As Russ Juelg guides groups through the Pine Barrens by the light of the moon, he always instructs them to keep their eyes up in the trees. They're watchful for a strange form crouching from a tree limb or a pair of glowing eyes emerging from the shadows. The search for the legendary Jersey Devil may include plenty of skeptics, but Juelg says curiosity still draws dozens of thrill-seekers to southern New Jersey each month to go on "hunts." "Being out in the wilderness at night and hearing and seeing strange things that you can't account for is kind of a thrill, and it kind of puts you in touch with the mysterious side of nature," said Juelg, who leads the outings for the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. The tale of the cloven-hoofed creature with the wings of a bat remains one of the best known examples of a New Jersey legend, according to Angus Kress Gillespie, a professor of American studies at Rutgers University and director of the New Jersey Folk Festival. It's also become a popular culture figure, even lending its name to the state's professional hockey team.

There are multiple versions of the tale familiar to most New Jersey schoolchildren, but a popular version describes the creature as being born to a woman named Mother Leeds, who already had 12 children and cursed the baby. "It's a powerful story so it has a grip on our imagination," Gillespie said. "It's been in oral circulation ever since 1735 so that's a pretty hardy story."

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