[William Shatner]
a vast sea of trees stretches as far as the eye can see.
Below the dense canopy of these woods lies a primeval world
filled with ominous sights
and sounds that are shrouded by dark undergrowth.
This foreboding wilderness is known as the Pine Barrens.
The Pine Barrens is basically a million acres of woodland
in the southern tip of New Jersey.
You can essentially get lost in the Pine Barrens
and never be seen again
because they are just so vast.
At nighttime,
you can hear animals crunching all around,
but the problem is you can't see where these things are.
It's a terrifying place and it's very, very scary,
especially if you're lost there by yourself.
[owl hooting]
[Shatner]
to over 500 animal species,
but according to locals, there is one creature
said to dwell here that has yet to be officially identified.
It's a grotesque winged monster
that is known
as the Jersey Devil.
The New Jersey Devil legend is ingrained
into the state of New Jersey so much.
It's something that every kid hears when they're growing up,
"The Jersey Devil is gonna get you."
One of the most famous aspects of the Jersey Devil
is its horrific screech or roar.
[creature screeches]
If you hear something like that in the Pine Barrens, you run.
[creature screeches]
[Chad]
come out of Dr. Frankenstein's lab.
It's a hodgepodge of animal parts.
It has a horse's head with horns growing out of it,
a long dragon or kangaroo body
ending in thin, long bird legs and hooves,
a forked tail on its back.
It has giant leather bat-like wings on its back.
If you were to describe something out of a nightmare,
the Jersey Devil would be that description.
[Shatner]
really lurk somewhere in the Pine Barrens?
Perhaps clues can be found by examining the origin story
of this fearsome monster
that has been spoken of in local lore
for more than 250 years.
[creature screeches]
[Shatner]
inside a small house in Leeds Point, New Jersey,
a woman gave birth to her unlucky 13th child,
and when it was born, it became a monster.
According to tradition, the Jersey Devil is actually
the 13th child of a woman known as Mother Leeds.
When Mother Leeds was giving birth,
she apparently, legend says,
cried out, "The devil can take this one."
And she initially gave birth
to a healthy, happy baby boy
who almost immediately
transformed into this demon-like creature.
[creature screeches]
Some stories say that Mother Leeds was killed
after the baby was born by the baby.
Other stories just say he flew up the chimney
and into the Pine Barrens.
[Shatner]
of a devil born of human flesh.
But after this alleged event,
entirely new tales of the monster
started to surface in South Jersey.
In the early 1800s, a military officer of great distinction
was said to have had a firsthand encounter
with the Jersey Devil.
The Jersey Devil has had run-ins with many famous people
over the years,
such as Commodore Stephen Decatur.
He was a famous naval war hero,
and he came across the Jersey Devil
flying overhead.
He fired a cannon at the Jersey Devil.
And according to some eyewitnesses,
he shot a hole through one of its wings,
but it just flew away like nothing had happened.
[Lynne]
spoke openly about this.
So when a prominent person comes forward to say,
"Oh no absolutely, I saw this, you know,
strange horse-faced winged dragon-like creature
and I shot a cannonball at it,"
that impresses itself upon us in a way that kind of says,
"Wait a minute, okay."
The pattern of belief here is so consistent.
[Shatner]
that the origins of this Pine Barrens monster
may actually go back much further into the distant past.
In this part of the world before the arrival of colonists,
the tribes that lived here were the Lenape.
And they referred to this part of the world,
the Pine Barrens of what is now New Jersey,
as the place of the dragon.
So the presence of a creature in this "place of the dragon"
has been recorded long into the past.
We really do see two different cultural understandings
of this place coming together in the idea
that there's a creature here
that maybe looks a little bit like a dragon.
[Jeff]
the Jersey Devil theories or legends,
he existed well before any of that stuff existed.
It is a big part of the state's identity.
The Pine Barrens is such a huge vast place
that absolutely a creature can live there
and not ever be seen by anyone for the rest
of their entire lives,
which kind of gives credence to the theory
that this creature does exist.
[creature screeches]