SJ Website Review: Folklore & Hauntings

For fun, I decided to check out some websites that deal with South Jersey folklore and hauntings. Here are some of the more interesting sites I found:

Of all the sites I checked out, my favorite, by far, is Weird N.J. (www.weirdnj.com). This site, billed as “Your travel guide to New Jersey’s local legends and best kept secrets” is all about true folk lore--recording information about weird things people remember having experienced or seen in New Jersey; things that aren’t found in your usual history books or mainstream folk story collections. Even though the site is really a big commercial to purchase the Weird N.J. magazine (but it’s not really “in your face” advertising), the site itself has tons of really cool stories and photos, and it’s always being updated. I like visiting the site over and over to look for things about places I know, and to find cool places to check out when the weather gets nice and I want to go for a ride and do something different. I also like checking out their EVP files (electronic voice phenomena-the recording of anomalous sounds or voices using audio recording equipment that are generally not audible at the time of recording). This site is really neat because the things they write about are places or objects that you can actually go to and see for yourself!

One of the stories on this site that I really like is the story about the "Evil Clown." This giant metal clown was built to advertise the Food Circus store a few yards back from the main highway. The clown is really weird looking and is still standing right on Route 35 in Middletown (Monmouth County). I grew up in that area and as a child was always a bit freaked out by that huge, creepy looking clown when we drove by it. So, now that I'm living in South Jersey, this article reminded me of my childhood.

Haunted New Jersey (www.hauntednewjersey.com) is a site maintained by some “psychical researchers” who have many years of experience researching hauntings, mostly in New Jersey. You can search, by NJ county, the hauntings they have investigated, and read their report from those investigations. Most of their investigations have been in north Jersey, but there are a few in Cape May. They have some really creepy EVP files (don’t listen to them if you are home alone!). They also have information about the “Haunted Cape May Tour,” which runs Saturday evenings in May and June and on a more regular basis from mid-June through November (there’s a printable coupon, too!).

Ghost-Hunter.com (www.ghost-hunter.com) has a section called “Folklore: New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania” (click the “folklore” button on the home page), which features a story and link to local folktales. Also at this site, you can read about investigations of local hauntings (“investigations” button on home page). If you like to read fiction stories, there is a section (“fiction” button on home page) that contains fiction stories that have been submitted by readers. You can submit any fiction you have written to the site and have it published on the web! One thing, though. Even though there is a date and time stamp on the site that is current, it looks like there haven’t been any serious updates to the site in a while.

Lastly, you can check out South Jersey Ghost Research (www.southjerseyghostresearch.org). This site is the most “professional” of all of the sites I’ve listed, but is also a big commercial advertising their ghost researching services. What I like about this site are the photos and notes taken at the sites they have researched. If you’re in to this kind of stuff, the photos are great—and are enhanced with little arrows pointing to the stuff you should be seeing that is “out of the ordinary.” There’s even a “Ghost Hunting 101” page that teaches you how to conduct your own ghost hunt!

Speaking of web sites, don’t forget our Best of the Web contest. Help us identify South Jersey's best websites! SouthJersey.com awards local businesses for their web site excellence. Nominated sites are judged on their design, content, innovation, and ease of use. Have a favorite site? Let us know. Click here to enter to win a GATEWAY 300S Computer system and nominate your favorite business website! This contest ends on May 13th.

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: C. Cohen