The first trip of 2003! We decided to head down to Leeds Point and check out some of the other locations around the town. We had been contacted previously by a documentary crew, so we agreed to take them out and give them a small "tour" of the area. So Bel, Mike, Charley, and I all gathered up the stuff and headed out.

Our first stop of the day was to re-visit the docks where we had found the birds on Hunt #14. Today there were no entrails, so it was just a nice view of the Mullica. After that, we headed out to one of our most popular sites of research - a large ditch in Leeds Point that could have been the foundation of a home. We found what appears to be man-made materials and some cement, as well as seashells, bottles, old pottery, and some rusted tools.

The most interesting find at the first location was the tracks... This place is one of our favorites because, no matter what, there are always strange tracks out there. This is the same area that we had found the tracks that skipped 7 feet back in 1999. This time, we found a trail of some small tracks first, and then some larger, stranger tracks. The large tracks appeared randomly on the ground, and didn't seem to start or end anywhere. There were just a few large tracks in the middle of the area.

After searching the area further, we also discovered prints that were similar to the large tracks. These tracks were not as clearly defined as the first group of large tracks, almost as if the animal creating them had slid in the dirt. We photographed them all, and then decided to leave the area.

During Charley's past research, he had located another spot that appeared to be a building foundation. As we all know, many argue over the Jersey Devil's birthplace, so we always want to check out any possibilities. So Charley led the way and took us to a new possible foundation. This foundation was also nothing more than a large ditch with some remnants of a building's walls. One corner of the wall was obviously made of stone, and has now been overgrown with moss. There was a spot where you can tell that steps once stood (I know it's hard to tell through the pictures, sorry about that). This area also had bricks all over the place, including one that appeared to have a handprint stamped on its surface.

One of the strange elements about the area was the absolute silence. When we stood still, you could have heard a pin drop it was so quiet. Occasionally, we heard the sound of barking dogs in the distance. Every so often the dogs seemed to go crazy. Charley mentioned that he and Heather had encountered a very angry pack of stray dogs in this area once before. Also, in this area, we noticed a large tree that was basically growing sideways. Charley had said that he hadn't noticed it like that before when he had been out there last. It was definitely a creepy image.

The night was getting late, and the barking dogs were getting closer, so we decided to wrap it up for the night. We'll be back for more in-depth research later.

Well, that's our story for Hunt #17. Questions? Comments? E-mail us at [email protected]. Want to join us? Click here for the online application!