Haunted Pine Barrens

What we now refer to as Pine Barrens, this particular landscape began forming roughly 170-200 million years ago. But the features that evolved didn’t fully form until the Tertiary era, between 1.8 and 65 million years ago, as seesawing coastlines deposited minerals and sand underground. Over 10 millennia ago, the Lenni Lenape tribe were the first ones to settle in a densely forested part of what’s now New Jersey. They relied heavily on hunting and gathering as a primary lifestyle. Fast forward to the 18th century, when Europeans arrived to clear the natives out of the region. They called it “the barrens” because their crops failed to grow, and the area was becoming very industrialized for natural resources found locally. Now heavily forested and somewhat marshy, the remote reaches of the Pine Barrens have become known as being quite spooky and mysterious. Covering over 1,000,000 acres in total, many different legends and tales have been evoked over time and completely taken over local lore. Arguably the most well-known legend is the Jersey Devil, supposedly borne by a woman who already had 12 children and dreaded another. She literally vowed a curse for it to be the Devil, and the creature has terrorized the area ever since. However, that’s far from the only ominous detail there. There are many twists and turns, making it incredibly easy to get lost in the darkness. Even locals who have lived there for years are afraid to venture too deep, not quite sure what they may or may not encounter. Various stories exist of evil spirits that lurk within the dense woods from unfortunate acts from the past.