| |
"the real jersey devil, part one"
by elizabeth you
 |
most of you have heard of the jersey devil, a winged goat-like creature that has roamed the new jersey pinelands for over two hundred and fifty years. it has been seen by countless locals and visitors, from yokels to well respected royalty. it has been blamed for the death of dozens of chickens and dogs and the disappearance of many household pets. its footprints are found on snow-covered roofs and its erie cry can be heard for miles. it's as famous and elusive as the loch ness monster, and since i can't travel to scotland on the envasion budget, i instead took a trip to scenic new jersey to investigate this legendary creature.
|
everyone in new jersey has something to
say about the devil. the stories are as varied as the bottles
of beer in the pubs where the locals were most willing to
share their experiences. to the right you'll see a map where
i've marked the most prominent and best documented encounters
of sightings and attacks. as with any urban legend, there are
a dozen versions of the tale but what follows is a
collaboration that most experts agree on. in 1735, a woman by
the name of shrouds was living in leeds point, new jersey with
her husband and twelve children. when her thirteenth child was
born, he was horribly deformed and was immediatly denounced by
the townsmen as a demon. some say she kept it locked away in
the attic while others claim it flew away after birth on
mangled wings, but right after the birth, all of the farmers
within twenty miles were reporting weird noises, dead
livestock, and a strange creature that came from the woods.
|
 | in 1740,
a preacher came to exorcise the demon for a hundred years. although
the farm raids ceased, people continued to report sightings, most
notably Commodore Stephen Decatur, a naval officer, in 1812 and
Joseph Bonaparte, former king of Spain in 1824. between 1835 and
1841, almost a hundred years after the exorcism, the stories of
encounters began to be an everyday occurrence. this trend continues
through the 1800s until the fall of 1909 when the devil was spotted
by thousands of reputable citizens in more than 30 towns throughout
pennsylvania and new jersey in the delaware valley region.
over the years, the sightings continue. posses have been organized to track the devil, zoos and police alike have posted rewards for its capture, but so far no one has produced hard evidence of the creature's existance. authorities refuse to admit the existance of the devil and have even posted signs that it is all a hoax. they refuse to take reports from anyone claiming to see it and the papers refuse to print anymore stories about it. but that doesn't stop people from believing the legend and their own experiences.
 | one hunter (a member of the
Central Jersey Spirit Squadron, Rose Scadari) managed to get
the image on the left, a remarkable resemblance to the 1909
description of "three-and-a-half feet high, with a head like a
collie and a face like a horse. It had a long neck, wings
about two feet long, and its back legs were like those of a
crane, and it had horse's hooves."
|
so, armed with this information, a flashlight, a digital camera, and a map of the new jersey pine barons, i plan on adventuring into the marsh and find out for myself if i can catch a glimpse of the jersey devil. although many of the sightings center around the delaware valley near trenton and philadelphia, i will start my search at leeds point at the sight of the burned-down house where mrs. shrouds gave birth to her thirteenth child. tonight at dusk i set out and will report back soon, hopefully with hard evidence.
|
