While exploring a state forest in Massachusetts, a hiker stumbled upon a rather bizarre scene: a tree covered in Elmo dolls. Julie Silvia was hiking with a friend in the Myles Standish State Forest over the weekend when they spotted the weird tree. "Some of them were just regular Elmos," she told radio station Fun 107, "but some of them were the Tickle-Me-Elmo kind, and quite a bit of them still had batteries in them."
Although a tree covered in Elmo dolls is a bit unsettling, Sylvia said that there was no indication that it was some kind of memorial, so they weren't particularly unnerved by the find. In fact, the pair was more concerned with the fact that it was a blistering 90 degrees that day and, as such, they simply snapped a few pictures of the oddity and kept hiking. "We were like, 'whatever, it's just a bunch of Elmos,'" she recalled.
When Sylvia got home, she attempted to determine the origins of the 'Elmo tree,' but soon realized that it was quite the mystery. A post on a Facebook page for Plymouth residents revealed that most people had no idea that the tree even existed and it seems that nobody knows who created it nor why. Attempts to connect the tree to two different murders that occurred in the area proved to be a dead end as the unfortunate victims were killed before Elmo became the worldwide sensation that he is today.
Since the tree is located somewhat off the trail and about six miles deep in the forest, Sylvia theorized that the weird collection of Elmo dolls was meant to be discovered by hikers and possibly give them a scare. And while that may not have occurred in this particular instance, we're guessing that other hikers who happened upon the tree during less strenuous circumstances probably found it more than an little off putting.