The Jersey Devil - Everything You Wanted to Know!

Kathy and Traci were live at the Jersey Devil Fable Festival in Asbury Park, NJ! Our resident historian (Kathy) shed light on the origins of the Jersey Devil and shared some lesser-known facts about him. She also discussed his importance in history, to the people of NJ in general, and those in the Pine Barrens, specifically. 

We covered:

Is the Jersey Devil a cryptid? A phantom? Something else?
Should we fear or revere this creature?
Which famous figures are linked to the Jersey Devil?
How can you learn more about the Jersey Devil?

If you enjoy the episode, let us know! And please do LIKE, SHARE & FOLLOW. It helps us to bring more paranormal content to you!

For more on Curious Explorers, visit Curious-Explorers.com and follow us on Instagram & YouTube: @CuriousExplorersShow.

For more on Kathy Kelly and The Paranormal Museum, visit www.ParanormalBooksNJ.com.

For more on Traci Stein, visit www.DrTraciStein.com.

Transcript

0:00

It's gonna take a sec Hi everyone, welcome to curious explorers. We are here in Asbury Park at The Jersey Devil fable festival. If you haven't been here before, and you're remotely local, please consider coming down. It's amazing. They're incredible vendors you'll learn a lot about The Jersey Devil about New Jersey folklore cryptids hauntings lots of different stuff. We have tours. We have cornhole, we have movies, we have great artists. And you'll, you know, just hang out with some cool people. Absolutely. Now, I am technically not a New Jersey native. And I only heard about the New Jersey Devil, The Jersey Devil, maybe 15 years ago, which sounds crazy. Kathy was very appalls that I didn't know and I didn't know that the sports team. The Jersey Devils was remotely connected. I thought it was coincidence. So I'm learning something and you can too. Yes, but Kathy, because I am Jersey Devil naive. It would be great to learn a little bit more. I have a million questions for you. But I would really like to hear more about what I should know. So The Jersey Devil was originally known as the Leeds devil and because the sightings were originally mostly around the Smithville Leeds area in South Jersey, the stories of The Jersey Devil actually predate the calling the calling it The Jersey Devil. In 1765, there was a series of there was a series of stories written and published, pertaining to what what was called the the leads devil. And the story goes that in 1735, a woman by the name of Mother leads, was pregnant with her 13th child, she was probably around 30 She was sick to death of being pregnant, didn't want any more kids and in a fit of frustration, said I hope the devil takes this child which of course, yeah, at the time, I recommend against that and to mount to heresy right and so she gave birth to the child fell in love with them immediately. It was a beautiful bouncing baby boy. Then about three hours later, he started to turn it into a horrific devil with eight or nine feet tall and a 12 foot wingspan, hooves and talons and tore up the house wreaked havoc as one does as one does and ended up taking off into the pine lands and becoming what was then known as that what became known as The Jersey Devil. So the story is told in 1765, but references 1735. But point in fact is the story is based on a series of folklore and mythological stories that had been told for a very long time prior to that. So the the story of The Jersey Devil is largely legendary and mythological. But the basis for it is based on phenomena that people did experience prior to who we believe prior to Benjamin Franklin taking it and turning it into a story. Very fun. So Kath, can I ask some questions or absolutely right, because I really again, I am Jersey Devil, fairly naive other than knowing that it is a thing. So my question is, is the first one first of any isn't Jersey Devil immortal? I would say that would depend on whether or not you think he is a paranormal being. Or if you think The Jersey Devil is a cryptid if The Jersey Devil a cryptid. No, he's The Jersey Devil then is a species that has not yet been identified and categorized by science. If the Jersey Devil is a unique, singular creature of paranormal origin, like say moth, man, then yeah, or at least very long lived. Okay? Because we're talking from the 1700s. We're talking from maybe over 600 years before that. Okay, so my next question then, I guess depends on whether it's a cryptid or some sort of phantom type of immortal creature. Because I thought first of all, do we know the gender of the Jersey Devil has anybody? I mean, I always think of him. I think I refer to male but I don't know. Right? And the second question would be like, Are there a bunch of Jersey Devils like a whole little family like the pine barrens? scores it one. So So I would say if you think it's a cryptid, that there has to be a, there has to be a population that is breeding, there has to be a breeding population. And that's entirely possible considering the size of the pine barrens. So the Pine Barrens is the largest Nature Preserve in the United States, it's bigger than identity. It's bigger than Yosemite. It's bigger than Yellowstone, it's 250,000 Square acres, it's massive. It's very isolated, large, large, large portions