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JANUARY 21, 1909, HADDON HEIGHTS, NEW JERSEY, USA, LEWIS BOEGER AND TROLLEY PASSENGERS:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

From various late sources about the "Jersey Devil", it seems that on January 21, 1909, at 2 a.m., the Public Service Railway Trolley had pulled out of Clementon, heading in the direction of Camden, and as it passed Haddon Height, conductor Lewis Boeger and the passengers saw the "Jersey Devil".

Lewis Boeger reportedly said:

"In general appearance it resembled a kangaroo... It has a long neck and from what glimpse I got of its head its features are hideous. It has wings of a fairly good size and of course in the darkness looked black. Its legs are long and somewhat slender and were held in just such a position as a swan's when it is flying. We all tried to get a look at its feet to see what shape they were but the darkness was too great. It looked to be about four feet high."

The sighting occurred when a passenger explained "There's that thing, take it away!" Frightened and curious, the passengers had crowded to the windows. The trolley went about 200 yards before it had to stop for a passenger, and as it stopped, the "winged terror" circled above, hissing violently, then it flew away.

This prompted nearby towns to post armed guards on their trolley.

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. mm1:] JAMES MCCLOY AND RAY MILLER:

The authors say that conductor Lewis Boeger recalled the apparition he beheld during the Haddon Heights incident on January 21, 1909:

"In general appearance it resembled a kangaroo... It has a long neck and from what glimpse I got of its head its features are hideous. It has wings of a fairly good size and of course in the darkness looked black. Its legs are long and somewhat slender and were held in just such a position as a swan's when it is flying. We all tried to get a look at its feet to see what shape they were but the darkness was too great. It looked to be about four feet high."

The sighting occurred at 2 a.m. as the trolley from Clementon to Camden passes Haddon Heights, when a passenger explained "There's that thing, take it away!" Frightened and curious, the passengers had crowded to the windows. The trolley went about 200 yards before it had to stop for a passenger, and as it stopped, the "winged terror" circled above, hissing violently, then it flew away.

[Ref. dj1:] DAVE JULIANO:

Dave Juliano says that on Thursday, January 21, 1909, the Jersey Devil was seen by a trolley full of people in Clementon as it circled above them. The witnesses descriptions matched others from the days before.

[Ref. ha1:] "HAUNTED AMERICA TOURS" WEBSITE:

[Ref. dh1:] "NEW JERSEY DEVILS HUNTERS":

[Ref. mn1:] MICHAEL NEWTON:

The author says that on January 21, 1909, the Jersey Devil allegedly attacked a cable car in Haddon Heights, prompting nearby towns to post armed guards on their trolleys.

[Ref. jg1:] JOHN MICHAEL GREER:

The author says that on January 20, 1909, the conductor and passengers of a trolley car en route from Clementon to Camden watched in horror the Devil take the air near them, flying in circles above the trolley and finally fly off.

[Ref. wn1:] "WEIRD NEW JERSEY" WEBSITE:

The website says that early on January 21, 1909, the Jersey Devil had appeared in Haddon Heights, terrorizing a trolley car full of passengers before flying away. Witnesses claimed that it looked like a large flying kangaroo.

Points to consider:

Before discussing this particular case, I must make some general remarks about what was called the "Jersey Devil".

In Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, for nearly two centuries at least, some people give reports of encounters with a "creature" whose descriptions suggested that it was some sort of "devil", though in my opinion it was often merely a large bird in migration there, the sandhill crane.

Ufologically, these stories are mostly not considered as related in any way with UFOs or UFO occupants, in my opinion too they should not be part of a catalog of "close encounters of the third kind".

However, some ufologists included such stories in such catalogs, thinking for some reason it does have something to do with the UFO question. Most of the time, they do not include all the Jersey Devil reports, but only a few of them, maybe due to lack of documentation or maybe for some other reason I do not understand.

So I have to include all these stories, because if some source considers, rightly or wrongly, that this a UFO-related, then it is within my scope, not to immediately and arbitrarily disregard their idea, but to evaluate it, and thus to collect the documentation and the comments about it. And therefore, I have to check and document all reported, not just those selected arbitrarily by these ufologists who believed this is UFO material. This is why you cans see I have a file for each Jersey Devil reports, even those that were never included in the ufology literature.

I should note that most stories are fragmentary, often because the sources write about several observations, and what is said about one report is supposed to be implicitly true for the others. I do not do it that way; I publish case files individually and discuss each on its own merits or issues, and offer a specific assessment for each case. But of course, generalities can be said on these reports. As I do not want to disconnect individual reports from these generalities, I make the following notes.

