This map marks the tales’ (approximate) locations.

Many writers pull their inspiration from childhood; fortunately, I had plenty of urban legends in mine–many surrounding Candlewood Lake.

New England Horror Writers recently posted a collection of these tales I put together: “Seven Creepy Tales of Candlewood Lake.” You can read them here: http://nehw.blogspot.com/2016/08/legends-of-candlewood-lake-guest-blog.html

If you grew up on or near the lake, do you remember any of these? I asked a few people when I was working on this and found out that yes, many do (everyone, especially, seems to recall the one about “The Kids in the Pipe” up at Lynn Deming)…and almost no one didn’t know Chicken Rock!

Anyway, enjoy! If you remember any of this, feel free to share in the comments below.

My sister prepares to jump off a concrete wall into (very shallow) water at the CTTA Beach in New Milford, CT, in the summer of 1982. Ah, unsupervised children. It was a thing.