of it have are Uncharted. So yeah, it's totally possible that there would there could be a small breeding population of an animal that just hasn't popped into, you know, hasn't been categorized yet. It also could be an existing animal that science does know, with a genetically mutated, okay, you know, that has been genetically mutated into in a very specific area where it's continuing to breed the mutation. I don't personally think either of those were the case. But what do you think? Um, I think from I think in most cases, you're talking about the MIS identification of another animal. However, I think that I think that a lot of the paranormal, especially cryptids. And especially as cryptids become part of folklore, because of what The Jersey Devil kind of represents to New Jerseyans. I think he's magic. And I don't think I want to I don't think I want to pop the bubble of The Jersey Devil. Okay, fine. I'm kind of like Santa, but scary and in the pipe. So here's the thing about The Jersey Devil is, I think The Jersey Devil was perceived as being scary. For about, for the first, say 200 years of the story. But I think that Jersey Devil is seen more as protective now. And I think that he's more like a more of an identifier for people from a certain area of New Jersey. So they're not really afraid of them. They're proud of them. And they're proud in a way that it's like, you know, our weirdness is our weirdness. And he's one of us, you know, so I'm glad you said that, because I another question that I had for you is, you know, what, is the response of people familiar with this? I'm going to say mythology, just because we don't I mean, I don't know if we have definitive proof that there is a Jersey Devil, but lots, lots of people have cited him. Is that so there's both right, well, well, no, there's no definitive proof. But you can have an animal and also have the legend. Yeah. I mean, so and, and they are definitely two different things. I think that today, people embrace and love the idea of The Jersey Devil, and again, as being uniquely New Jersey, and something that something that unifies a group of people that have incredibly divergent politics and divergent, you know, social structures and cultural structures. That being said, I think that there are parts of New Jersey that are far more identified with The Jersey Devil, who, who really take ownership of it and have in the past suffered because of their kind of belief in or I do identity from the area that they're from, that now are defiantly protective and loving towards that, and I think the jersey DeVos Yeah. So I want to just reference that we saw a few minutes before we started recording one of the film festival entrants whose film was selected to be in this film festival, which is amazing. And what she said is she grew up down south, in New Jersey, and, you know, her teacher used to use The Jersey Devil law to scare the kids into being good. So I think that there are people who are very excited about and passionate about The Jersey Devil and maybe others who are a little frightened. Is there any basis for people being frightened of The Jersey Devil? Well, I think of the jersey Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, The Jersey Devil definitely was a boogeyman. And so historically, The Jersey Devil was used as a as a way to control behavior and to control locations. And I would say, the people who did believe in The Jersey Devil, prior to say that prior to the late 20th century, yeah, that you know, The Jersey Devil was scary, and not that there was a whole lot of violence associated with it was more scary in the sense that it was the descriptions with it. There's nothing like it in the animal record. It's not like Bigfoot, where you're like, Well, maybe it's an ape. Maybe it's just there's nothing like The Jersey Devil in the fossil record. So you wouldn't be talking about something that was utterly and completely unique. But and also scary, a big powerful creature, that is a quadra pet that can become bipedal, that can literally lift off of the ground, the strength of its wings are so strong, that it can lift the 300 400 pound body into the air and fly treetop to treetop. Even though there's really no stories of the of the Jersey Devil, any, like fatalities or anything like that. But certainly, it certainly could be terrifying. In the way a bear can be terrifying, you know, I mean, if you're talking about an animal, you don't really know, its, its, its its intent, or, or, or, you know, what scares it or why it might, you know, why it might attack or whatever. But as far as people being, being embracing it, it's because it's the it is the cultural identity for people from a specific area in New Jersey and a specific area that have been those people have been marginalized or you know, maybe not as well respected. His force. Yeah, we're made fun of, you know, I mean, you know, in the Pine Barrens, they people were were they were called pioneers in a pejorative way, in a derogatory way. And they don't do that anymore. Now, they're like proud ponies, and they're, and they're proud of their cultural heritage and proud of their cultural identity. And The Jersey Devil represents that more than anything else. Something Oh, yes. Oh, I'm sorry. It looks scared right there. I didn't mean to. It's actually a lovely person. By Jersey Devil we're suggesting could be quite lovely. