The Jersey Devil is likely the most popular New Jersey myth as it is one that certainly exists outside of NJ. There are movies about it, a hockey team, and even an x files episode. The Story has a few different details but the common themes are such.
In the 1600's there was a family, the Leeds. Mother Leeds had given birth to 12 children, while pregnant again she pleaded to the heavens "lord let this one be a devil" According to lore the baby was born and everything seemed normal.... for a few minutes. Soon the baby morphed into this beast. It was described as having the face of a horse, the legs of a goat, giant bat like wings, horns and a tail. From there the beast went on to kill a number of people in the house, including mother Leeds. It flew out the chimney and went into the Pine Barrens of NJ. Since that night there have been thousands upon thousands of sightings of this creature in the pines, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, and occasionally the devil takes the trek up the GSP for hauntings. At one point it was said to have been capture but escaped.
I don't really live close to the Pine Barrens, and even so the pine barrens are a huge zone that take up a large chunk of central/south jersey. That being said I've not really a story of any encounters of the devil, I've visited the Pines a bunch, even camping there on occasion but have yet to have been visited yet....
The Jersey Devil is obviously New Jersey most infamous legend so doing a project like this without mentioning him would be silly. The Jersey Devil is the reason I believe. I believe there is a creature out there. Said to be evil, but maybe it's good. I think the Jersey Devil is just misunderstood.
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