- Lore runs thick through the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
- Millions of years ago, southern New Jersey was washed by ocean waves. The sand they deposited indelibly shaped the human culture of the 18th and 19th centuries.
- Today, just as the ocean left an inland shore, the land is marked by the remains of human industry – remains that carry myths and legends of the past.
- The area is said to be one of “the most haunted places in America.”
- The Pine Barrens were originally inhabited by the indigenous people of the Lenni Lenape tribe. Dutch and Swedish colonizers moved to the area to use the cedar and oak for shipbuilding. When the first iron furnace was opened, the area became instrumental in producing munitions during the War of 1812 and the American Revolution.
- Many think of the American West when they hear of outlaws and ghost towns, but the Pine Barrens were just as wild. Take the story of John Bacon, for example: a Loyalist guerrilla who massacred 19 men of the Continental Army in their sleep and was then captured in the Pine Barrens in what is considered the last battle of the Revolutionary War.
- The most famous story is that of the Jersey Devil, a mythical beast born to a woman living in the Pine Barrens, which has reportedly haunted the region for hundreds of years.
- By 1869, the iron industry in the Pine Barrens had disappeared, and the once-bustling towns there fell into decay. The forest soon began to reclaim the land that was once an engine of productivity. The buildings and railroad slowly disappeared over the decades, but the stories have lived on.
- Stories of the powerful, the disenfranchised, the natural, and the famous beings that made up this community are passed on thanks to the hard work and passion of those who live there now. Here are some of those legends that locals shared with Insider.
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