by Cole Herrold
During one of the most intense Fortean flaps in
history, New Jersey and the nearby states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and
Maryland were in a state of turmoil as a bizarre winged flying freak plagued
the rooftops and woods of the states. This flap took place from January 16th-
January 23rd, with some sightings occurring into February of that
same year and featured none other than that chimeral back woods beast, The
Jersey Devil. This timespan known as "Phenomenon Week" or "The
Jersey Devil's Finest Hour" was two weeks of absolute terror in which
children were kept home from school, wives refused to leave home, and men would
be more than hesitant to leave their homes at night. Many skeptical researchers
have viewed this timespan of sightings as either a mass hoaxing or an example
of mass hysteria, and while certainly some of the "track waves" of
the creature might be just that, the sheer number of sightings of a mostly
identical creature that were reported seem to indicate to some potential
authenticity to these accounts. During the madness of the Jersey Devil,
however, there were other bizarre beasts sighted, but only one would take the
cake of absurdity and downright unrealness that it is perhaps even more interesting
than the Jersey Devil.
It was on a warm Friday day in January 1909 when Dan
Possack of Millville would have an experience that he would never forget. Dan
was doing his outdoor chores on his property, certainly either smirking or
fearing about the chance of encountering the bizarre monstrosity that had been
making its rounds throughout the state. It was while out that he had begun to
hear the heavy thumping of footsteps in the backyard. This would have been
alarming enough, but all this would be exacerbated by the sound of someone
calling his name. Dan proceeded to turn around, and it was in that moment he
encountered "One of the strangest freaks of nature, or a monster straight
from the bad place.". There standing before him, was a creature like a
bird. It towered an enormous 18ft in height as it looked down at him. Dan froze
as he stared up at the monstrosity in a scene that truly mimicked something
from Jurassic Park when all of a sudden, the voice he heard earlier
returned. The voice came from the hooked bright red beaked maw of the monstrous
beast before him and from it uttered the words "Where's your garbage
can?". Dan stared both confused and horrified by the request and proceeded
to slowly back away from the bizarre bird. The bird watched as Dan slowly
turned and began to sprint away. Dan thought he was in the clear until he felt
a sharp vice-like grip around his body. He looked down, and there staring up at
him was the bird's terrible eye. Its enormous beak wrapped around his torso,
and he knew how a worm surely felt. In sheer panic, Dan reached towards his
belt as he struggled to get to the axe, which he kept on him for chores.
Feeling the smooth cold axe head, he quickly lifted it out of its holster and,
flexing his fingers around the handle, proceeded to drop the heavy metal down
on the anomalous avian. It was in that initial strike he noticed something
bizarre that made the bird beast different from any game he had previously
hunted. The wound he inflicted came out in a chunk like a sliver of wood.
Realizing he could chop this strange creature up like firewood, he set to work
continuously, hitting and removing chunks from the creature. The creature
proceeded to unleash Dan from its maw and, slowly working its way up to his
head, began to whisper something in his ear. What was whispered is not known.
Yet it was enough to send Dan into a frenzy as he proceeded to drive the axe
straight into the creature's face. The creature unleashed a scream of pain, and
as Dan whittled the axe out of the creature's head out popped one of the
creature's eyes. The creature backed away and seemed to have had enough of Dan
and his axe, and as if this encounter couldn't get any stranger, the creature
began to inhale deeply. It soon began to swell, and its body became rounder and
balloon-like and soon began to float up above the ground and like some
malevolent Mary Poppins proceeded to float higher and higher out and away until
Dan could no longer see the freaky fiend. Dan stood in both fear and amazement
at what he had just witnessed, not believing what had occurred. All his doubts,
however, were ceased, and his fears reinvigorated when there on the ground he
noticed something shiny glittering in the grass. He reached down and picked up
the object, and there in his hand, he had the creature's eye. It was like an
electric light bulb in appearance, and at night he noticed it gave off a
bright, vigorous light that would change colors. Yet while he had a memento of
his encounter with the bird beast, he never would see it again and nor anyone
else.
