Documentation of Unexplained Events

Great Swamp Wilderness Area

Dating back to the colonial period, there have been rumors of a specter, or presence, haunting the interior of the Great Swamp Wilderness Area. Known locally as a Lenape Nation burial ground and future casino, the myth has been allowed to fade over the years, likely because of the unexplained and unsettling nature of events associated with it.

 

Coffin Rock Location (circled on map)

December 6th, 1786, according to a contemporary account in the Morris County Record, this is the site where six men, who were searching for a shortcut through the Lenape Nation Sacred Tabooed Burial Ground to Barton's Pub, were found with their bodies tied together at the arms and legs.  Each had been disemboweled and were in an advanced state of decomposition.  Strange markings had been carved into their faces and hands.

Coffin Rock

Coffin Rock in the Great Swamp Wilderness Area near Green Village.

Coffin Rock

 
Suicide Tower
 
tower
"It was 1975 or ‘76 maybe. The guy’s name was Greg, if I remember right. We were students at The Pingry School in Hillside, before it moved to Martinsville. The school was home to a whole bunch of little rich kids who were bored out of their minds. To break the monotony, a lot of people started playing with drugs, mostly just pot and hash. Greg was worse than most, and started doing coke and tripping a lot. His parents gave him shit about his anti-social behavior.
 
One morning we got to school and there were reporters all over the place. Seems Greg ate some acid the night before, flipped out, and sliced and diced his folks. Then he walked up to the nearby water tower, sliced his wrists, and dove from the top. There was no gate on the stairway at the time. Rumor had it that he left a note in blood written on the top of the tower. Myself and a few friends went up there two nights later.

We had to climb the new gate and then walk up to the top. There was a big pentagram in brown scrawled on the top of the tower. It was really dark, so that’s all we could see. The cops saw the car in the lot and came up. They were pissed about us trampling a crime scene. They called our folks and the whole nine yards.

Back at about the same time, there were active gatherings of witches and Satanists holding regular rituals in the mountains up there. Rumor had it that Greg fell in with them, and his parents were his sacrifice to achieve whatever they hoped to achieve. I don't know that this was true, but I do know that the gatherings did occur. Some say they still do."
 

WEIRD NJ STORIES : WEEKLY STORY ARCHIVES : 2001

Strange twig figures found throughout the area where people have disappeared in the Great Swamp Wilderness Area. Associated Press photo dated November 2, 2001.

USGS Aerial photograph of a crop circle in the Great Swamp Wilderness Area. 

According to Professor Perry Winkle of Zarapath, NJ, geometrically round crop circles like these are typically found in areas with a high density of paranormal phenomenon.

November 1, 2002

Three members of a local running club attempted to set a cross-country trail through the Great Swamp Wilderness Area. They set off into the interior confident that the high-tech navigation gear they were carrying, including two GPS devices, USGS maps, aerial photographs, an orienteering compass, and their thirty-plus years of combined experience in the bush, would get them across the swamp successfully.  Sadly, they were mistaken.

Heather Donahue several days before the shoot

On November 27th, 1980 three engineering students from Rutgers University hiked into the Great Swamp Wilderness Area near Green Village, New Jersey to research a local legend.

The three were never seen again.

Nearly twenty five years later, the trio's 35mm Minolta Spotmatic SLR camera was found. Remarkably, the Kodak film inside the camera survived.

The last exposure on the roll of film found inside the camera may be the only image ever captured of the legendary "Swamp Witch" of the Great Swamp Wilderness Area. 

To the surprise and horror of investigators, the photograph consisted of multiple specters in ghastly and unnatural form.  Some viewers became confused and conflicted.  Others couldn't sleep for weeks.

WARNING! If you choose to open this image file, please make sure that there are no children, persons with weak constitutions, or un-tethered farm animals (sheep, etc.) within viewing distance. WARNING - clicking on the image may result in a slight altercation of your time-space continuum:

>>SH3_WEEN.jpg (235399 bytes)<<