Jump to content

Jersey Devil: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Brianjude (talk | contribs)
90 edits
No edit summary
Brianjude (talk | contribs)
90 edits
No edit summary
Line 7: Line 7:
|Country = [[United States]]
|Country = [[United States]]
|Region = [[Pine Barrens (New Jersey)]]
|Region = [[Pine Barrens (New Jersey)]]
|First_Reported = 1735
|First_Reported = Native American folklore
|
|
}}
}}

Revision as of 02:05, 25 June 2012

"New Jersey Devil" redirects here. For the NHL Hockey Team, see New Jersey Devils. For other uses, see Jersey Devil (disambiguation).
Jersey Devil
Other name(s)Leeds Devil
CountryUnited States
RegionPine Barrens (New Jersey)

The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature or cryptid said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey, United States. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many different variations. The most common description is that of a kangaroo-like creature with the face of a horse, the head of a dog, leathery bat-like wings, horns, small arms with clawed hands, cloven hooves and a forked tail. It has been reported to move quickly as to avoid human contact, and often is described as emmitting a "blood-curdling scream."[1][2]

The Jersey Devil has worked its way into the pop culture of the area, even lending its name to New Jersey's team in the National Hockey League.

Origin of the legend

There are many possible origins of the Jersey Devil legend. The earliest legends date back to Native American folklore. The Lenni Lenape tribes called the area around Pine Barrens "Popuessing", meaning "place of the dragon".[3] Swedish explorers later named it "Drake Kill", "drake" being a Swedish word for dragon, and "kill" meaning channel or arm of the sea (river, stream, etc.)[4]

The most accepted origin of the story, as far as New Jerseyans are concerned, started with Mother Leeds and is as follows:

"It was said that Mother Leeds had 12 children and, after giving birth to her 12th child, stated that if she had another, it would be the Devil. In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night. Gathered around her were her friends. Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child's father was the Devil himself. The child was born normal, but then changed form. It changed from a normal baby to a creature with hooves, a horse's head, bat wings and a forked tail. It growled and screamed, then killed the midwife before flying up the chimney. It circled the villages and headed toward the pines. In 1740 a clergy exorcised the demon for 100 years and it wasn't seen again until 1890."

"Mother Leeds" has been identified by some as Deborah Leeds[5]. This identification may have gained credence from the fact that Deborah Leeds' husband, Japhet Leeds, named twelve children in the will he wrote in 1736,[6] which is compatible with the legend of the Jersey Devil being the thirteenth child born by Mother Leeds. Deborah and Japhet Leeds also lived in the Leeds Point section of what is now Atlantic County, New Jersey[7], which is the area commonly said to be the location of the Jersey Devil story.

Reported encounters

There have been thousands of reported sightings of the Jersey Devil since the eighteenth century. This is a list of some of the more notable.

  • According to legend, while visiting the Hanover Mill Works to inspect his cannonballs being forged, Commodore Stephen Decatur sighted a flying creature flapping its wings and fired a cannonball directly upon it to no effect.[8] Additional legend puts this encounter at 1819 and at the behest of President James Monroe. Work on Decatur's House in DC from 2007-2008 has led to speculation that his Jersey Devil sighting was more than mere chance. Decatur was definitely in New Jersey testing the quality of cannonballs produced by Batsto and Hanover. Included in his entourage was Dr. James Killian, famed paranormalist and cryptid hunter from the 19th century. Legends throughout New Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania have these two men in scientific pursuit of the animal.[9]
  • Joseph Bonaparte, eldest brother of Emperor Napoleon, is also said to have witnessed the Jersey Devil while hunting on his Bordentown estate around 1820.[8]
  • In 1840, the devil was blamed for several livestock killings. Similar attacks were reported in 1841, accompanied by strange tracks and unearthly screams. The devil made an 1859 appearance in Haddonfield. Bridgeton witnessed a flurry of sightings during the winter of 1873. About 1887, the Jersey Devil was sighted near a house, and terrified one of the children, who called the Devil "it"; the Devil was also sighted in the woods soon after that, and just as in Stephen Decatur's encounter, the Devil was shot in the right wing, but still kept flying.[10]
  • Claims of a corpse matching the Leeds Devil's description arose in Greenwich in December 1925. A local farmer shot an unidentified animal as it attempted to steal his chickens. Afterward, he claimed that none of 100 people he showed it to could identify it.[11]
  • On July 27, 1937 a creature matching the Jersey Devil's description was seen by residents of Downingtown, Pennsylvania.[12]
  • A similar panic to that which occurred throughout the Pine Barrens during 'Phenomenal Week' took place in Gibbstown after a group of boys claimed to have seen a 'monster' matching the Devil's description.[13]
  • In 1951 there was another panic in Gibbstown, New Jersey, after local boys claimed to have seen a screaming humanoid monster.
  • Claims of a corpse matching the Jersey Devil's description arose in 1957.[14]
  • Around 1958-58 two boys spotted a creature matching the description of the Jersey Devil on their property in Colts Neck. One of the boys spotted the same or similar creature on the property again in 1967.[15]
  • In 1960 unusual tracks were found along with loud-shrieking heard near Mays Landing.[16] During the same year the merchants around Camden offered a $10,000 reward for the capture of the Jersey Devil, even offering to build a private zoo to house the creature if captured.[17]
  • In 1990, a soldier in Fort Dix witnesses a strange creature running past their camp.[18]
  • In 2007, a man watched a creature with a horse head and bat-like wings walk in front of them in Wharton State Forest.[18]
  • On January 21, 2008, a man heard a screech and saw a strange creature perched on top of his chicken coop in Eldora. The large winged creature flew off once the man's cell phone rang.[18]
  • According to the New York Times, in 2008 alone, over ten encounters with the Leeds Devil were reported to the local "Devil Hunters" group.[19]
  • On February 23, 2009, a man is chased by a creature in his backyard in the Pine Barrens. The next day, strange footprints were found on his rooftop with 4 foot spans between each print.[18]

