The Devil's Tree - Basking Ridge, NJ
Posted by: 
79scouts
N 40° 37.810 W 074° 34.979
18T E 535267 N 4497786
A sinister 200+ year old tree growing in Basking Ridge has many stories behind it.
Waymark Code: WME67X
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 04/08/2012
Views: 12
The oak tree sits in a field across from a development. Prior to the recent building going up in the past 20 years, it sat quite alone on a windy country road.
Included in the history of the tree is that the local KKK group performed lynchings on the tree. In the past couple of years, the lynching branch broke away from the tree. (Compare my photos to the Weird NJ photos). Stories have been told that you could hear the groans of those hanging on the tree, there is an eerie feeling when you get close to the tree from those that were murdered and if you take a photo at night you can see an outline of someone hanging on the tree.
The tree has been a tough one to take down. There have been many attempts to cut the tree down over the years, and the tree has the scars to prove that. There is now a chain link fence wrapped around the base of the tree to prevent anyone from trying it now. Legend has it that those that tried to cut the tree down met with a sudden untimely death not long after making the attempt.
The tree also has a protector that drives a pick up truck. When people would go to the tree at night, they would find themselves being chased by a pickup truck that would disappear once they were far enough away from the tree. Others have said that they visited the tree and did not experiance anything while they were there. But when they left there windsheild or side windows cracked without any reason that they could figure and so the tree was blamed.
Type: Local Legend or Lore
Referenced in (list books, websites and other media):
Weird NJ
Crazy NJ
Wikipedia
TC3 Consortium.com
Yelp.com
Website Reference: [Web Link]
Additional Coordinates: Not Listed
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