New Jersey Dragons

Even in comparison to the states I’ve covered so far, New Jersey has a lot of dragon sightings. Unfortunately they’re not as widely published as the other states, with so far only Lon Strickler compiling them. Another thing to consider is New Jersey has a lot of other flying cryptids which dragons could be mistaken for, or those cryptids mistaken for dragons, beings like the Jersey devil, thunderbirds and pterosaurs. Still, some of the dragon sightings are compelling, and I’ve recounted some of the best one bellow.


 In this first story, the year was not given, but Lon Strickler said it was recent. A couple was driving home in the early morning after visiting a friend’s house. It was around 1:30 to 2:00 am and took place in Saleme County NJ. The witness was the wife of the duo, and she was driving home because her husband had a few drinks that evening.


She was driving along back country roads while passing through a wooded area. It was then a huge creature flew over the vehicle, coming from the back and passing over to the front. The witness saw it through the sun roof and the front window. She described it as a huge reptile with bat like wings. She described the wings in the most detail, saying she could even see veining on the wing membrane. The whole creature was black in colour. Its wingspan was so large that it reached over the road’s width by a foot on either side.


The creature flew so low over the car that if she had been outside she would have been able to touch it. It swooped low over the road, only two feet off the ground. Then it rose back up and flew over the tree tops and out of sight. The creature glided the whole time, never flapping its wings. The witness said she was amazed it could glide passed the car, as they were travelling at leas 60mph.


After the encounter she noticed that her husband had woken up and was now staring upward out the front window with a look of incredulity. She asked him what he had seen and he described the exact same creature as her.


The incident frightened the witness so much she was left with continuing anxiety, and now sees the world in a completely different way.


 The next story happened to a man named Malcolm, back in 2016. It was June 3rd, 8:15 pm. He was driving through Tuckahoe NJ. According to Malcolm, it was dusk and objects in the sky were still clearly visible as silhouettes. He briefly saw a giant flying creature pass over him about 100 feet up. It was flying south towards the state forest.


He described the creature as being reptilian with bat wings. It was dark in colour and had two protrusions coming off the back of its head. Malcolm couldn’t tell if these were horns or ears. The creature was large, with a 30 foot wingspan. Malcolm described this creature as flapping its wings normally, as you would expect a bat or bird to do. Malcolm had his windows down at the time. He said that the creature smelled like rotting fish, and gave off a hot down draft, even from such a high position in the air.


Malcolm was so shocked by the incident he had to pull over and collect himself. Another car has been driving behind him at the time. They also pulled over. Judging from the looks on their faces Malcolm guessed they had seen the creature too. The people in the other car pointed to the sky where the creature had been. Both Malcolm and the people in the other car gestured to each other, but no one got out to speak to the other and they ended up both driving off without confirming each other’s experiences.




 The next story comes from another witness that saw a creature very similar to Malcolm’s story, and also took place in 2016. Unfortunately the dates of their sightings were different, so this is not the person from the other car. This person, who remained nameless, saw the same creature on two separate occasions of the same year.


The first encounter took place in March. It happened in the afternoon, around 3pm. They were passing through Voorhees township at the time. The witness looked up and saw a huge creature. They described it as having bat wings and a reptilian head. The previous witness, Malcolm, had provided a picture to Lon Strickler, along with his sighting. It was this picture that prompted this witness to contact Lon with their sighting, saying the creature was almost identical. The witness said this creature was beige in colour. It did not flap its wings, but glided at an impressive speed.


The second time the witness saw the creature was on Halloween, Oct 31st, of the same year. Yet again they were driving through Voorhees township. This time they were driving home at 9pm. They saw a very similar creature flying overhead. This time it was smaller in size. It looked like it was a darker colour, but that could have just been the lighting at night. What frightened the witness the most is this creature’s eyed glowed light car headlights, far more then reflective eye shine could do. This incident frighted the witness quite a bit.  



 This last story happened to the witness back when they were a child of 10 years old. It happened in Nottingham NJ in the mid 1980s. The witness was riding his bike through a local ball park around noon when he saw the creature. There must have been a classic aircraft enthusiast in the area, because the witness often saw old aircraft flying overhead. He was especially fond of the bi-planes when they flew over.


This time he looked up into the sky and saw a large red object, high above. At first he thought it was one of the bi-planes. However then the object flapped its wings, just once. On looking closer he could see that it was actually an animal. He said it looked like a classic European wyvern, but with odd proportions, with a long neck and wide chest. Its scaled shimmered in the sunlight.


The creature moved completely silently, gliding most of the time. The witness could feel a hot downdraft from the creature, even though it was high above. The creature flapped its wings one more time and then flew over the trees and out of sight. It was heading for the near by forest. The witness desperately wanted to show someone, to tell them to look up at what he was seeing, but he was alone in the park, and he realized that no one would believe him without seeing it themselves.


Some of the stories submitted to Lon Strickler came with images the witnesses either created or found, and used as references for the creatures they saw. I’ve based my art off these images.


References


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f_3uQasIuQ



  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Zburator

Image
  The zburator is a type of demon from Romanian mythology. The name means flyer. The zburator's true form is that of a wolf with draconic features and bat like wings. It's often depicted with fire as well, either being surrounded by flames, or having a mane or tail of flame. This is especially prevalent when the zburator flies across the sky at night in the form of a shooting star. The zburator is capable of shape shifting. Most often it takes on the form of a handsome young man. It uses this capability to visit women at night and temp them into sleeping with it. The zburator most favours women who are engaged, or otherwise in a relationship but not married yet, and takes great delight in convincing these women to cheat on their partners. Zburators are often invisible to all except the women they pursue. Zburators drain their victim's life force through sex, much like an incubus. This leaves their victims tired, pale and anemic. Zburators are often compared to vampires, e...
Read more

Hiiden Hirvi

Image
  The hiiden hirvi is a monster from Finland. It was an artificial moose created in the underworld to test the hero Lemmink ä inen. It was created from bones, hide, soil, tree roots, moss and creeping vines, anything associated with the soil and underground. The hiiden hirvi was also considered unnatural because it didn't have a mother. Overall the beast is supposed to be eerie and unsettling. As well the hiiden hirvi is supposed to be a moose. Moose are called elk in Europe, but I didn't realize this until after I drew the picture, so you got a wapiti instead. Often it's said the hiiden hirvi was created by goblins, which is a miss-translation of hiisi. Hiisi actually means a spring, cave, graveyard or any other sacred space relating to the underworld. So underworld spirits is more accurate. Although they would be considered corporeal living beings, not ethereal like spirit implies in English. The hiiden hirvi's creation was ordered by the goddess of winter and night...
Read more

Fayette Dragon

Image
  The case of the Fayette Dragon was reported to Fortean researcher, Stan Gordon. It happened in Fayette County Pennsylvania on March 18, 2012.  At 11:45 a man took his dog out to the front yard to relieve the animal. The night was cold and silent, without any other animals moving about. That silence was then broken by the sound of flapping wings coming from a large creature. The man saw a shadow pass over his house, about 50 feet up. It was 22 feet long, with an 18 foot wingspan. As the beast flew over the man’s house it triggered the motion lights, illuminating it entirely. It was then that the man got a look at the strange creature.  He reported that it looked like a dragon. It had a reptilian head, with a row of spikes under its jaw. There was a cone-like fin sprouting from the back of its head and over the neck. Its arms were attached to its wings, and ended in four clawed fingers. The wing membrane was thick and muscular, unlike that of a bat. The hind legs trai...
Read more