Our very own celebrity the Jersey Devil

Well as you might have read I wrote about the sneaky creature El Chupacbra.  So I decided to tell you about our own creature which actually resides not to far from Stockton College itself.  The Jersey Devil aka Rosemary's baby or Leed's Devil and no I am not talking about the NHL hockey team.  This legendary creature supposedly lives in the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey.  It is told it is a two legged winged beast with hooves, horns, and a blood-curdling scream which is the most popular version, but different descriptions have come about also.  Yes the NHL team does get its name from this pop culture creature.  The earliest legends of this creature date back to the Lenni Lenape tribes which called the Pine Barrens "Popusessing" meaning place of the dragon.  Explores from Sweden called this area "Drake Kill" Drake meaning dragon and Kill meaning channel or arm of the sea.  So even back then there was a reason for this area to be associated with the word dragon.  Let us look into the most popular and well-know version.  It all started with Mother Leed who had 12 children.  Then one day around the year 1735 she found out she was pregnant with her 13th and stated, " This one will be the Devil".  It is said Mother Leed was a witch and even the child's father was the Devil himself.  The child was said to be born normal but changed to the beast I describe above. After changing shortly after its birth the Jersey Devil let out a blood-curdling scream killed the midwife before flying up the chimney, where after it circled the surrounding village and fled out towards the wilderness.  A clergyman exorcised the demon in 1740 for 100 years and it wasn't seen again, but after the 100 years it was.  Around 1820 reports started to circulate regarding a creature seen hunting in the woods which could not be described.  This first new sighting was reported by the brother of Emperor Napoleon, Joesph Bonaparte, in the Bordentown, NJ with blamed being placed on the Jersey Devil also for killing of livestock.  More reports came about with similar killings of livestock and with tracks and monstrous screams as well.  Stephen Decatur a Commander of the US Navy at this time is also to have seen the creature flying about and order a cannon ball be fired at it, which had no affect.  Sightings of the Jersey devil are reported even till the year 1951.  Many people have said they have seen or even shot at this creature with no affect at all.  This creatures legend grew so fast that even the Philadelphia Zoo posted a $10,000 dollar reward for the creature's dung.
           
The legend of the Jersey Devil has accounted for many books, stories, movies, and even an appearance of the popular science fiction tv show the X-Files.
 http://youtu.be/bqMZl1p3mUQ
http://pollystreaming.com/X-Files-1x05-The-Jersey-Devil_v26194

   I you see above there are just a few of the examples how the Jersey Devil has reach new heights with its mysterious ways.

I believe this all falls around the same principle as the Chupacabra with its psychological aspect.  A small myth as become a possible delusion and cause for mass hysteria with unexplained killings of livestock. People always need a reason for something to happen and one way or another will come up with one.  Also people during the period of the Jersey Devil people were very quick to blame anything that they could not explain to possible links to the  Jersey Devil.  Quickly it wood start a wildfire with others.  All you need is a rumor to start and you will find someone to keep that rumor going to the next person, before long it is believe to be a fact.  
Now do i personally believe in the Jersey Devil, I will say no but I bet there are those that truly do believe it does exist.  How do we go about finding out if this is true or not.  Will you can always take a midnight ride in the woods.  You can also do one more then, go 5.7 miles northeast of Absecon, NJ to this area code 08220.  Till you see road that goes off to the right aka Leeds Point Rd, take this till you cannot go any further.  After that take a long walk into the woods until you come about the birth place of the Jersey Devil himself, a small broken down cabin.  Camp there for the night take a friend and maybe even record what is going about, maybe if you are lucky you can stay the whole night and see the Jersey Devil yourself.