Hidden in the woods of Middlebury, Connecticut, there's an entire village that is slowly crumbling into the forest floor. The weirdest part? It's not quite a human village.
The Little People's Village, as it's locally known, is a bizarre collection of tiny stone homes with a complicated history. Read on to learn more about this peculiar spot, and be sure to watch the exploration footage below by YouTube channel "DetectingMetal."
The houses in this village look just big enough for a community of dolls. In their prime, the little homes must have been fantastically detailed. Tiny flagstones are laid out as paths to the residences, and much of the village in connected by stone walkways and railings.
Though much of the village has been damaged by the elements and vandals, there are a few homes that are still in relatively good shape.
There are a few stories floating around regarding the origins of this tiny village. Some are more believable than others, but all are fascinating.
One local legend places the village at over a century old. In this tale, a husband and wife were living happily together in the Middlebury area when the woman began seeing fairies in the local woods. She had her husband construct a tiny village for the creatures, so that they might enjoy some of the same domestic happiness as herself. However, darker versions of the legend says that her flight of fancy soon turned to madness, and that the husband eventually killed his wife to end her delusions.
Another tale alleges that the diminutive houses are the products of a different fevered mind. According to this version of the story, a local man began hearing disembodied voices while walking alone in the woods. The man built this tiny village with the hopes of quieting the voices in his mind. The story goes that he built a separate home for each of the voices he heard.
However, the origin of the Little People’s Village is likely far less whimsical. According to local town documents and historians, he area was originally called the "Fairy Village", and it was meant to be part of the Lake Quassy Amusement Park. The attraction was designed in the early 1900s to cater to passengers traveling on the nearby trolley line. The village is indeed over a century old, but it wasn't meant to house actual fairies or silence inner demons – it was simply a roadside attraction built to rake in a few extra dollars from travelers.
Check out the footage of this fascinating village below:
Even if the local legends aren’t entirely true, this abandoned fairy village has an air of melancholy enchantment. It's easy to imagine how the true story of the Little Village was smothered by the wild imaginations of younger generations.
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