The Jersey Devil Sighting, Pine Barrens 1909

On January 16, 1909, Mrs. Evans of Collingswood opened her door to find cloven hoofprints in the fresh snow-prints that ran straight across her roof, up a wall, and vanished into the bare branches above. That same night, dozens of Pine Barrens families claimed they saw a winged creature with a horse’s head lope through the frozen woods. Newspapers printed sketches, and schools shut down as armed search parties roamed the forests. For a full week, the unexplained tracks multiplied, as if the creature was taunting the towns-until the prints suddenly stopped at the edge of Leeds Point, and not a trace was seen afterward.