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The Where MindsWonder Podcast may contain sensitive content in explicit language. Listener discretion is advised. Greetings fellow wanders to the Places Our MindsWonder. The House at the end of the dirt road, where disembodied voices whisper and strange sounds make the living shiver. Where shadows lurk at the edge of the woods just outside your back door and mysterious light speed beyond reason across the clear night sky. Odd events throughout time that lead you down the rabbit hole. I'm Wes and I'm Beth and this is Where Our MindsWonder. Hello and welcome to Where Our MindsWonder. Oh you fellow wanders. Thank you for joining us. Hey everybody. Well before we get into tonight's stories, we'd appreciate it if all you fellow wanders, if you haven't already, head on over to your favorite listening platform wherever you listen to us and leave us a rating and a review. And also if you've already done that, you can go ahead and if you like a certain episode, you can leave us a comment and we'll reply back. Yes we will. That would be great. Yeah it really helps us move up so more people can find us. I it does. And I got to tell you, I know what Beth is covering tonight for her story and I got to tell you if you don't like dolls, this place is not for you. It has creepiness written all over it. There comes baked right in. Yeah, this place will give you the willies. Yes and we haven't done a unique place in quite a while and this place might be the epitome of unique and creepy. If you visit Mexico City, there is a suburb or burrow within the city limits that is steeped in ancient history. According to a New York post article from 2021, what's now Mexico City used to be an island in a volcano's Caldera Lake surrounded by the Sierra Madre Mountains. It was the Aztecs who first settled the area and who began constructing self-sustaining floating gardens called Chanampus. These floating gardens were sturdy enough to build on and were easily accessible by a canal system. When the Spanish arrived, many Aztec women and children fled into the canals to try and escape. There are rumors that many women chose to drown in the canals rather than be caught by the Spanish conquistadors. When the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, they filled in most of the Chanampus and built Mexico City. But the canals and floating gardens they left alone became known as Sochi Milco. Throughout history, Sochi Milco was a great hub for agriculture, allowing for trade and economic prosperity. The canals were filled with colorful gondola-type boats, selling all kinds of things, but most notably squash, chiles, and maize. As time went by, more and more of the water was drained. To the point where the Sochi Milco economy was forced to rely on the production of flowers and ornamental plants more than anything else. For example, today the borough grows about 2.5 million point setas a year. Today the borough consists of about 18 neighborhoods and 14 villages. The colorful canal boats are still there, and tourism is a huge draw. But as water levels continue to decrease, it seems as though that way of life is in peril, despite Sochi Milco being made a world heritage site back in 1987. Over the last 40 years, the percentage of farmers has dropped from 40% to just 3%. The borough maintains 116 preschools, 48 middle schools, and 19 high schools that serve over 100,000 students. Despite the overcrowding and the loss of chanampas, the area is still vibrant with the colorfully painted boats, like I'd mentioned, and farmers do still live and work on the floating islands. People come from all over the world to visit. Although many come to see something, you might not expect. It's one of the islands, which is about a single square acre in size. It has no electricity or running water. It just has three small wooden structures. So you might be wondering what's so interesting about it that would make millions of people step off a boat and walk around. Well, there just happens to be about 4,000 of something on that island. They're perched in trees. They hang from the rafters of the huts. They cling to walls and fences. Some are nothing but husks of their former selves, with a leg or two missing. Some are wrapped in cloth that has been there for a very, very long time, which hangs as nothing more than faded scraps from their bodies. And when it's quiet, locals claim that you might even hear one of them say "Mama." Because this "Chanampa," this island once belonged to a man named Don Julian Santana-Barrera, and what's left over is 4,000 dolls. And perhaps you've heard of the island of the dolls. But unless you've been there or at least seen some pictures, I don't think you can appreciate just how creepy this place is. There's a reason not a lot of visitors want to stay after dark, and why locals say to this day that the place is cursed. In the daylight, the island of the dolls might be tolerable for someone who doesn't have a fear of dolls. Although, like I said, there are 4,000 of them crammed onto this one-acre island. They are hanging from trees nailed to the huts, perched in every nook and crevice. And time has not been kind to them. In fact, the weather and humidity has turned them all into decaying, moldy, white-eyed ghouls dressed in tatters. Some are missing an