Mark Sceurman is a graphic artist and co-creator and publisher with Mark Moran of Weird NJ magazine and a state-by-state series of books. [1] [2] With Moran he co-hosted the spin-off television series Weird U.S. on the History Channel. [3]
Sceurman started the original Weird NJ in the early 1990s as a newsletter circulated to friends that featured local news items, historical anecdotes, and in particular legends and folk tales little known beyond the locality concerned. [4]
After a story about the newsletter was published in the Bergen Record in 1992, people began to write asking for copies, so Sceurman decided to staple together the first three newsletters and sent it out as the first issue of Weird NJ. [4] (According to Sceurman the 52nd person to write in was Moran, with whom he decided to enter into partnership.)
As successive editions of the magazine were published, readers began sending Sceurman and Moran undocumented "weird tales" from communities across New Jersey. Their initial assumption "that every town in the state had at least one good tale to tell" proved a gross underestimation. Notable subjects included reclusive colonies of albinos and evil cult sacrifices in the woods. [4]
By the time of the eighth issue, Sceurman and Moran decided that they would investigate the stories being sent them at source. They were surprised to find that many of the strange tales were either true or contained an original core of truth. [4]
After some dozen years of publishing the magazine, they were commissioned to write a book about their investigations, Weird NJ: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legend and Best Kept Secrets, published in 2003. [4]
Following the book's publication they started to receive letters from across the United States that indicated that what had at first seemed to them a very local New Jersey genre was in fact part of a wider, more universal phenomenon - people with remarkable stories to tell which they believed to be true wanted somebody to hear their story. This was the origin of the Weird U.S. state-by-state series of books. [4]
While setting out to check out the substance of the legends and stories and their relationship to known events and historical data, Sceurman and Moran claim they make no attempt to differentiate between what is true and what is not but aim simply to present the local legends in as unadulterated a form as possible, leaving the task of separating fact from fiction to the reader. Nevertheless, they maintain that none of the stories have been made up solely for purposes of entertainment. They aim to document the stories as "an important and intrinsic part of our modern America culture", but because they are about real people or events or concern specific locations, the books serve as a travel guide as well, albeit because of problems of access they often use the description "travel guide of the mind". [4]
The partnership has turned the newsletter into a magazine, a book series and a television series with a range of associated merchandise. [4]
Sceurman, a past president of the Historical Society of Bloomfield, is a lifelong New Jersey resident and currently lives in Bloomfield, New Jersey with his wife Shirley and their son Alexander. [5] He attended Bloomfield High School in his hometown, where his fellow graduates voted him "most likely to spontaneously combust". [6]
In South Jersey and Philadelphia folklore in the United States, the Jersey Devil, also known as the Leeds Devil, is a legendary creature said to inhabit the forests of the Pine Barrens in South Jersey. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many variations. The common description is that of a bipedal kangaroo-like or wyvern-like creature with a horse- or goat-like head, leathery bat-like wings, horns, small arms with clawed hands, legs with cloven hooves, and a forked or pointed tail. It is also said that it has a strange elongated body and a thick tail. It has been reported to move quickly and is often described as emitting a high-pitched "blood-curdling scream".
Weird NJ is a semi-annual magazine that chronicles local legends, purported hauntings, ghost stories, folklore, unusual places or events, and other peculiarities in New Jersey. The magazine originated in 1989 as a newsletter sent to friends by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, but as it grew in popularity, it became a public magazine published twice a year. It spawned a series of books called Weird US, which chronicle oddities from individual states in the United States aside from New Jersey, which in turn led to a television series that aired on the History Channel.
Clinton Road is located in West Milford, Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. It runs in a generally north–south direction, beginning at Route 23 near Newfoundland and running roughly 10 mi (16 km) to its northern terminus at Upper Greenwood Lake.
Shades of Death Road is a two-lane rural road of about 6.7 miles (10.8 km) in length in central Warren County, New Jersey. It runs in a generally north–south direction through Liberty and Independence townships, then turns more east–west in Allamuchy Township north of the Interstate 80 (I-80) crossing. South of I-80 it runs alongside Jenny Jump State Forest and offers access to it at several points. The road is the subject of folklore and numerous local legends. In 2013, the SyFy channel's Haunted Highway series did a segment on the road.
