Case file · High strangeness
Middie Rivers lost on Glastenbury Mountain
On 12 November 1945 Middie Rivers, a 74-year-old hunting guide who knew the area well, went missing on Glastenbury Mountain, Vermont. He was never found.
1945 CE · 42.98, -73.13 · status: unexplained
The account
He was the first of the disappearances that writer Joseph Citro later grouped as the 'Bennington Triangle'.
The sceptical view
Rugged, forested terrain and cold weather can explain disappearances without anything strange.
The researched reading
An elderly guide lost on a wild mountain in autumn. An accident or exposure is overwhelmingly likely.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A known natural phenomenon | 40% | A 74-year-old in rugged forest in November faces falls, hypothermia, heart problems and drowning in streams; even skilled woodsmen die alone in such terrain and remains are often never found. A rifle cartridge reportedly found in a stream suggests he may have bent to drink. |
| Undetermined | 32% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| A cultural story | 12% | He is listed as the first victim of the “Bennington Triangle”, a framing invented decades later. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 7% | Grouping unrelated cases creates a pattern that does not exist. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | Foul play is possible but nothing points to it. |
| Something in the surroundings | 2% | Not relevant beyond terrain. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 2% | An elderly hunter lost in rough country is not anomalous. |
Official position: Searches found no trace; he was presumed lost in the woods.