arm or a leg. Some are nothing but heads. Their plastic faces covered in mud and dirt. Their eyes nothing but blackened holes. Their mouths open in ghoulish grins. Now, imagine this in the dark with nothing but a flashlight and the wind. Locals claim that you can hear them crying, and that some even say "Mama, despite the mechanisms for doing so, having worn out decades ago." The island is terrifying, and would make anyone ask, "Why? Why are they there?" The story of how they got there is no less disturbing. Now, first of all, the locals have many tales about the canals at night and all of the supernatural creatures that inhabit them. According to the little house of horrors, there are the "na-hawales," dark entities that can disguise themselves as black leopards or even certain types of fish that lurk beneath the water waiting for souls to take. Then there are the dark entities that can shape shift into black-eyed little ghouls who lure their victims to the water and drown them. In addition, Then there's La Yarona, the spirit of the mother who murdered her children, and now wanders the water's edge, moaning and crying in her grief. But on top of all that, there's the historical fact that Hernán Cortez and his Spanish army dumped 30,000 bodies of fallen Aztecs into the canals. There's a lot to be afraid of, if you're afraid of ghosts. Don Julian Santana-Barrera didn't seem to be when he bought the one-acre floating island. But according to legend and the New York Post article, that all changed one day in the 1950s when two sisters were playing and swimming in the canal. One of the little girls was swept up in the current and drowned. And one morning when Don Julian stepped out of his front door, he saw her body, caught in the weeds, just outside his door. According to Don Julian's nephew, quote, "the spirit of the girl was living in sorrow." And in the mornings, Julian started seeing ghosts, and one day woke up and found all his crops had died. He tried many things to improve his crops, but he couldn't, because the spirit damaged it. He became more and more scared." And so Don Julian decided to build an altar in his hut, thinking that it might put the little girl's spirit to rest. But it didn't work. And so Don Julian thought that maybe a doll would make her happy. He brought one home and hung it from the tree in the yard, where he was sure that she would see it. From then on it became almost like an obsession. Don Julian was constantly looking for more and more dolls to give to the little girl. He'd pick them up wherever he could find them, in the trash, on the street, anywhere. And then when neighbors began giving him dolls to add to the collection, he just couldn't resist. He'd do anything to make the little girl's spirit happy. The story is kind of brief, without a lot of detail. Some sites mention that Don Julian was married, and that his wife had lived with him on the island, that he spent most of the decades there alone. And yet there are many other versions, with each one adding more precious details, until the story has become so steeped and legend that it's impossible to tell what's true. For example, some versions say, like the one on the discovery.com site, that Don Julian found the very first doll floating next to the little girl's body. It also mentions that his seclusion on the island could have been due to his family never believing that he actually found the body of a drowned little girl, and that he was suffering from mental health issues. Another version on the Guinness World Record website says that Don Julian became haunted by the sound of the little girl's spirit crying for her doll. And still another version, this one from abc.net, tells the story with the help from another of Don Julian's nephews, who says his uncle found the girl flailing in the water, and he jumped in to save her. He marked the spot of her passing with a single white cross. The little house of horrors includes even more details, that shortly after discovering the body of the little girl, Don Julian got a terrible fright when he thought he saw yet another drown child in the water. At this time, it turned out to thankfully be nothing more than a doll. In his heart, Don Julian felt that the doll was sent by the little girl to protect him. So he hung it in the tree as a way to honor her. The abc article points out that there was never any report of any accidental drownings, or the death of a child at Don Julian's island. But regardless, for the next two decades Don Julian covered his island in dolls. But never brand new ones, they were always dolls that had been cast off by their previous owner, or had been well loved and then given to him by someone else. And ever since, the locals have claimed that the island of the dolls is haunted. They have seen shadow people and have heard the crying, some as real as a human child, and some the creepy mechanical crying of a baby doll. They claim the dolls' heads move on their own, but they whisper, that they open and close their sunken eyes. Don Julian lived on the island alone for the rest of his life, always hoping to appease the soul of the little girl by adding more and more dolls. He passed away himself in 2001, in the exact spot where he claimed he found the little girl. A black cross now marks the spot next to the white one he put there 70 