Many more sightings have been collected at and reported to http://www.njdevilhunters.com/sightings.html.[18]

Sightings of 1909

During the week of January 16 through 23, 1909, the most frenetic period of Devil sightings ever was recorded, with hundreds of people reported encounters with the Jersey Devil.[20] Newspapers nationwide followed the story and published eyewitness reports.

  • 16th (Saturday) – The creature was sighted flying over Woodbury.
  • 17th (Sunday) – In Bristol, Pennsylvania, several people saw the creature and tracks were found in the snow the following day.
  • 18th (Monday) – Burlington was covered in strange tracks that seemed to defy logic; some were found in several other towns.
  • 19th (Tuesday) – Nelson Evans and his wife, of Gloucester, allegedly saw the creature outside their window at 2:30 AM .
    • Evans gave a descriptive account as follows: "It was about three feet and a half high, with a head like a collie dog 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. It walked on its back legs and held up two short front legs with paws on them. It didn't use the front legs at all while we were watching. My wife and I were scared, I tell you, but I managed to open the window and say, 'Shoo!' and it turned around, barked at me, and flew away."
    • Two Gloucester hunters tracked the creature's perplexing trail for twenty miles. The trail appeared to "jump" fences and squeeze under eight-inch gaps. Similar trails were reported in several other towns.
  • 20th (Wednesday) – In Haddonfield and Collingswood, posses were formed to find the devil. They supposedly watched the creature fly toward Moorestown, where it was later seen by at least two more people.
  • 21st (Thursday) – The creature attacked a trolley car in Haddon Heights, but was chased off. Trolley cars in several other towns began to maintain armed guards, and several poultry farmers found their chickens dead. The devil was reported to collide with an electric rail in Clayton, but was not killed. A telegraph worker near Atlantic City claimed to have shot the devil, only to watch it limp into the woods. The creature apparently was not fazed as it continued the rampage through Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and West Collingswood, New Jersey (where it was supposedly hosed by the local fire department). The devil seemed poised to attack nearby people, who defensively threw any available objects at it. The creature suddenly flew away—and reemerged in Camden to injure a dog, ripping a chunk of flesh from its cheek before the dog's owner drove it away. This was the first reported devil attack on a living creature.
  • 22nd (Friday) – Last day of sightings. The widespread newspaper coverage led to a panic throughout the Delaware Valley prompting a number of schools to close and workers to stay home.[20]

Other reports initially concerned unidentified footprints in the snow, but soon sightings of creatures resembling the Jersey Devil were being reported throughout South Jersey and as far away as Delaware.[21] Among alleged encounters publicized that week were an attack on a social club in Camden.[22] Police in Camden and Bristol, Pennsylvania supposedly fired on the creature to no effect.[23]

During this period, it is rumored that the Philadelphia Zoo posted a 10,000$ reward for the creature's capture. The offer prompted a variety of hoaxes, including a kangaroo with artificial wings.[24]

Since the week of terror in 1909, sightings have been much less frequent.

