Legend has it a fearsome beast roams the Pine Barrens, a beast with a horned head and goat hooves.

Its screams are enough to make one’s blood run cold. It’s said to attack unsuspecting campers.

It is the Jersey Devil, and like other cryptids, it’s almost extinct in the public’s imagination.

A cryptid is a creature of folklore, a legend that lives in dark and scary places.

The Jersey Devil is said to have been Mother Leeds’ 13th child. When the child was born, Mother Leeds is said to have cried, “Let the devil take this one!” and so he did.

The baby then transformed into the beast known as the Jersey Devil, cursed to terrorize unsuspecting New Jerseyans forever.

But “forever” is getting shorter and shorter. Our cryptids are endangered.

Belief in the Jersey Devil has plummeted as urbanization paves over our forests.

The Blob can’t compete with traffic lights and apartment buildings.

There are seldom any reports of the Big Red Eye and the Big Hairy Man.

As development continues and imagination dies, there are fewer and fewer stories of cryptids in New Jersey. A large part of what makes New Jersey weird and wonderful goes with them.

Cryptids are essential to our identity as a state.

Bruce Springsteen sang a song about one, “A Night with the Jersey Devil.”

The Jersey Devil features in video games, good TV shows like “The X-Files,” and bad TV shows like “Supernatural.”

New Jersey’s hockey team is even named after it.

Yet schoolchildren are seldom taught about the mythical creatures that define our state’s history.

We learn about Paul Revere and his horse, but not about Sandy Hook and its Sea Serpent.

Why aren’t we teaching folks about the myths that make New Jersey special?

The Jersey Devil is New Jersey’s most iconic and recognizable cryptid.

But people prefer to talk about pork rolls instead of the toothy resident of the Pine Barrens.

It’s time we brought cryptids back into the limelight.

Cryptids exemplify people’s fears and hopes. They connect us to our past. They’re important parts of our state’s popular culture.

Letting their myths and stories die means ignoring generations of New Jersey history.

New Jersey doesn’t need to be known for blueberries and tomatoes when it has plenty of mythical beasts.

Our cryptids are special. There’s no New York Devil or Connecticut Sea Snake.

Let’s keep these creatures from being endangered by putting them once more in the public imagination.

Let’s teach people about cryptids and swap stories. Let’s spread learning and joy.

And above all, let’s not go out alone at night in the Pine Barrens. The Jersey Devil might be on the prowl.

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Copyright 2025 Alexandra Paskhaver, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Alexandra Paskhaver is a software engineer and writer. Both jobs require knowing where to stick semicolons, but she’s never quite; figured; it; out. For more information, check out her website at https://apaskhaver.github.io.