The rusted frame of a nosecone pokes out of a tangle of vines and long grass, permanently grounded, never to fly again. Behind, a cross-section of a narrow body jet slowly sinks into the soft undergrowth, another resident of the airplane graveyard deep in the backwoods of South County. But don’t go grabbing your passport just yet; outsiders are not allowed to visit this closely guarded trove of crashed aircraft parts, and it’s not the sort of place you want to mess around with. The property’s owner is shrouded in a cloak of mystique, referring to himself only as “Larry” to the very few people he allows on site. One of them is paranormal investigator, Andrew Lake, and his experiences with ‘Larry’ are on a different plane entirely.
Amadeus Finlay (Motif): First, some context; what exactly is an airplane graveyard?
Andrew Lake: An airplane graveyard is a space (usually outdoors) that is used for the storage of obsolete and damaged aircraft by either government agencies or civilian collectors. Besides being scraped for valuable parts and metals, some of these unflyable examples of classic planes, jets and helicopters get sold in auctions to aero/space museums to be restored as static models for public display. Occasionally some of these old planes do get fully restored and take to the skies again at airshows.
AF: Why is there one in Rhode Island?
AL: I know of a small, privately owned aircraft graveyard in South County Rhode Island. The fascinating gentleman who owns it is a guy named Larry and he has been collecting parts from crash sites all over New England ever since he was a teenager. He has a section of his property, hidden in a pine forest, that has pile after pile of badly damaged and mangled aircraft wrecks. Larry knows the full story on every wreck and he can recall all the details right off the top of his head. He often gets request from museums that are trying to put some old plane back together for display and Larry will help them by supplying parts from his wrecks. Larry is truly a dedicated aircraft archeologist.
AF: How about across the country as a whole?
AL: There are countless aircraft and military vehicle graveyards throughout the United States. I have no doubt that those locations have their ghost stories too. A lot of heart and soul has gone into those vehicles and machines by their former crews. Some of those souls, it would seem, can’t let go for either love or duty.
AF: Any spooky stories you can share from the RI yard?
AL: I was brought in on Larry’s story by a mutual acquaintance who told me that Larry was looking for a paranormal investigator because his girlfriend, Patsy, told him the wreckage was haunted by the former pilots and crew. Patsy had vivid dreams in which these deceased pilots would tell her in graphic detail about the crash and the manner of their deaths. Larry could not believe the accuracy of the details covered in these dreams. On my first visit to the property I brought with me a woman named Pam who has the gift of mediumship and she too gave Larry and I the same tales with the same exact details. Pam had no idea where I had taken her that dark night, so when she began to tell me about all the native American spirits also haunting the property, I knew that she couldn’t know how close we were to the site of the Great Swamp Fight that took place during King Phillip’s War. Larry’s property was in fact the location where many natives retreated to and later died from injuries received during the battle and exposure from the harsh winter weather. Pam informed Larry that the spirit of a Narragansett brave had told her that they like Larry, they understand why he does what he does and that they protect him and his property. Larry then told us that every home on his road has been broken into by thieves, but his has never been touched.
I saw some amazing things in that airplane graveyard and I’m sure glad I had other witnesses with me. On one night we saw little sparks of light in the air around us. Shortly after that, Patsy said that she could sense the pilots were with us. We then watched as four strange lights moved out from the tree line, looking somewhat like sheets of glowing fabric and moving through the air as a jellyfish moves through the sea. One of the witnesses to all this was a retired Detective Sargent who is a very religious man. He could not explain away what we all saw. The stories from this case are too many to put all down here. If anyone is interested, I will be giving a talk on it at the Harmony (RI) library on Monday, October 28, at 6:00 pm.
AF: What is the most famous, or unique, ‘resident’?
AL: I can’t say that any of the ghosts in Larry’s airplane graveyard are famous, but it certainly does have two unique residents. They are little trolls that the native Americans here in New England call “Pukwudgies.” Three psychics brought to the property not only picked up on the spirits, they also warned us about the creatures which they all said had been there for a very, very long time. We believe that we may have caught one of them on video by accident. One frame of the video (shot with a small, pocket camera using a flash light in the dark) seems to show a little man hiding in the bushes amongst the wreckage. A friend of Larry and Patsy came over their house one afternoon and was shaken to the core by what she said she saw by the road near their driveway. Their friend said the thing looked like a little werewolf and it gave her a stare as she drove by.
AF: Can people come visit the graveyard?
AL: The answer to this is no. Not only is it dangerous to move around the jagged metal and chocking vines that are constantly trying to overtake the location, Larry would rather leave the spirits alone out of respect. They have been through enough and don’t need to be treated as a sideshow attraction.