The Devil's Tree

The NJ Midnight Society had our first official expedition earlier tonight, first to the rumored Albino Village in Clifton NJ. We were all pissed when we saw that it had recently been bulldozed and the land is to be used by Caldwell Banker.

Fine, be that way.

Okay, then we went out to Parsippany, since theres this road that 'supposedly' a headless horseman trots down at night dressed in Revolutionary Way regalia. Sounds like bullshit, probably is bullshit. I find it hard to believe that something oughta The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is riding up and down Intervale Road near Rt. 46 on a nightly basis.

We then wanted to go to Mt. Hope Rd in Mt. Hope, because people have reportred seeing ghosts in the fields on either side of it. Now, I coulnt get it on my GPS so I call 411 where after waiting for 8 minutes, was told by a bitchy 'supervisor' that I should call the post office and SHE HUNG UP THE PHONE ON ME.

FIne, be that way.

Then, we set our sights on The Devil’s Tree out in Bernard’s Township.

The drive was smooth, but as we approached Mountain Road, a thick fog –no joke- appeared. This wasn’t so much evil spirits screwing with us, it had just rained.

Either way, I lit the tree up in my high-beams and pulled the Avenger to the side of the road across the street from the park with the Tree resides.

I led the way with Frank, we walked right up to the tree and I was in the midst of explaining to him the history of it when a black Escalade bumbled along the road into the housing development.

The occupants screamed “DEVIL’S TREE! IT’LL GET YOU! DON’T BE HANGING NOBODY!” Me and Clay shouted back in unison: “JUST YOU!”

Once that passed, I knelt down by the red rock at the base of the trunk, called Heat Rock, which is always warmer than the outside air and supposedly is a ‘gateway to hell.’

From around the corner, I saw a pair of Crown Vic headlights pointed at us.

Freaking out, I killed my flashlight and stood perfectly still, from fifty feet away, I hear Nicky and Clay freaking out.

“Light! Turn on the light!” Clay whipped out his cell phone and shone it to where they saw something, and they both chorused “oh holy shit!”

“There's a cop car over there!”

“There's something over HERE!”

"I'm gonna shit!" Its something he says when he's trying to be funny, but in this case, the panic in his voice showed the urgency of the situation.

Now I'm faced with this choice: Light up the area around them and expose our position to this Cop, when we're trespassing on public ground, or do I let them panic?

Fortunately, I didn't have to think too hard, at that instant, I saw that the 'cop-car' was in fact a Yellow Cab, and I trained my flashlight on where my brother and girlfriend were standing. They pointed north and my light chased the shadows away from clearing in the high grass. I saw “something” vanish like smoke from a BBQ grill.

It was black, about the size of a 35 gallon trash bin. The pair that was closer said it was the size of a small black bear. It defiantly had a shape to it, much like the stack of three car tires in my garage, or the Sears Shop-Vac that everyone sees my Dad vacuuming the leaves out of my front yard with. This thing had volume to it as well, and according to Clay and Nicky, when they shone their cell phone lights at it, it was like a "black hole" if you will, the lights went all around it, but this thing didn't reflect any light at all, it was just darkness surrounded by the dull blue haze of Clay's Pantech Duo.

I carry a 4", 440-Steel serrated spring-assisted folding knife, its small, heavy, black and looks quite evil. Oddly enough, I actually thought that when Clay said it looked like a bear, that it WAS one.

"Do you wanna know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can't savor all the... little... emotions. In... you see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are. So in a way, I know your friends better than you ever did. Would you like to know which of them were cowards?" Nicky hates it when I do that impression, probably cuz it's pretty good.

As soon as I saw that, I whipped out my folding knife and ushered Frank away from the Tree, my light trained on the spot where we saw the ‘thing’. Getting the others together, I searched the whole area around and found absolutely nothing. Without warning, every cricket in the field who were all quiet up until that point began to chirp and squeak. I take a last look at the Tree and we all went back to my car. Something was different about it, almost like the tree was looking back at us, those knots being its eyes. Something awful happened there a long time ago, and whoever was killed there, still lurks around.

On the way home, we all tried to reason what we had seen, and no one could logically explain what it was other than a ghost. We all saw it, so it wasn’t like Nicky and Clay were making it up. But it was, without a doubt, SOMETHING.

I thought it was more of a smoke-consistency, Nicky and Clay said it was more solid, like it had a real mass to it. Either way, it didn’t respond well to either one of our lights.

I’m actually not as shaken-up as I was when I saw my first ghosts, and as far as the NJ Midnight Society’s first expedition, I think it went pretty well.

All the pictures were taken a while ago, I gotta get my camera working.

My brother, in his infinite wisdom, said, "I'd shit" if he ever saw a ghost.

When driving home, he said, "The Devil stuck a plug in my ass and exposed himself."

Yeah, something like that.

Weird NJ's take on it.




Heat Rock. If you touch it, it's warmer than everything else. Seriously, it is.




Not a ghost.


There's a myth that if you touch the tree, your hands turn black.
Its true, but its not demonic or haunted, just tar on the side of the tree.
Takes FOREVER to get off.


I can't figure out what the white spot is, but its not the moon!

-AK