mount

Strange booming sounds, the Moodus Noises, or sometimes called Skyquakes, have been studied here since 1765. Skyquakes have been
witnessed all over the world, but one of the most famous is in Haddam. On July 4, 1808, while exploring the Rocky Mountains, members of the
Lewis and Clark expedition heard strange noises coming from some distant mountains. They were heard at different times of the day and night,
ringing out one at a time or in five or six loud bursts. Weather does not seem to effect this Skyquakes. Skyquakes are usually described as a
faraway gunfire, such as a muffled thunder or cannon fire

When a huge calcium "pearls" in the Rocky Moodus Cave, which they believed were causing the rumbling sounds, Native American legend says
the noises are caused by an evil spirit; colonists believed they were the sounds of the underground warfare between the witches of West Haddock
and the witches of East Haddock. In 1791, the sounds became so loud that they could be felt as far away as New York and Boston. Since 1981
the Weston Observatory of Boston College has been studying earthquake activity in New England and its connection to the Moodus Noises, but
there is still no definitive answer what they are.

Another example of Skyquakes was in Australia. An 1829 exploration party along the Darling River, near what is now Bourke, New South Wales,
Australia, was also puzzled one afternoon by the sound of heavy gunfire in the unsettled territory. The expedition leader recorded this in his diary
on February 7:

the day had been remarkably fine, not a cloud was there in the heavens, nor a breath of air to be felt. On a sudden we heard what seemed to be
the report of gun fired at the distance of between five and six miles. It was not the hollow sound of an earthly explosion, or the sharp crackling
noise of falling timber, but in every way resembled a discharge of a heavy piece of ordnance. On this all were agreed, but no one was certain
where the sound preceded... I sent one of the men immediately up a tree, but he could observe nothing unusual.

Haddam is southeast of Hartford. Take Highway 9 south for twenty-five miles to the Highway 154 split, then go five miles to Haddam. Mount Tom
is near the confluence of the Moodus and Salmon Rivers, just before they flow into the Connecticut River.