Place of the Dragon: Devil of the Pine Barrens

The Pine Barrens of New Jersey are weird. Just the location alone is bizarre: over a million acres of untouched wilderness nestled alongside major highways and just two hours away from New York City.

Once you set foot within the Barrens, things get even stranger. Obviously there are the pines trees, but there are also orchids, berry bushes galore and carnivorous plants, all sustaining themselves on acidic, sandy soil. Timber rattlesnakes, bobcats, deer and black bear also call the area home.

But one creature said to live within the region is stranger then all others: the Jersey Devil.

Stories of this bizarre Barrens dweller go back further then European settlement in the area. The original Lenape inhabitants believed a spirit named M’Sing lived there, and accordingly named the region the Place of the Dragon.

Likely inspired by their Lenape neighbors, Swedish settlers in the area gave it the name of Drakekill or Dragon Stream. However, the Jersey Devil’s rise to notoriety through it’s home state would come with the arrival of the English.

Their sightings of what dwelt within the Place of the Dragon demanded an explanation, and gave rise to the legend of Mother Leeds. According to this story, Mrs. Leeds had the misfortune of being married to a drunk who was incapable of providing for his family.

When Mother Leeds found she was expecting her 13th child, she understandably snapped, and declared, “Let this one be a devil.” When the time came for the child to arrive, her husband and children waited, while midwives gathered around the woman in labor.

At first, things seemed normal with the child. But then, to the horror of everyone present, Mother Leeds’ bouncing baby boy began to transform. Horns grew from his head, wings from his back, fingers became claws, feet morphed into hooves, his eyes began to glow red, and his face twisted into a horse’s head.

Then the child turned upon his mother, ripping her to pieces, before doing the same to the midwives, his father, and his siblings. Those who managed to survive the onslaught saw the creature fly up and out via the chimney. According to the legend, he haunts the Barrens to this day.

Obviously, that story is just that: a story, if a very entertaining one. (If you’re interested in the real story of the Leeds clan, there’ll be a followup post next week) But people were seeing something in the area long before Mother Leeds could ever have existed and continue to see things today.

Two accounts of the Devil stand out in particular.

In one, the witness was an incredibly famous man who would have little to gain from telling the story. His name was Joseph Bonaparte (above), and yes, he’s the brother of THAT Bonaparte (below).

Napoleon had given his brother Joseph the Kingdom of Spain to rule, but Joseph proved incapable of holding on to his throne, and fled to America. Once there, he bought an estate in Bordentown, New Jersey.

An avid hunter, Joseph was riding out alone one snowy day when he spotted tracks he had never seen before. They looked as though a donkey was walking on its hind legs, but the former King knew that wasn’t possible. Then he spotted something even stranger: the tracks stopped so abruptly, the creature must have flown away.

Puzzled, Joseph then heard a bizarre hissing noise. Turning, he came face to face with a creature he knew must be the source of the tracks. The beast was massive, with a horse’s head and bat-like wings. Bonaparte was so stunned he forgot all about the rifle on his back. Fortunately for him, the Devil simply elected to fly away once again.

Once Joseph returned home, he relayed his strange encounter to a friend whose name is lost to history. Whoever this man was, he was well versed in the legends of the Barrens, and told Bonaparte that he had just seen the Jersey Devil.

A few years past the turn of the following century, the Jersey Devil would proceed to have his most notable set of encounters. In 1909, he did what so many other Americans do: go on vacation. From January 16 to the 23rd, newspapers recorded encounters with the Devil from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

It started with tracks like the ones Joseph Bonaparte had spotted just under a century before. This time though, they went over fences, through backyards, and even on housetops. Panic spread, especially when tracks were reported in the cities of Camden, New Jersey and Philadelphia, and bloodhounds refused to follow the scent.

Schools closed and mills shut down due to lack of attendance. When the Devil was actually spotted in Camden and Bristol, Pennsylvania, the police fired upon him, to no effect. During one of his subsequent appearances in Camden, the Devil attacked a late night social club as it’s members left the meeting. He seemed especially fond of trolley cars, attacking one in Haddon Heights and was spotted running across the tracks in Burlington.

The Devil popped up on a house in West Collingwood, attacking firemen when they turned their hoses upon him. Throughout that week, people reported finding livestock dead, and a woman in what seems to be his favorite city of Camden had to fight him off with a broom in defense of her dog.

Following that week, the Devil seems to have returned to the Barrens for the most part. To this day, people still report seeing him as they pass through the area, as well hearing his screams and eerie cries. But despite his fearsome reputation, New Jerseyites have adopted the Devil as one of their own, even naming their hockey team after him.

Sources:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100202013405/http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/nj6.html

Weird New Jersey

Images:

By Famartin - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26056624

Choisez, Jessica. Jersey Devil T-Shirt. 17 January 2025. Author’s personal collection.

By François Gérard - bridgemanartondemand.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=97627

By Jacques-Louis David - zQEbF0AA9NhCXQ at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22174172