years ago. Since then, two of his nephews have taken over caring for the island, although neither of them live there. They say that people are more than welcome to bring their own dolls and leave them behind. But visitors are certainly not allowed to take any off the island. And frankly, why would anyone do something so disrespectful and downright stupid? Because people like souvenirs. I know. But my gosh, of all the things to take, I mean even if you think it's being brave and possibly bringing a possessed doll home, it's a shrine. It's a memorial. Don't take the dolls. It's no different than people going into graveyards and tagging gravestones or knocking them over. Or going to historical sites and spray painting buildings and structures. People are decks. I know. Something that I thought was interesting while I was researching is apparently there are a couple other islands near the island of the dolls that have decided that they also want to be islands of dolls. And they have nothing to do with the original story. But they're trying to cash in on the tourism because the area is so economically depressed right now because the water is so low and they just can't survive the way that they used to. Well, we see this with cryptids and towns. Caching in. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you got to do what you got to do. Yeah. If you promote it in a genuine fun way, there's nothing wrong with it. Yeah. But I don't think that a lot of people would find it creepy in the daylight. But I imagine at night, there's a lot of people would probably stir away from this place. Well, yeah, I mean, even if you don't have a fear of dolls, I think once the sun goes down and, you know, people say all the time when they're out in the woods, oh, I felt like something was watching me. Well, yeah, the animals are watching you. But on this island, it would feel like there's thousands of things looking at you. It would be hard not to feel creeped out, I think. Well, there you have it, the island of the dolls. And we'll return after this brief who to thunk it with my story. Hey, did you know? Sometimes when you're sitting on the couch on a rather rainy and stormy Saturday night, trying to come up with a middle for an episode, you find yourself asking questions like, why did ghosts say boo? Well, it turns out ghosts started saying boo in the 1800s when theater performers needed a short, abrupt sound, perfect for scaring people. If you want to be fancy about it, you could say that. that it comes from the Scottish "bo man", which was short for "boogie man". Or, you could argue that it comes from an even older 500-year-long tradition of shouting "bo" to scare people instead. But don't get me started on people using "bo" to refer to their loved one. The first person to do that most likely just didn't know how to pronounce the French word "bo". Who to thunk it? Alright, we are back from the break, and that means it's time to get into my story. It's pretty hard to not look at the Daniel Benton homestead and Tallinn Connecticut and not immediately think "yeah, that house is freaking old". First, it's a colonial-style cape, so it just has that bend here since the colonial days vibe, with its low roof, tiny windows, and single chimney sticking up in the middle. Second, from the front it looks tiny, but that's because it's built in the classic colonial L shape. It extends quite a ways back. And third, it's painted a muted dark red with a bright blue door. But besides the bright blue door, there's nothing fancy about it at all. It's a very plain, unadorned house, just the way the colonists liked them. Now the truth is, the Daniel Benton homestead is old. It was built in 1720. And as you've probably guessed, it was owned by a man named Daniel Benton. According to the Tallinn Historical Society website, Daniel Benton arrived in Tallinn when he was 24 years old. He was a Freemason, and was given a plot of common land that he could graze a limited number of animals on. Once he did well, made a profit, and established himself as a church member, he would be allowed to stay. Now it's likely that he already had his own land in Tallinn, which was given to him by his father. But within a few years, Daniel owned about 130 acres. The Benton family lived in their homestead for six generations, all the way up until 1932. But the years between 1775 and 1777 were especially important in the house's history. According to haunted places to go.com, in 1777, a group of 18 to 20 Hessian soldiers and two British officers were held in the basement of the house as prisoners of war. Now, in case your revolutionary war history is a little rusty, Hessian soldiers were basically German mercenaries hired by King George to help the British fight the colonists. The Hessians held at the Benton homestead were all officers who had surrendered to the Americans after the Battle of Saratoga. It was noted on one site that I found that it was kind of unusual that Daniel would allow enemy soldiers anywhere near his house, since he was such a staunch supporter of the war of independence. But it was even more strange that he actually treated the prisoners pretty well. For example, the cooking fireplace in the basement was always lit for them, and some of them left some graffiti behind on the basement walls. But regardless, they were kept