Explanations

Some skeptics believe the Jersey Devil to be nothing more than a creative manifestation of the English settlers. The aptly named Pine Barrens were shunned by most early settlers as a desolate, threatening place. Being relatively isolated, the barrens were a natural refuge for those wanting to remain hidden, including religious dissenters, loyalists, fugitives and military deserters in colonial times. Such individuals formed solitary groups and were pejoratively called "pineys", some of whom became notorious bandits known as "pine robbers". Pineys were further demonized after two early twentieth century eugenics studies depicted them as congenital idiots and criminals. It is easy to imagine early tales of terrible monsters arising from a combination of sightings of genuine animals such as bears, the activities of pineys, and fear of the barrens. Other skeptics believe that the Jersey Devil is nothing more than an old time Bogeyman, stories created and told by bored Pine Barren residents as a form of entertainment and told to children who stayed up past their bedtime.

Outdoorsman and author Tom Brown, Jr. spent several seasons living in the wilderness of the Pine Barrens. He recounts occasions when terrified hikers mistook him for the Jersey Devil, after he covered his whole body with mud to repel mosquitoes.

Not surprisingly, the Jersey Devil legend is fueled by the various testimonials from alleged eyewitnesses who have reported to have encountered the creature, from precolonial times to the present day, as there are still reported sightings within the New Jersey area.

Some people think the Sandhill Crane (which has a 7 feet wingspan) is the basis of the Jersey Devil stories, although descriptions of the Jersey Devil do not match most of the characteristics of the Sandhill Crane.

Many contemporary theorists believe that the Jersey Devil could possibly be a very rare, unclassified species which instinctually fears and attempts to avoid humans. Such elements that support this theory include the overall similarities of the creature's appearance (horselike head, long neck and tail, leathery wings, cloven hooves, blood-curdling scream), with the only variables being the height and color. Another factor that supports the cryptozoological theory is the fact that it is more likely that a species could endure over a span of several hundred years, rather than the existence of a single creature living for over 500 years.

The physical descriptions of the Jersey Devil appear to be mostly consistent with a species of pterosaur such as a dimorphodon.

According to Brian Dunning of Skeptoid, folk tales of the Jersey Devil prior to 1909 calling it the "Leeds Devil" may have been created to discredit local politician Daniel Leeds who served as deputy to the colonial governor of New York and New Jersey in the 1700s. [25]

Today, the Jersey Devil is considered by some to be more in the realm of popular culture than folklore.[26]

  • The Jersey Devil has become a cultural icon in the state, inspiring several organizations to use the nickname.
  • In professional hockey, the Eastern Hockey League Jersey Devils played from 1964 through 1973. When the National Hockey League Colorado Rockies relocated to New Jersey in 1982, a fan poll voted to rename that team the New Jersey Devils.[27][28]
  • The New Jersey Air National Guard's 177th Fighter Wing, stationed at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center within the Pine Barrens, is also nicknamed the Jersey Devils.[29]
  • American professional wrestler Jason Danvers portrays a character called "The Jersey Devil", a psychopathic member of a stable called "The Asylum". His outfit consists of a black and white wrestling singlet, long tights, and boots. He also wears full facepaint of a white face covering with black makeup over it that gives him horns and a "Joker"-esque evil smile. He wrestles for WAW wrestling in Manchester, NH.[30]

Film and television

Literature

Music

  • On October 31, 2008 Bruce Springsteen released a music video and free audio download single titled, "A Night with the Jersey Devil", on the official Springsteen website.
  • The band Coheed & Cambria released a song called "The Devil in Jersey City" about a gang called the Jersey Devils.
  • Kevin Welch wrote "Jersey Devil" and recorded it on the album entitled You Can't Save Everybody by Kieran Kane & Kevin Welch with Fats Kaplin which was released in 2004.
  • The Jersey Devil inspired the name of the Jersey Shore Death Metal band "The Son of Leeds".

Video games

  • Sony published a video game called Jersey Devil for the PlayStation in 1998. One plays as the Jersey Devil, which looks like a horned and winged cartoon-like person wearing a purple outfit.
  • The popular children's computer game Poptropica featured the Jersey Devil along with the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and the Chupacabra on the Cryptid Island level. The creature is here depicted with the head and feet of a goat and the claws, wings, and tail of a dragon, and as laying large spotted eggs.
  • The video game Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia features an enemy named "Jersey Devil." This version flies and spits fire. Its description once a picture of it is taken reads, "Out of the pine barrens and straight to your neck of the woods."
  • The Jersey Devil appears in the 2009 Nintendo DS game Scribblenauts as an enemy that will attack the nearest creature in sight.

