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Ep 75: The Jersey Devil - Prince of the Pine Barrens (Part 2)

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“When the horses heard the Devil scream, they’d carry on so you’d think they were gonna tear the barn down. You could hear the Devil scream a long way off when the horses would quiet down. People may say there’s nothing to it but I know darned well there is.”

– Amanda Sutts’ 1900 eyewitness account from Loren Coleman and Bruce G. Hallenbeck’s book, Monsters of New Jersey: Mysterious Creatures in the Garden State

 
Location: Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  The Jersey Devil's territory isn't just confined to the coastal region of New Jersey's Pine Barrens.  Long before the "Leeds Devil" story became part of the local lore in the mid-18th century, the Native Americans of the Leni Lenape tribe had noted a strange creature in the area and named the nearby creek "Popuessing" meaning, "Place of the dragon."  Also according to Loren Coleman and Bruce Hallenbeck in their book, Monsters of New Jersey: Mysterious Creatures in the Garden State, in 1677, Swedish explorers found strange footprints in the rocks near the same creek and renamed it "Drake Kill" – "drake" also meaning dragon.
 

Background: 

Southern New Jersey is steeped in the legend of The Jersey Devil, with the eponymous rascal inspiring everything from the names of businesses to stickers and T-shirts for tourists.  But as one "South Jersey" native has informed us, The Pine Barrens themselves may be nothing like what outsiders envision, with most of it being "lush, green and beautiful" and a joy to explore.  Also, maybe almost no one from the area believes the myth themselves.  However, it seems in the case of the legend of Jersey Devil – there are two distinct yet connected phenomenal elements at play: the ye olde myth, and the otherworldly thing that more than a few people swear they've encountered.  So what do you say to them?  Are you sure all they saw or heard was an owl, a stray African bat, a mutant goat havin' a laugh, or that good ol' well-worn chestnut the Sandhill Crane?  Because now these accounts become much like any other testimony of the paranormal; those who have not experienced it probably won't believe it, but those that have can never forget it.

 
 

Reference Links:

 

 

Related Books:

The Jersey Devil
By James F McCloy, Ray Miller Jr.
The Jersey Devil
By Hunter Shea
Phantom of the Pines: More Tales of the Jersey Devil
By James F. McCloy, Ray, Jr. Miller
The Flight of Dragons
By Peter Dickinson
 

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The Dark Myths Collective  

http://darkmyths.org/

 

Credits:

Episode 75: The Jersey Devil – Prince of the Pine Barrens (Part 2).  Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Audio Editing by Sarah Vorhees; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle and the astonishing League of Astonishing Researchers, a.k.a. The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2017 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.