Tripping on Travel: Witches Wood Lake, Woodstock, CT

In this video, I enter Crooked Trail Ext from Rt 198, and follow it to Beaver Dam Rd and what is now a private beach. The name's origin has less to do with actual witches than it does an old statement by a local handyman who said supplies found in the former swamp years before were thrown there by witches. Tucked within the woodlands of West Woodstock, Connecticut, is a man-made lake attributed to Joe Campert, a local resident. As Margaret Houlihan explains in her online article, "The Man Who Made Witches Woods Lake", Joe was first involved in the adjacent Bungee Lake project that began in 1952. "In 1964, Joe started acquiring the Witches Woods Lake property from 4-5 landowners. Surveyors determined the shoreline, roads and high water mark before Joe touched a single tree. Jack Williamson and Oden Johnson helped Joe build Witches Woods Lake ... Eventually the lake was completed and the lots were sold by professionals. The Planning Zoning commission was resurrected and refused to allow Joe to put up any signs for Witches Woods Lake. He resorted to using cutouts of witches heads to help people find their way to the lake." Now, as told by the Lake Homes Realty website, "This lake covers 70.4 acres, is a mile long, and is about a fourth of a mile at its widest point. Located in Windham County, Witches Woods Lake is conveniently close to Connecticut’s border with Massachusetts." It allegedly still has two memorial beaches visitors and residents can enjoy. But in the case of this brief video and the route I took, the only beach I found is identified as private.

References:

"The Man Who Made Witches Woods Lake"
by Margaret Houlihan, March 2006
https://www.wwlake.com/lake-history-1

Lake Homes Realty; Witches Woods Lake, Connecticut
https://www.lakehomes.com/connecticut/witches-woods-lake

melt away by foxxy mulderr | https://www.foxxymulderr.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Maps of routes by Bing Maps. My only task was to trace my driving route from A (start) to B (end) to match the footage that follows it.

Other Graffiti Forensics channels and pages
http://www.youtube.com/c/GraffitiForensics
https://www.facebook.com/GForensics/
https://www.bitchute.com/channel/graffitiforensics/