Martinsville is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Bridgewater Township, in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the CDP's population was 11,980.
Crybaby Bridge is a term that refers to numerous bridges across the United States, associated with urban legends and ghost stories involving the sounds of a baby crying. These tales typically involve tragic backstories of infanticide, accidents, or other sorrowful events that purportedly occurred at or near the bridges, for example, an urban legend relating to a baby or young child/children where the mother threw her baby off the bridge and felt so bad that she killed herself. She now looks for her baby while crying in the river sadly. The phenomenon is not limited to a specific location, but represents a type of folklore that has become embedded in the cultural fabric of various regions, each adapting the legend to fit local histories or landscapes.
Two Egg is a small unincorporated community in Jackson County, Florida, United States.
Bloomfield High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades in Bloomfield, in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the lone secondary school of the Bloomfield Public Schools. The school was established in 1871, with its current facility completed in 1911.
Joseph A. Citro is a Vermont author and folklorist who has extensively researched and documented the folklore, hauntings, ghost stories, paranormal activity and occult happenings of New England.
Mark Moran is a co-creator of the Weird N.J. magazine and website. Moran, along with co-creator Mark Sceurman, started Weird N.J. as a homemade newsletter, passed out to family and friends. It was produced as an annual issue. The "zine" as they called it, contains articles, facts, and legends about weird places to visit in New Jersey.
Woodbridge Center is a major two-level shopping mall located in Woodbridge Township, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, at the intersection of U.S. Route 1 and U.S. Route 9. As of 2022, the mall features Macy's, Boscov's, J. C. Penney, and Dick's Sporting Goods.
Bardin is an unincorporated community in Putnam County, Florida, United States, located northwest of the city of Palatka. It was named after Hazard Bardin (1856-1934) circa 1900. He was the first resident and operated a turpentine distillery business at the interception of Bardin Road and the creek.
The New Jersey Pine Barrens has been the site of many legends, tales and mythical creatures, many of which have been documented by Weird NJ in its magazines and books.
Weird US is a series of guide books written by various authors and published by Sterling Publishing of New York City. The series originated with Weird NJ, a magazine published by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman that chronicles local legends and other peculiarities in New Jersey. The growing popularity of the magazine resulted in the publication of a book written by Moran and Sceurman, Weird NJ: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. After the book was released, Moran and Sceurman began receiving letters from individuals across the United States, detailing oddities from their home states, which prompted Moran and Sceurman to create Weird US.
The Mushroom House or Pod House is a contemporary residence in the town of Perinton, New York, which has been featured in television programs and books due to its whimsical appearance. Patterned after umbels of Queen Anne's Lace, its brown color is more suggestive of mushrooms. The house was constructed for attorney-artist couple Robert and Marguerite Antell between 1970 and 1972 and was designated a town landmark in 1989.
Weird U.S. is a reality television series based on the book series of the same name. The program aired on the History Channel and starred Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, founders of the magazine Weird NJ, as they hunt the United States looking for weird history, hauntings, and legends because, as they say, "history is full of weirdos." It is produced by Kralyevich Productions. It is also a series of paranormal travel guides edited by the same two individuals.
Penile is a historic community located in Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States. Formerly an unincorporated community, it was designated a neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky, when the city merged with Jefferson County in 2003.
The Devil's Tree is a solitary oak tree, with some dead limbs, growing in an undeveloped field on Mountain Road in the Martinsville section of Bernards Township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, across from a private housing development. Local legend suggests the tree is cursed: those who damage or disrespect the tree will soon thereafter come to some sort of harm, often in the form of a car accident or major breakdown as they leave.
The Rahway murder of 1887 is the murder of an unidentified young woman whose body was found in Rahway, New Jersey on March 25, 1887. She is also known as the Unknown Woman or the Rahway Jane Doe.
Willie Keil's Grave State Park Heritage Site, part of the Washington State Parks system, is located on Washington State Route 6 north of Menlo, Washington, and 5 miles southeast of Raymond. The park is the burial site of Willie Keil, known as the "Pickled Pioneer".