I'm Lauren Norton, and this is one strange thing, the show where we search the nation's news archives for stories that can't quite be explained. Strangers, in honor of our first ever Halloween episode,

that is our first ever episode to actually fall on Halloween,

we want to talk about the devil.

No, don't worry, this podcast is not taking a sudden turn.

We mean, of course, the devil of Southern New Jersey.

Of the Pine Barons, mostly.

According to the New Jersey official tourist website, the pine barons,

quote, also known as the pine lands, is an enormous and all-encompassing tract of open space

that covers 1.1 million acres, or 22% of New Jersey's land area.

The site explains that the area, quote,

envelopes a number of interesting towns,

but it promises that you can also, quote,

experience the otherworldly beauty of the quiet pine-filled forests.

Apparently, the sandy soil of the barons is an important feature because it makes for waterways that wind between the forests. There are cedar swamps, too,

and rivers that run next to trails and into miles of state-protected land. It's no doubt a beautiful place.

And situated in the Pine Barrens is a place called Leeds Point,

also known as Leeds, or so the Internet promises us.

It's a small community in Galloway Township in Atlantic County. According to the Asbury Park Press, Leeds Point is named for the Leeds family,

who had quite a hand in the establishment of the area.

The first of the Leeds clan, Daniel Leeds, was famous for his almanacs.

And the Leeds family has a Benjamin Franklin backstory that we would love to get into here.

Someone finance our feature-length film already.

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