Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA historic Wilton, New Hampshire burying ground famous for the 'Blue Lady' — a column of blue light said to rise from the 1808 grave of Mary Ritter Spaulding — and a magnet for regional ghost lore and folklore podcasts.
772 Isaac Frye Highway, Wilton, NH 03086
Research updated October 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit subject to town cemetery rules; a 2017 report described after-dark closure and patrols; check with the town for current admission and hours.
Access
Limited Access
Old hillside cemetery with uneven ground, grass, and gravel paths.
Equipment
Photos OK
Historic early-settlement burying ground of Wilton, NH · Burial place of Mary Ritter Spaulding (d. 1808), the 'Blue Lady' · Subject of widely documented New England folklore
Vale End Cemetery sits in the north-central part of the town of Wilton, New Hampshire, north of Wilton Center and west of Wilton village, on the southeast side of Isaac Frye Highway. It is one of Wilton's historic burying grounds, with graves dating to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries among the families that settled this part of Hillsborough County.
The cemetery's most-discussed interment is Mary Ritter Spaulding, the first wife of Captain Isaac Spaulding. She died in 1808 at the age of 35 and was buried at Vale End. In a detail that has fueled later folklore, she shares a single headstone with Isaac Spaulding's second wife, who was also named Mary Spaulding.
The cemetery remains an active, town-maintained burying ground today. Town rules cover Vale End and its visitors. In 2017, local reporting described after-dark closure and police patrols in response to the site’s popularity; this is not a current published visiting schedule.
Sources
The signature legend of Vale End Cemetery is the 'Blue Lady,' widely identified as the spirit of Mary Ritter Spaulding. According to accounts collected by New England Folklore, the Wilton Cabinet newspaper, and the New England Legends podcast, eyewitnesses describe a blue column of light, roughly the size of a person, materializing above her headstone. Some report only the light; others claim the figure takes fuller form and roams the grounds. Sightings are most often described on hazy or foggy evenings in spring and fall.
Notably, the legend's age is itself contested. While the lore is often said to span generations, members of Wilton's historical society and older residents dated the story’s rise to perhaps the 1970s. Wilton resident Jane Bergeron, who grew up in the neighborhood in the 1940s and 1950s, said she never heard the story as a child, suggesting the legend is more recent than its tellers assume.
Beyond the Blue Lady, later and more sensational accounts describe cold spots, shadow figures, strange noises along a wooded path, and 'plasma' or mist appearing in photographs. Some regional retellings escalate into encounters with darker or more aggressive entities in the surrounding woods. These heavier claims are best treated as the embroidered fringe of a folklore tradition whose verifiable core is the documented Spaulding grave and the persistent, multi-source Blue Lady legend.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Visit the historic Vale End Cemetery subject to current town cemetery rules and find the shared Spaulding grave associated with the Blue Lady legend. Respect posted rules; a 2017 local report described after-dark closure and police patrols.
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