Leeds Point - Birthplace of the Jersey Devil

This remote area in the Pine Barrens is the legendary birthplace of the Jersey Devil, New Jersey's most famous cryptid. The vast 1.1 million acre wilderness has been named one of the most haunted locations in America by Conde Nast Traveler.

The legend of the Jersey Devil -- originally known as the Leeds Devil -- is among the oldest and most enduring supernatural tales in American folklore, and its birthplace is a remote stretch of the Pine Barrens near Leeds Point in Atlantic County. According to the story passed down for nearly three centuries, in 1735 a woman known as Mother Leeds became pregnant with her thirteenth child. Exhausted and exasperated, she cursed the unborn baby, crying out that this child could be the devil himself. The birth, which took place on a stormy night, reportedly produced a creature that initially appeared normal before transforming into something with the head of a horse, bat-like wings, cloven hooves, a forked tail, and claws. The creature shrieked, attacked several people in the room, then flew up the chimney and vanished into the surrounding Pine Barrens.

Historians have connected the legend to a real family. Deborah Leeds and her husband Japhet Leeds lived in the Pine Barrens region during the early eighteenth century. Japhet's will, written in 1736, names twelve children, which is consistent with the legend of a cursed thirteenth. The Leeds family had a contentious history with local Quaker communities, and some scholars believe the "devil" label was a form of social ostracism directed at the family, which over generations transformed into the supernatural creature of folklore. The beast was known as the "Leeds Devil" for most of its history and was not called the "Jersey Devil" until the early 1900s.

Sightings have been reported for nearly three hundred years. According to legend, Commodore Stephen Decatur once encountered the creature while visiting the Hanover Mill Works to inspect cannonballs being forged. He reportedly fired a cannonball directly at the flying beast, hitting it squarely, but the creature continued flying without apparent injury. The most documented wave of sightings occurred during the week of January 16 through 23, 1909, when more than thirty encounters were reported across the Delaware Valley. Strange cloven-hoofed tracks appeared in the snow across multiple counties. Schools closed and workers stayed home as panic spread through South Jersey and into neighboring Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. In Philadelphia, a huckster claimed to have captured the Jersey Devil and put it on display at the Ninth and Arch Street Dime Museum, charging admission to see what turned out to be a painted kangaroo with artificial wings glued to its back.

Leeds Point itself remains a sparsely populated area surrounded by the million-acre Pine Barrens, a vast wilderness of pitch pine and cedar swamp. Visitors who travel the narrow roads near the supposed birthplace at night report an unshakeable feeling of being watched. The creature is said to attack livestock, leave tracks in soft ground, and emit a blood-curdling scream that echoes across the marshes. The New Jersey state government officially acknowledges the legend on its website, and the NHL's New Jersey Devils hockey team takes its name from the creature. Sightings continue to be reported into the present day, with witnesses describing a large winged figure moving through the trees or silhouetted against the night sky above the Barrens.