Investigated report Logged and followed up by an investigating group.On the record In a newspaper, police, government or court record, or from a named public witness.Told story Folklore, oral tradition or a story passed along.Proven hoax Proven or confessed hoax.
Winged · Leeds Point and the Pine Barrens · first reported 1735 (legend); January 1909 wave · also called Leeds Devil
New Jersey's state monster, born in legend at Leeds Point in 1735 and famous for the week of panic in January 1909. See the main Jersey Devil dossier.
Full story: Jersey Devil →
Ape-like · Sussex County (the Skylands) · first reported 1972 · also called Sussex County Bigfoot
Northwest New Jersey's mountains and lakes are the home of Big Red Eye, a Bigfoot-type creature named for the glowing red eyes in nearly every account. Witnesses describe a hairy figure seven to nine feet tall with a booming voice. The busiest period came in the mid-1970s, when one writer counted more than sixty reports between early 1975 and the end of 1976. A May 1977 New Jersey Herald story covered a family's encounter, and Fate magazine wrote it up that fall. Weird NJ has kept collecting reports into the 2020s. Skeptics note that black bears are common in Sussex County and can stand upright, and that eyeshine in headlights often looks red.
Visiting: High Point and Stokes state forests cover much of the area.
Water monster · Lake Hopatcong, Sussex and Morris counties · first reported 1894 · also called Hoppie, Beast of Lake Hopatcong
Lake Hopatcong is New Jersey's largest lake, and Hoppie is its serpent. An 1894 report described something about forty feet long, as thick as a man's leg, dark on top and white underneath. The witness was named as A. Chamberlin. Stories surfaced off and on for more than a century, including fishermen's claims in 2014. Some fans think it is the same creature as the Sandy Hook sea serpent. Skeptics point to big fish, wakes on a busy lake, and the occasional escaped pet snake, though no large snake has been confirmed in the lake.
Visiting: Hopatcong State Park on the lake's south shore.
Water monster · Sandy Hook Bay and the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers · first reported 1880s · also called Shrewsbury Serpent
In the late 1800s, members of the life-saving crew at Sandy Hook and local boaters reported a serpent in the waters off Monmouth County. Witnesses described an animal roughly fifty feet long with a small bulldog-like head, short rounded horns, eyes the size of silver dollars, whiskers like a cat or seal, and a pointed, sword-like tail. Several men aboard a yacht named the Tillie S. were among the witnesses. Scientific American covered sea serpent claims from the area in December 1887, and scientists at the time suggested a giant squid. Modern writers lean toward an oarfish, a long silvery fish that rarely comes near shore.
Visiting: Sandy Hook, part of Gateway National Recreation Area, has public beaches and the historic lighthouse.
Water monster · Cape May · first reported September 1921 · also called Cape May Globster
In September 1921, a huge rotting mass washed up at Cape May and was hailed as a sea monster. Early reports put its length at an incredible seventy-six feet, though it was likely closer to twenty-six, and it seemed to have long tusk-like pieces several feet long. Writers on the case say it was the remains of a rorqual whale, a family that includes fin, minke and humpback whales. As whale carcasses rot, the skin and fat slough off and parts of the jaw can split apart, making odd shapes that look like tusks or limbs. It is one of many globsters that have fooled beachgoers worldwide.
Humanoid · Hoboken, Hudson County · first reported October 1982
For about two weeks in October 1982, Hoboken schoolchildren were gripped by rumors of a hairy man-monkey stalking them. The stories grew fast, including claims that it had killed a teacher and thrown children from windows. Hoboken police and the city's public safety council looked into it and found nothing: no victims, no evidence, only secondhand stories. Writers have connected it to a 1981 report of an ape-like figure along the riverfront road and to similar reports by park rangers in South Jersey. Folklorists see it as a textbook schoolyard panic. Some writers also suggest a homeless man may have been unfairly cast as the monster.
Humanoid · Musconetcong River, Hackettstown, Warren County · first reported Popularized 2014
Mantis Man is a recent and unusual New Jersey cryptid. Witnesses, including two fishermen on the Musconetcong River near Hackettstown and a man crossing a bridge, described a figure six to seven feet tall with long thin arms, mouthparts like an insect's, black eyes, and pale brown skin that looked partly see-through. The story reached a wide audience through a 2014 episode of the TV series Monsters and Mysteries in America. Ideas offered range from an unknown amphibian to an alien to a lab experiment, while skeptics point to the TV show itself and the lack of any report before it.
Beast · Harmony Township, Warren County · first reported 1890-1891 · also called Ogre Rabbit
Late-1800s newspapers spread a story from Warren County about rabbits that were anything but cute: a colony of meat-eating rabbits near Harmony that attacked hunting dogs, ran incredibly fast and supposedly could not be hurt by bullets. A Boston paper carried a version in 1890. The tale traveled, and a similar Kentucky story in 1907 turned out to be about a local boy's pet. A 1968 folklore collection kept it alive, and it now shows up on most lists of New Jersey cryptids. Folklorists read it as a classic newspaper tall tale of the era, when small-town editors traded amusing oddities to fill columns.
Beast · Quaker Bridge area, Pine Barrens, Burlington County · first reported 1809 (legend) · also called White Stag of the Pines
Not every Pine Barrens creature is a devil. The White Stag is a gentle spirit in the shape of a pure white buck. The best-known tale says that one stormy night in the early 1800s, a stagecoach driver saw the stag standing in the road near the Quaker Bridge over the Batsto River. He stopped, and found the bridge had washed out ahead, so the stag saved everyone aboard. Since then, the story goes, hunters in the Pines have spared white deer. Some tellers link it to Lenape ideas of good luck, though that connection is not well documented. Real albino and white deer do occur and help keep the legend alive.
Visiting: Quaker Bridge is in Wharton State Forest, reached by sand roads.
Ape-like · Mine Hill Township, Morris County · first reported January 9, 1894
In January 1894, newspapers carried a story from the iron-mining hills of Morris County about a wild man. As told, three young women working at a mill saw a strange hairy figure, and two woodcutters named as Bill and Mike Dean later had a run-in in which their hounds cornered the creature and it clubbed one dog to death. Stories like this were common in nineteenth-century papers, which loved wild man tales, and some turned out to involve a real person living rough in the woods. Modern Bigfoot researchers count it among New Jersey's earliest recorded reports.
Humanoid · Morristown National Historical Park, Morris County · first reported May 21, 1966
Loren Coleman's 1983 book Mysterious America recorded an eerie case from Morristown National Historical Park. On May 21, 1966, four people in a parked car said a figure about seven feet tall came out of the dark. They described black hair, skin that looked scaly, and, most disturbing, no face at all. An earlier encounter from 1965 is also linked to the area. There is no follow-up investigation in the sources, and the case stands as a single strange night. Some fans compare it to the Grafton Monster of West Virginia, another tall figure with no visible face.
Visiting: Morristown National Historical Park (Jockey Hollow) is open to visitors by day.
Other · Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Morris County · first reported Over a century of local talk
The Great Swamp, a wildlife refuge just a short drive from New York City, has its own vague but long-lived monster. Locals speak of something with glowing red eyes that may appear as a tall hairy man or as a winged beast, and of strange noises in the marsh at night. Unlike Big Red Eye to the northwest, there are few concrete, dated accounts. Writers note the shifting shape of the creature suggests a catch-all legend for anything odd in the swamp. For visitors, the refuge's boardwalks and observation blinds are a safe way to look into the same dark marsh the stories come from.
Visiting: Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge has public boardwalk trails.