at the Benton homestead until they were shipped back to Germany, except for the ones who decided to stay in the area and settle there permanently. But two years earlier in 1775, there were three Benton brothers. One of them named Elisha fell madly in love with a neighbor girl named Jemima, who was 12 years younger than him. Now for some reason, the Bentons and the Baros? Jemima's family didn't get along and neither set of parents would let them get married. Now, I don't know if it had anything to do with it, but perhaps it was because Jemima was only 15 years old at the time. But who knows? Elisha decided that he would join the military and he hoped that while he was gone, the two families would resolve their differences, and he and Jemima would be allowed to get married eventually. So all three Benton brothers left for war, and so did grandfather Daniel. But in 1776, all three brothers were actually captured and sent to a British prison ship in the Long Island Sound, and then because of the horrible conditions on board, all three of them contracted smallpox. Elisha's two brothers died, as did Daniel, who was now back home in Tallinn. Eventually Elisha was released during a prison retreat, and he somehow made it to Hartford, although he was deathly ill. From there, his family was able to bring him home to Tallinn. They put him in the sick room, and they hoped for the best. But everyone was terrified of catching smallpox themselves, and they knew there wasn't anything they could do to make his last days or weeks any better. Jemima came to the Benton's door and begged to be let in to see her beloved Elisha. Eventually the Bentons gave in, and allowed the now 18-year-old girl to care for him. According to Rise Up Paranormal, the Barrows had no idea what Jemima had agreed to, and when they arrived at the Benton House, they begged her not to care for the sick man. But Jemima insisted, so her parents left for the promise of coming back with some clean clothes and other things for her to be as comfortable as possible in the sick room with them. They never returned. Elisha died on January 21, 1777 at the age of 29. His family buried him near the carriage path with a simple headstone. Jemima, who had caught smallpox from him, died just five weeks later on February 28. Social beliefs of the time meant that Jemima and Elisha couldn't be buried next to each other, because they were never married. But the Benton family wanted to honor her sacrifice to their son, so they buried her on the other side of the carriage path, about 40 feet away from him. Time carried on, and the Benton family continued to live in the homestead until 1932, as I mentioned before. Six generations of the same family for 210 years. In 1932, Florey Bishop Bowering bought the homestead. She was a radio personality with local station WTIC. Florey was a self-described dietician, who also worked at the University of Connecticut. Her radio show ran for at least two years, and was called the "Mixing Bowl." Three times a week, her show provided helpful tips for cooking and household chores. She would try different recipes and talk about how easy or difficult they were to prepare. It was basically a radio cooking show. Florey lived there until 1968, when it was bought by Charles B. Goodstein, and William A. Shockett. Goldstein and William A. Shockett donated the house to the Tallinn Historical Society, with the understanding that it would be turned into a museum. Today, the museum is open during the spring, summer, and fall months, and admission is free. Now it's hard to say how many people visit there for the history, and how many visit just because of the hauntings. With a few exceptions, the hauntings seem to be mostly residual, and the spirits or energies seem to be tied to Elisha or Jammima. Although it sounds like a few Hessian soldiers, also might still be there. Some of the spookier stories comes from when groups of reenactors are encamped on the grounds. Apparently, there have been quite a few times when the reenactors have claimed that even though they knew the house was empty, they could see lights traveling past the windows. It's also been a common thing during thunderstorms, for people to say that even though the house is locked up and all the lights are off, they have seen the lights inside the house turn on by themselves and then turn off again a few seconds later. So maybe the weather stirs up the ghostly energy around the house. Because it's also been reported that volunteers have been inside the house in the daytime during thunderstorms and they've heard loud voices coming from right outside the house. They have even heard whispers in the same room with them during these thunderstorms. But even when the weather is nice, another common thing is seeing a grey shadow move past the second story bedroom window, which is said to be the former sick room, where both Elisha and Jammima passed away. Volunteers, reenactors, and visitors have reported seeing it. Volunteers have heard someone walking across the floors, and at times it sounds like furniture is being moved across the floor or objects are being moved around. Sometimes there are wrapping sounds on the walls. So, it's a lot of things that seem residual, but with that said there are also apparitions. One is the ghost of a soldier dressed in full uniform. It