I want to first list the various explanations offered for the "Jersey Devil" - they could apply its late equivalent the West Virginia "Mothman" which was introduced in UFO books the 1960s:

• "Devil" per se, a creature from hell, the one that Christian traditions talks about. It is not far from the explanations that claimed "witches" made this Devil appear using witchcraft.
• "Devil" in the sense that there would be some sort of "parallel world" that shelters evil creatures who occasionally pop in "our" world. It is further argued that UFOs and their occupants are of the same nature, in an attempt to support a "theory of everything" claiming the existence of some "other worlds" or "parallel worlds or "other dimensions".
• UFO occupants, aliens; some rare ufologists seem to consider that any unusual creature must come down from some spacecraft, whether it is a "Bigfoot", "Chupacabras", "Devil" ou whatever else. A variant thereof proposes that all these creatures are "engineered" by more "classic" extraterrestrial beings.
• Some cryptozoologists put forth that the "Jersey Devil" is some ordinary earthly animal hitherto undiscovered by mainstream science. Most cryptozoologist do not vehemently claim this as if it was a proven fact, but merely suggest it is a possibility among other possibilities.
• Some cryptozoologists felt that the Jersey Devil may be a "Bigfoot". This generally does not fit well with the descriptions, whereas a known bird fits better. Yes, some reports mention a four-legged creature, but generally with wings too.
• It was suggested the Jersey Devil is a Pterodactyl, the prehistoric dinosaur-bird, allegedly still living nowadays. Or some other survivor of the distant prehistoric times.
• An investigation by cryptozoologist Ivan Sanderson made him explain that there was a real estate scam in 1909 there in which people had created false traces of the "Jersey Devil." Most debaters admit this, but consider, rightly in my opinion, it could not be the single explanation for all the reports. This does not mean that other reports could not be hoaxes too, and some definitely were, as the "Hyman" case or the case of the dead kangaroo fitted with wings.
• Some offer a pure "folklore" explanation. There would never have been any true observation, everything would be purely invented nonsense. It can obviously be suggested that some, if not all, of the stories are of this nature. It is clear that a Jersey Devil folklore has emerged, but it cannot be used as evidence that all reports were entirely imaginary from the start.
• At the time, a "malformed" and abandoned child ("the baby of Mrs. Leeds") was said to be the explanation. But it turned out that the descriptions, the geographical and temporal span, leave little credence to this explanation if it was supposed to be the only one.
• Various birds were named as an explanation for the Jersey Devil. Some are completely unsuitable, too small or too different from the descriptions. However, one bird seems to be an excellent candidate, the sandhill crane. In each of my "Jersey Devil" case file, I obviously check this explanation out. I am neither the first nor the only one to propose it, however, many authors made no mention of the sandhill crane, preferring to highlight the ridiculous "explanation" explanations to support their favorite one. For example they would ridicule the "Mrs. Leeds' baby" explanation to try to convince the Jersey Devil must have been "supernatural".

Now let's see this report.

NJ Trolley in 1904.

Let's note that this happened at a time when it was dark night.

The description is entirely suggestive of a large bird, such as the sandhill crane.

The "kangaroo" resemblance may be not about just a shape, maybe the bird, like most large birds, hopped along a bit when and took the air.

We have no UFO, no aliens, nothing evil, nothing "paranormal" whatsoever. Nothing that could kill the idea that the man may have seen the scary-looking sandhill crane peering inside from behind a window.

There is not enough information to make this explanation a certainty, but there is not a single piece of information that would support she saw a real devil, or an alien, or a pterodactyl, "Bigfoot" or anything extraordinary.

"Sandhill Crane" (Grus canadensis) - pictures above - is a species of big crane living in North America, Canada, and in the extreme northeast of Siberia. Some are resident, some are migratory, passing sometimes indeed by the states where the "Jersey Devil" was reported.

Its sound is described as having to do with a French "r" sound, a frog's squawk and a trumpet tone. Male and female sometimes engage in duets of complex cries.

Its wingspan can reach more than 2 meters.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Possible confusion, bird, sandhill crane. Not UFO-related.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [mm1] * "The Jersey Devil", book by James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr., Middle Atlantic Press publishers, USA, 1976.
• [mm1] * "The Jersey Devil", book by James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr., BB&A publishers, USA, pp 55-56, 1987.
• [dj1] * "The Jersey Devil", article by Dave Juliano, USA, 1995, at theshadowlands.net/jd.htm
• [ha1] * "Haunted World: Strange - Weird Paranormal Creatures", on the Haunted America Tours website, USA, 2004-2007, at www.hauntedamericatours.com/museum/JerseyDevil.htm
• [---] ? "New Jersey & Pennsylvania Tour Book", page 32, USA, 2005.
• [---] ? "The Ultimate Urban Legends, book, Publications Pinkmint publishers, USA, page 65, 2008.
• [dh1] * "Phenomenal Week", web page by Laura K. Leuter, the New Jersey Devils Hunters, USA, 2004, at www.njdevilhunters.com/1909.html
• [mn1] * "Hidden Animals: A Field Guide to Batsquatch, Chupacabra, and Other Elusive Creatures", book by Michael Newton, ABC-Clio publishers, USA, page 156, 2009.
• [jg1] * "Monsters", book by John Michael Greer, Llewellyn Worldwide publishers, page 119, 2011.
• [wn1] * "The Jersey Devil", web page by the Weird N. J. website, found 2013, at weirdnj.com/stories/jersey-devil

Document history:

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This page was last updated on April 11, 2013