Weird Monmouth County: Dancing Jesus in Middletown, Phalanx Road in Colts Neck...Do You Know of Any Strange or Spooky Places?

Photo: Courtesy of Weirdnj.com

Monmouth County is home to many amazing things to see: beautiful board walks, picturesque country roads with stunning million dollar homes and farms...and a dancing Jesus?

If you’ve never heard of the Dancing Jesus in Middletown, then you’re missing one of our most famous county residents, even if he is not alive and breathing, but a statue in a cemetery. Local legend has it that if you shine your headlights on the statue, you can see him start to boogie after a few moments of waiting and staring.

Not a believer? There are creepy places that you don’t need to believe in the stories in order to experience for yourself the spooky and the strange. Whipporwill Valley Road, again in Middletown (the state’s ”biggest small town” seems to be perhaps one of the most haunted!) is located right near a busy highway, and if you blink at the wrong second, you will pass this road by. It’s narrow, long, and twisting, which adds to why it is one of the creepiest places in the county. Many people can attest to having taken the slow, winding drive down this road, and if they have the nerve, have turned off their headlights and experienced for themselves the eerie feeling that is often difficult to explain, or its source. There are many stories about the road, involving witches being burned at the stake in the 1800’s; KKK rituals in more modern times; and even the Devil, wandering the road at night, looking for cars full of curious thrill-seekers.

The Asbury Park Press has gathered stories from local readers on another infamous road long-thought to be haunted: Phalanx Road in Colts Neck. Legends surrounding Phalanx Road go all the way back to the time of the American Revolution, and is said to be the site of numerous deadly car accidents, going back a few generations. One reader wrote in to the Press, telling of a rainy night when a lone, young girl appeared seemingly out of no where, to tap on the driver’s window while stopped at an intersection, but only gesturing for the driver to follow, and not speaking a word, before disappearing into the night.

Patch recently featured another haunted location in Monmouth County- Our House Tavern in Farmingdale, the site of a recent filmed ghost hunter’s investigation into the strange and unexplained sightings and occurrences that employees and past and present owners all adamantly agree take place regularly at the popular restaurant. Take a look at the video of the episode, in which a local ghost hunting group, Twilight Passages Ghost Investigation Team, explores the paranormal side of Our House Tavern.

Do you have any weird encounters, of the paranormal kind, that you would like to share with Patch? Let us know in the comments below, or email to caitlin.brown@patch.com.