See also

References

  1. ^ The Jersey Devil, by James F. McCloy and Ray Miller, Jr., Middle Atlantic Press. ISBN 0-912608-11-0
  2. ^ http://www.pinelandsalliance.org/history/devil/
  3. ^ http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art57572.asp
  4. ^ http://www.vernonkids.com/cedarmountain/4thgradelinks/jerseydevil/jerseydevil.htm
  5. ^ Mallowe, Mike, "The Enduring Reign Of The Jersey Devil" The Bulletin (Philadelphia), October 30, 2008
  6. ^ Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State Of New Jersey, 1st Ser., Vol. XXX Ed. A. Van Doren Honeyman, (Union-Gazette, Somerville, N.J.)1918.
  7. ^ Rundstrom, Olive Conover, "Daniel Leeds and his Descendants", Atlantic County Historical Society Year Book, vol. 6, no. 4, p. 156 (1971)
  8. ^ a b S. E. Schlosser. "Joseph Bonaparte and the Jersey Devil". Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  9. ^ http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/movies/the-jersey-devil-makes-an-appearance-in-asbury-park
  10. ^ http://www.njdevilhunters.com/pre.html
  11. ^ Daily Times of Woodbury, December 15th, 1925, quoted in, Moran, Mark and Sceurman, Mark (2004). Weird N.J.: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. Barnes & Noble. P. 107.
  12. ^ Pennsylvania Bulletin of July 28th, 1937 quoted in [1]
  13. ^ http://www.gloucestercitynews.net/clearysnotebook/2007/02/in_1909_the_jer.html
  14. ^ McNab, Chris (2007). Mythological Monsters. New York: Scholastic, Inc. ISBN 0-439-85479-2.
  15. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZelTEn8semI | The Devil Hunters Eyewitness Interview: Marty Piatkowski
  16. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A16646295
  17. ^ "Legend of the New Jersey Devil". Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  18. ^ a b c d e http://www.njdevilhunters.com/sightings.html
  19. ^ The New York Times of September 7th, 2008, quoted in, http://www.njdevilhunters.com/art20080907.html
  20. ^ a b NBC 40 News, Atlantic City, January 24th, 2008, quoted in, http://www.njdevilhunters.com/art20080124.html.
  21. ^ http://www.jerseyhistory.org/legend_jerseydevil.html
  22. ^ Moran, Mark and Sceurman, Mark (2004). Weird N.J.: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. Barnes & Noble. PP. 104-5.
  23. ^ Moran and Sceurman(2004). P. 105.
  24. ^ http://www.thefixsite.com/jerseydevil/jdlegend.html
  25. ^ Dunning, Brian. "The Jersey Devil". Skeptoid #282 November 01, 2011. Skeptoid.com. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  26. ^ Brunvand, Jan Harold (1998). American folklore. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-8153-3350-0.
  27. ^ Mifflin, Lawrie (1982-06-30). "SCOUTING; 'Jersey Devils' Wins Name Poll". The New York Times. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  28. ^ "Jersey Devils - hockey uniforms". sportsK. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  29. ^ "177th Fighter Wing [177th FW]". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  30. ^ http://www.wawwrestling.com/thejerseydevil.html
  31. ^ http://www.njdevilhunters.com/tvapp.html
  32. ^ http://www.njdevilhunters.com/tvapp.html
  33. ^ "Lou Diamond Philips vs. The Jersey Devil". Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  34. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1604265/

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jersey Devil.
  • Weird NJ: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran, Barnes & Noble ISBN 0-7607-3979-X
  • The Jersey Devil, by James F. McCloy and Ray Miller, Jr., Middle Atlantic Press. ISBN 0-912608-11-0
  • Tales of the Jersey Devil, by Geoffrey Girard., Middle Atlantic Press. ISBN 0-9754419-2-2
  • A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America, by Donald Culross Peattie, pp. 20–23.
  • The Tracker, by Tom Brown, Jr.
  • William Grimstein's Devil of Jersey, by Billy Staggs. ISBN 978-1-4343-0873-3
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Jersey_Devil&oldid=499220683"