Overview
The Jersey Devil belongs to the Pine Barrens, the vast pine wilderness of southern New Jersey, and its birthplace in legend is Leeds Point on the marshy Atlantic edge: there, the story runs, in 1735 Mother Leeds cursed her thirteenth child, which was born a winged, hoofed thing that shrieked and flew up the chimney into the pines. Folklorists trace the tale to colonial-era feuds around the real Leeds family and their almanac's devilish imagery, but the creature long ago outgrew its origins: the great panic of January 1909 saw reported sightings, strange hoofprints in snow and school closures across the Delaware Valley, and sightings, sounds and track-finds have been claimed ever since, making the Devil the state's official demon and the namesake of its hockey team. Leeds Point today is a quiet shore hamlet beside the Edwin B. Forsythe wildlife refuge; there is nothing to tour, only pines, marsh and story. The record should present the Devil wholly as folklore — one of America's richest legends — with the 1909 panic its documented historical high-water mark.