Lucy, Old Lucy George.
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Another reputed witch. Lucy George was elderly but.
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As crafty as her niece. She too, leveraged fear to
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survive. Lucy would lurk by the.
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Roadside and curse at passing wagons, muttering incantations
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until the drivers felt compelled.
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To toss her a few. Goods to make her go away, by
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all accounts. Lucy was as.
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Shrewd as Tammy and the two women formed a little empire of
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fried on Fox Hill. Another Dogtown character was
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Peg Wesson, an old woman whose legend is perhaps the most
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fantastical. Old.
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Peg was rumored to fly on a broomstick over the village at
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night once. The story claims that during the
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War of 18. 12 soldiers. Camped near.
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Gloucaster saw a huge black. Crow, circling overhead and
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suspecting a witch's trick, shot at it with a musket.
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Loaded with a silver. Button silver being a
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traditional charm against witchcraft, the crow fell from
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the sky beyond the trees. In the very next day, Peg Wesson
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was allegedly found nursing a mysterious wound when a doctor
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examined her leg. He extracted that.
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Same silver button from her flesh.
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To superstitious locals, it was proof that PEG had shape.
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Shifted into a bird and been brought down by that enchanted
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shot. Such tales cemented Peg's
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reputation as a witch who could turn into an animal at will.
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There were other so-called witches.
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Too, Molly Jacobs was known to read tea leaves until fortunes,
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but if a client refused to pay, Molly would threaten them just
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like Tammy and Lucy did by fortune telling, crafting herbal
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remedies and occasionally bullying those who passed.
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Through. These women survived on the
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fringe of society. Over time, the line between fact
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and folklore began to blur. The citizens of Gloucester came
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to sincerely believe that Dogtown.
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Was a cursed place. By the late 1820s, Dogtown's
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last inhabitants had died. Off.
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One by one, the infamous. Witches passed away.
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Some in their beds, some frozen in winter, and some possibly
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meeting violent ends in isolation, Dogtown became.
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Utterly deserted. And the little settlement on the
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hill had become a true ghost town.
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The last derelict houses of. Dogtown were torn down or fell
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to pieces by around 1840. 5 All that.
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Remained were stone cellar foundations, overgrown lanes and
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the persistent legends of the people who once lived there.
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The next century and more, the town would become a domain of
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folklore, a haunted place shunned by many.
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Yet irresistible to the curious. Even as nature reclaimed
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Dogtown. The ghost stories.
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Took on a life of their own. Locals.
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Swore that on certain nights, especially around Halloween, one
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could. See the ghostly figures.
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Flitting among the trees or hear the faint cackle.
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Of a witch's laughter. On the wind, electronic
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equipment has been known to malfunction in these woods in
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modern times, cameras refuse to hold.
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Focus. As if ghostly hands were
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meddling with them, one persistent legend speaks of a
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woman in black. This spectral figure.
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Dressed in old fashioned morning.
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Clothes has allegedly. Been spotted gliding silently
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between the rune cellar. Holes at dusk.
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Some say. She's the ghost.
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Of Tammy Younger or one of the other Dogtown witches doomed to
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wander the place she once. Terrorized.
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Others think she might be the spirit of 1 of Dogtown's
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grieving. Widows forever searching.
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For a husband. Lost at sea?
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The legends aren't confined to ghostly old women, however.
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Some of Dogtown's. Lore is positively.
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Feral the name itself, Dogtown, invites tales of monstrous
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canines, and the area does not disappoint.
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Early settlers told. Stories of unnaturally large
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wolves prowling the woods. The native Agawam people even
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believed their ancient ancestors.
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Had possessed heads like dogs. And that eating a certain local
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plant could transform a person into a dog.
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Like creature, these whispers lay.
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Dormant for centuries, but then came a chilling modern
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encounter. That revived talk of werewolves.
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On Cape Anne on March 17th, 1984, a night of a full moon, a
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man visiting from Boston claimed he saw something unearthly near
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the. Rocky Ledges.
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On the outskirts of Dogtown, in the silvery moonlight.
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He. Beheld A gigantic animal
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prowling the Cliff top. It moved.
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Like a predator. And looked roughly.
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Doglike, but far too big to be a stray dog or a coyote.
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The witness thought it resembled a Mountain Lion.
