Project Idea: Local and Urban Legends

Learning Circle Group: Places and Perspectives

Sponsoring Teacher   :  Ashley Rubolotta

Sponsor School: Craig High School

City: Boonton, NJ

Country: United States of America

Name of Project:  Local and Urban Legends

Goal of the Project:

New Jersey is filled with strange local stories and legends, so we would like to share our stories with you and learn about local legends from your area.  We hope to see how local landforms, historical figures, and regional cultures influence stories from that area.

Type of Writing Requested:

We would like to collect Microsoft Word files, (.doc), and/or .jpeg images.  PowerPoint presentations (.ppt) would also be acceptable. 

Description of What You Are Looking For From Other Schools:

An example of a local legend from your area might look like this.

It’s amazing that a patch of woods and a few piles of rocks right off of Route 23 in West Milford, NJ could be the source of so many rumors and tall tales.  Where else can you find a place where Satan worshippers hide behind every tree, sacrificed goats and chickens litter the woods like leftover barbecue, and black trucks driven by escaped lunatics chase innocent teenagers over dark, pothole-ridden roads?  Where else have so many people reported the eerie sensation of being watched by something in the woods, strange lights beating white streaks on their cars, or hearing disembodied childish laughter emanate from a remote playground?  Where else do ghostly boys with quarters, and snakes alternately appear on the streets?  And has it always had such a bad reputation?

Rumors of bad vibes have been floating in the area since it was first settled.  In 1905, J. Percy Crayon wrote about the woods just beyond the Clinton Furnace: “It was never advisable to pass through the “five mile woods” after dark, for…tradition tells us they were infested with bands of robbers, and counterfeiters, to say nothing of the witches that held their nightly dances and carousels at Green Island, and the ghosts that then made their appearance in such frightful forms, that it was more terrifying to the peaceful inhabitants than wild animals or even the Indians, that often passed.”

Once upon a time there was an actual castle in the woods off of Clinton Road.  Most who remember it liken the edifice to something out of a fairy tale or Gothic English novel, rising from the mist.  Clinton, or Cross Castle is how most locals remember it, named for the man who had it built – Richard J. Cross, but Cross himself and his family called the place Bearfort, after the mountain range it was nestled in.  In 1905 Cross bought heavily forested land around Newfoundland, NJ, and began construction of the castle-like mansion.  Its walls, which have intrigued so many people over the years, were 3-stories high.  You can see remnants of the concrete today.

(Image of Cross Castle Walls as it once looked)

Cross died in 1917, and the family sold the property to the City of Newark in 1919.  A fire eventually destroyed much of the remaining wooden structure, leaving the stone walls intact as a place where hikers, teenagers, and the occasional Satan worshippers could congregate.  Those walls, eventually painted over with graffiti and picked apart for souvenirs, were knocked down in 1988 when the Newark Watershed Commission deemed the structure unsound. –Joanne Austin 

originally posted on http://weirdnj.com/stories/clinton-road/

 Questions and/or story prompts:

For our project, we would like to collect local legends from your area.  If you have a strange or unique story about your area or surrounding towns or villages, we would love to hear it.  Please be as detailed as possible with town names and people involved in the story, if any.  Please also send us a picture to accompany your story.

In addition, older members of your community may be valuable resources for you to collect stories.  You can interview an older family member or friend and ask the following questions.

1. What was the community like in the past? 
2. Who lived here and why did they settle in this area? 
3. Did they bring any local customs or beliefs to this area that are prevalent today?
4. Are there any local legends that give an historical view of the surroundings?
5. What was life like before the modern buildings and technology?

Detailed Instructions For Collecting Information:

Please either e-mail me, astrogrrl138@yahoo.com , with your story or complete this survey.  You can click the link or copy and paste it into your web browser.  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1J-VCnwkDrT2jYNusFDvu3aKxcR2_kbVv6r-Avo4HbxY/viewform?c=0&w=1

Ideal Number of Submissions from Each School:

We would like at least one submission from each school, but three would be ideal.  If you would like to send more than three stories, we would love to hear them!

Preferred Length of Articles:

We would prefer at least two paragraphs about your legend or local story.  We would like to gather main story elements as well, so characters, (if any), and origins of your legend or story are appreciated.  Plot points or conflicts would be appreciated as well.  A picture of the location or the person would be fantastic.

Deadline for Receiving Information:

We would like to receive this information by December 1^st.