Adventures in Story Research

Background:

I’m an obsessive sort, so as I write, I will factcheck myself on the fly, hitting the Google as I go along whenever I write something that raises a question mark.

Today, I mentioned my MC driving from Boston to my fictional Vermont town, modeled on the real town of Brandon. In case I felt like describing the countryside he drove through, I went to Mapquest, input a Boston hotel for his departure point and a Brandon hotel for his destination, and then clicked the satellite function to see the lay of the land.

As my eye traced the route he’d be taking, zoomed in close for detail, I noticed various other towns and landmarks along the way and in the general vicinity.

And that’s when the words “Satan’s Kingdom” hit my eye.

“Wait -- what???” said I.

Don’t take my word for it. Go to Mapquest and put in “Lake Dunmore, Vermont” or click this LINK. You’ll see it marked in both map and satellite views. (Note: Google Maps, using the same search term, does not have it marked, but fuck them - they also don’t have the Persian Gulf marked, and boy are the Iranians pissed off now.)

It is even mentioned as one of the satellite communities of Rochester, VT, in the web site of the Rochester Historical Society.

...But the majority of the early settlers lived by farming, and soon adopted different areas of the township as their homes. Homes and farms appeared in little communities called Jerusalem, Little Hollow, New Boston, Austin Hill, Maple Hill, Corporation Brook, West Rochester, West Hill, Bingo, Liberty Hill, Great Hollow, North Hollow, Middle Hollow, South Hollow, and Satan’s Kingdom. You’ll go far to find a town with a Satan’s Kingdom at one end and a Jerusalem at the other!

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Brain agog, I continued to scour the Google results and found that there is also a Satan’s Kingdom in Massachusetts and another in Connecticut.

I started to question what all three of these locations have in common aside from the name. First thing: They are or were all tiny little unincorporated communities in areas that are or were relatively isolated and wild. What else might they share, I wondered.

I focused on this quote from the Connecticut link:

From “Weird New England”:
“Descriptions from the eighteenth century tell of the sort of people who were attracted to its forbidding wilds: ‘Indians, Negroes, and renegade whites’ claimed the area as their home turf, from which they would venture out to rob,steal, and otherwise terrorize the law-abiding local citizens. Legends say that Satan himself once claimed the area as his own, until the angel Gabriel decided the area was too idyllic and cleared out the dark lord and his band of demons.”

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And it hit me -- these must have been the bad neighborhoods. These were those scary little colonial-era “Deliverance” hollows where you didn’t even stop for gas -- or to change horses, or whatever -- if you knew what was good for you. You know, those places where all the residents have outstanding warrants. In the days when a phrase like “Satan’s Kingdom” was just a casual colloquialism, they must have been pretty remote, but now, with urban/suburban sprawl, you have to drive deep into the Berkshires or Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom (or downtown Hartford) to find those places that should be empty but are full of secret pot farms and meth labs.

And so I ran out of time to draft this chapter, but dammit, I learned something. And I had to share.


Discussion Topic:

What amusing, unexpected research treasures have you stumbled across in the course of your writing?

When you make such a find, what do you do with it?

I’m not sure what I’ll do with a whole collection of Satan’s Kingdoms in New England, but a seed has been planted. I’m sure of that.



PS: In the end, I decided not to mention my MC’s drive at all.

Wonderful comments illustrating both the delights and the dangers of research. Woot! Thanks, all.

It can be depressing to learn the extent of unknown evil, and of course, a good supply of brain bleach must be kept on hand. But for the most part I love picking up knowledge like that. My personal favorites are those little glimpses into real life in different places at different times.