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Has anyone ever gotten The Jersey Devil on film? Ah, yeah. No, I mean, there are film there. There is very, very, very limited footage of things that people say could be the jury. And I mean, extremely limited. It's not like Bigfoot where, you know, everybody in their mother has footage of of Bigfoot. It's not like that. So a couple of things here and there. I'm hoping I think I see The Jersey Devil. I'm hoping The Jersey Devil might come on over. Oh, there's a Jersey Devil right up there. But there's a Jersey Devil. Way up behind us, you can see. But I'm hoping the one that seems you know, it's so rare to catch them on film. I wonder if we could get that Jersey Devil to come pay us a visit? We'll see. We'll see if that one was will make us make an appearance. Is there anything else that I should be asking about The Jersey Devil because out of the two of us by far you are the resident expert even though I have my special sweatshirt today? Because it's really cold out here. You know, I you know, I don't I don't know that there's anything. There's nothing really unique. There's, there's there's nothing about The Jersey Devil that I that I think that you know, you kind of have to know I think the the thing that's interesting about The Jersey Devil is that it is it's it's woven into history, right? So there are iconic people in history, important people in history, who are associated with the stories of The Jersey Devil including Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Decatur, the king of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte, where they've all you know, where you have these people who there's folklore around it, where they where they've been, where they've been, where they where they've been attached to different stories with The Jersey Devil, which go a long way towards talking about the importance of his of history in New Jersey and how unique New Jersey's history is now diverse but also deep it is. To me The Jersey Devil is is interesting, because there's not another cryptid like them. He's too big is too big. Okay, he can't move. So a little known fact about The Jersey Devil or at least unfortunately that one that um, that there's not there's not another creature like him in in the United States, or any other crypto that I know of that's that's very similar to the Jersey Devil. I will say one of the things that's that we did talk about it's he's the first monster in the United States. So before people start before Western Europeans started reporting seeing Bigfoot, they reported seeing The Jersey Devil also that the stories go back longer than Western Europeans are in. In North America. The monopolies had an area that they called Popo essing, which was air Isn't the Pine Barrens that stands for landed the dragon because they would report seeing something like a dragon which, you know, looks like. And when the Dutch were in, when the Dutch were navigating the Malacca river, in the 16th century, they called it Drake Hill, which means river of the dragon. So before we have this folkloric stories, we have people saying, I'm seeing this thing. And you know, it's an area large enough, they could have been seeing it. So to me, that's what that's what's interesting. And again, it's, you know, there's a Bigfoot in every state, there's not a Jersey Devil in every state, you know, so it's not like, oh, you know, in Montana, they have something like that. It's really very unique. That's amazing. Um, where can people learn more about The Jersey Devil, so they're a great book or a place for people to go, there are lots of great books. There are. And I would encourage people to actually read some of the, some of the, some of the more academic folkloric books produced by the Rutgers University Press. There's a book by a gentleman named, I'm gonna get this wrong, because I didn't look it up. But it's his last name is McCoy. There's also a really wonderful professor emeritus from Rutgers, named Angus Gillespie, who has lots of YouTube videos and who has absolutely devoted himself. He is one of the most phenomenal, popular New Jersey historians and is just absolutely a gift. And you can go online and listen to him and it's a treat to hear him talk about New Jersey's history and to weave in the the history of The Jersey Devil and its use in history. So I really encourage you to do that. Again, his name is Dr. Angus Gillespie, you'll you'll just have a great time listening to him. And that is why this is why we have a historian podcast, a true anomaly in the paranormal podcasting field as far as I know. So that sounds amazing. If you'd like to learn more about The Jersey Devil cryptids New Jersey's history, all things paranormal. Please do come on down to Asbury Park to the paranormal museum with the Kathy Aiko as proprietress. And absolutely please if you enjoyed the podcast, tell your friends, like share, follow leave us a comment so we can keep bringing more interesting paranormal comment to you. And until next time, I am Tracy Stein. I'm Cathy Kelly. And this has been an episode of curious explorers. I'm sorry, Tracy