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Except that there. Are no mountain lions that live
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on Cape Anne? A few days.
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Later, gruesome evidence surfaced.
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A deer carcass. Found at nearby Cranes Beach,
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torn apart but not eaten as if killed for.
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Sport That same night, two different people reported a
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Gray. Monstrous dog Like animal That
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same night, two different people reported a Gray monstrous dog
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like animal That same night, two different people reported a Gray
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monstrous dog like animal opening across the.
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Road toward dog. Town before vanishing into the.
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Woods. The timing just after a full
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moon did also not go unnoticed. Talk of a werewolf or a.
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Surviving Wolf Pack. Swept the local.
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Rumor mill. Wildlife authorities.
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Found no explanation, but those who know Dogtown's folklore
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nodded knowingly. After all, hadn't the Agawam
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story said human forms could? Blur with beast.
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Perhaps 1 of Dogtown's old. Curses still had teeth.
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As if witches and werewolves weren't enough, Dogtown has
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acquired yet another bizarre chapter.
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In recent years. Hikers began stumbling upon a
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toy cemetery hidden in a thicket, a macabre collection of
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old dolls and stuffed animals left or hung among the trees.
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Tiny baby dolls with missing eyes.
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Threadbare teddy bears. Even clown figurines, all
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arranged as if in. Ritual display.
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No one knows who officially started this.
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Eerie. Assemblage or why?
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Some suspect pranksters or local teens drawn to Dogtown.
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'S creepy. Reputation, others whisper.
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About occult activities, The sight of weather beaten.
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Dolls swaying in the. Breeze certainly sends a.
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Shiver down the spine of even the.
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Bravest Explorer It's. The kind of unexpected discovery
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that makes Dogtown feel undeniably haunted.
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As if the forest itself. Were playing tricks with anyone
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daring enough to enter. Perhaps the greatest.
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Legend of Dogtown is Dogtown itself.
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Long after the last resident was gone, locals would warn each
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other. Don't you?
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Stray up to. Dogtown after dark.
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Stories circulated. That those who entered might
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lose their way. For hours or even days.
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Indeed, Dogtown is notorious for causing disorientation.
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The Trails. Twist in circles and without
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landmarks, one can wander endlessly among identical
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looking. Boulders and trees.
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Many have felt that uncanny confusion first hand.
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A hike. That should have taken an hour
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stretches into 3 as the woods seemingly refuse to.
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Let you go whether it's the. Very real magnetism of the.
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Place or the psychological effect of its creepy history.
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Dogtown can befuddle the senses. Over the years.
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Dogtown has inspired novels, poems, paintings and countless
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campfire. Tales.
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It stands as a potent symbol, part cautionary tale of a town
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that died when times changed, part magnet for our fascination
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with the supernatural. In Dogtown, history and myth are
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forever intertwined. It's historical truth.
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That it was a community founded. For safety.
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On on hard times and abandoned, it lives on in the cellar
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stones. The records.
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Of who lived. And died there.
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The Legends. Of which?
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Is casting curses. Of ghostly apparitions.
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And aware beasts under the moon linger in the public
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imagination, refusing to be laid.
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To rest if you visit. Dogtown Today you'll walk on a
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carpet of. Leaves over old roads like old
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Rockport. Road or Commons Rd.
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Tracing footsteps of. Colonists and vagabonds.
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You might feel a chill that has nothing to do with the.
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Breeze as twilight. Deepens, you may catch yourself
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glancing over. Your shoulder.
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Wondering if unseen eyes are watching from the briars.
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Perhaps it's mere legend. Or perhaps the spirits?
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Of Dogtown truly do remain keeping company with the frogs
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and crickets as they once did with the howling dogs.
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One thing is. Certain.
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Dogtown's ghost stories are inseparable from its history.
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This lonely place, with its lichen stained boulders in
18:07
Whispering Pines, holds an atmosphere unlike any other.
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It is at once a memorial to early American life and a canvas
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for New England's darkest imaginings.
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In the end, it endures as a realm of mystery.
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As local guides. Often warn with a smile.
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Explore if you dare. But don't linger too long after.
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Dark. Or when the sunsets the past
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comes alive, you may find that the voices of Dogtown.
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The whispers of witches. The howls.
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Of the hounds. Are still.
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Echoing among the. Trees.
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18:49
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