Walking on two legs, it’s feet are cloven hooves. It has a face like that of a horse with horns or antlers sprouting from the top of its head. It’s body resembles a kangaroo, with the wings of a bat and a tail like a lizard, its hands clawed talons. It feeds on dogs, chickens, and other small animals. Now imagine being in the New Jersey Pinelands, and coming face to face with this creature – the Jersey Devil.
The week of January 16, 1909, reports began swirling from all across the Delaware Valley about strange tracks being found in the snow. Hoofprints through fields and in backyards; over and under fences, and across the roofs of homes. Some of these strange tracks were even spotted in the bigger cities of Camden and Philadelphia. Using bloodhounds to trace the source of the tracks was useless – the dogs refused to follow the trail.
Panic struck. Throughout the lower end of New Jersey and Philadelphia, schools closed, and where they didn’t attendance suffered greatly. Mill workers refused to leave their homes to travel through the woods for work, so the mills had to close.
Then it happened. Eyewitnesses finally spotted the creature in Camden and in Bristol, Pennsylvania, and when police fired on it, it seemed to have no effect. Then the creature appeared a few days later in Haddon Heights, scaring a trolley car full of passengers before flying away. That night in Camden, it attacked a late night meeting of a social club before again, flying away.
In Burlington, the creature scurried across the tracks in front of a trolley car full of spectators, and then later in West Collingswood it was spotted on the roof of a house. Firemen turned their hose on, but the creature moved in to attack them, then flew away. That week, people all over began reporting that their livestock, especially their chickens, were being slaughtered. Later in the week, a woman in Camden found it trying to eat her dog. She managed to hit it with a broomstick, and it flew away.
After January 23, 1909, the creature seemed to go dormant. While it was still spotted from time to time, it was nothing like that first week. Sightings of this “devil” are still reported to this day. But what is this creature, and where did it come from?
The legend of the Jersey Devil begins in 1735 in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens. A woman, known as “Mother Leeds” was married to a drunk who did little to take care of his family. When she found herself pregnant with her 13th child, she cursed in frustration, crying that the child would be the devil. Then, on a typical dark and stormy night, she found herself in labor.
With friends surrounding her, the baby was born, a normal human child, but before their eyes, it changed, it’s feet turning to hooves, its’ hands became like the talons of an eagle. It’s head becoming more horse-like, then sprouted horns. It grew wings and a tail and then suddenly the baby’s body was covered in hair and feathers. Growling, its eyes bright read, the baby killed the midwife then flew away, up and out the chimney and into the pines.
Over the years, there have been numerous sightings, always in the New Jersey, Philadelphia area. Does this creature really exist? It’s hard to say, but one factor on its side, is the numerous accounts and descriptions are all eerily alike.
So take a trip to the Pine Barrens. Bring a chicken or two and see for yourself, if the Jersey Devil does really exist.
Aside from the Jersey Devil, perhaps the most popular creature of legend is the Wendigo.
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