was a little frustrating that I couldn't find any description of the uniform, so it's hard to tell if it was one of the Hessian soldiers or if it's a Lysha Benton. Either way, this ghostly soldier has been seen standing on the front steps of the house or entering the house by walking right through the front door. At times, his arms appear outstretched as if he is asking someone unseen for help. Or possibly, he's begging for the answer to a question. The most active part of the house by far is the second floor. Visitors and volunteers have mentioned a sort of vibration when they are up there as if there's a strange electrical charge. The back-when-radial personality Florey Bishop Bowering lived in the house? The vibration manifested it into an apparition. It was her maid who sought, though, not her. For decades there were rumors that the Bentons would sometimes hear a young girl crying throughout the house. And whether Florey believed that or not, I don't know. But her maid definitely heard the crying, and one day she saw the weeping ghost. It was a young girl, about 17 or 18, wearing what she thought was a wedding dress. The weeping girl became such a common sight that she's also believed to be a residual ha. And of course, people think it's Jemima Baros. What's interesting about her, though, is that she isn't always seen in the same dress. Sometimes it's described as more bridal or wedding-like. But then other times she seems to be wearing a more typical everyday colonial dress. Of course it adds to the tragedy and romance of Elisha and Jemima's story if their ghosts are still separated in the afterlife. Some writers on the internet have wondered if things would be different if the couple had been buried closer together without the carriage path separating them. You know, it's sad to me that they spent their last days together and they basically died together. But now in the afterlife, they might not be able to find each other just because they weren't married or buried next to each other. It's almost like the barrier of them not being able to get married has become like an eternal barrier to them being together. And that's really sad. You know what I would do? No. I dig up one of them and put them next to the other one. Yeah, I would now too, I think. I don't know why they wouldn't or why they haven't. I don't know. But if they wouldn't allow it, I think it's just one of those things that you got in the middle of the night. Dig a hole, move the casket. I know. Oh, well. What I found interesting is that before the bentons added the L under the back of the house, they used to throw all their trash out the back door. Then they just built the L right on top of it. So at one point, more recently, when the museum was renovating the floor, they found all kinds of artifacts, mostly animal bones and pieces of ceramic, but they also found a button from a revolutionary war uniform. So we do know that that kind of energy can be tied to objects. Right. And the museum looks exactly like it did in the late 1700s, like it's a colonial museum. And the volunteers from what you were showing me frequently wear colonial era costumes. So with everything being preserved like that, it's kind of confusing for the apparitions there or the ghostly spirits that are still lingering amongst the place. Well, I don't know if it's confusing or comforting. I think it could go either way because you know that there's also the theory that when houses are being renovated, it pisses spirits off. In this case, the house is exactly how it looked when when Elisha and Jemima were there. I have no idea. And I don't think anyone else does either. Although they may claim to know. Some of these so-called experts. Wow. You're grumpy when you don't feel well. Well, you know, I have no clue if anybody's ever tried to make contact with them. If EVP recordings were ever captured or if they've done anything else to try to communicate with them. But I sometimes wonder if some of these ghosts at these places are intelligent spirits. What do they think when they see all this modern day stuff around them? Well, it's got to be confusing. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe it's not. Maybe they're like, "Wow. Electric mixer's pretty cool. I don't know." Or when they see like a Tesla pull up out front and they're used to seeing horse-drawn carriages. Well, with that theory, if they're intelligent and they've watched history unfold in front of them, then a Tesla wouldn't be all that amazing because they've seen all the cars leading up to it. Perhaps so. I don't know. You'd have to ask a spirit what they think. Well, there you have it. The island of the dolls. And. The Daniel Benton homestead. That's right. If you would like to know more, you can always check our sources and our show notes. Join us again next week to find still here for another new episode of Where Mine's Wonder. You will be here. See you soon. We look forward to traveling with you again to the places where our mines wander. If you like what you heard, please take a moment and provide us with a five star rating and a comment on your favorite listening platform. It really helps us move up the list and become more visible on the podcast charts so new people can find us. And thank you all for your continued support. See you next week for all new episode.