Leeds Point — birthplace of the Jersey Devil, New Jersey

Leeds Point, a small community in Galloway Township, Atlantic County, New Jersey, is the legendary birthplace of the Jersey Devil, one of America's most enduring cryptid legends. According to the most popular version of the story, a woman known as Mother Leeds gave birth to her thirteenth child in 1735, and the infant transformed into a winged, hoofed creature that flew up the chimney and into the Pine Barrens. While the Jersey Devil is primarily classified as a cryptid, the Leeds Point area is also heavily associated with ghostly phenomena. Residents and visitors report hearing unearthly screams in the surrounding pine forests, seeing glowing eyes among the trees at night, and finding cloven hoofprints in soft ground. The ruins of the Leeds family homestead have been a magnet for ghost hunters who report cold spots, electromagnetic anomalies, and EVP recordings of what sounds like a woman screaming. The surrounding Pine Barrens — a vast, sparsely populated expanse of sandy forest — add to the isolation and dread. Leeds Point's connection to the supernatural goes beyond the Devil legend; the area has a long history of ghost stories, including phantom ships on the nearby bay and spectral figures walking the old carriage roads through the pines.