Ghosts on the Coast

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Ghosts on the Coast 🔎 Investigating and documenting creepy history, cemeteries, ghosts, myths, legends, & true crime.
đź“Ť Monmouth County, New Jersey.
⏳️ Est. 2015.

Ghosts on the Coast is a New Jersey-based paranormal investigating team and web-series, and also a fundraising partner with the Strauss Mansion Museum. Episodes can be found on YouTube. The group has close connections to history and historic sites-- the founder is a historian and lecturer at Brookdale Community College, while the entire team volunteers or serves on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Highlands Historical Society, which is housed at the 1893 Strauss Mansion Museum. The group is available for investigations at your location as well as paranormal workshops and lectures.

10/17/2026

Did you know that the Jersey Devil hysteria of January 1909 was not isolated to the Pine Barrens but extended as far north as Paterson? ⬇️

While South Jersey was being terrorized by a mysterious creature, so too were people in a 40 mile stretch between Paterson and Piscataway.

Labeled as a “Vampire”, a “Devil”, a “So Called Devil”, “Devil Bird”, “Devil Bat”, “Bombat”, and my personal favorite, the “What-Is-It”, citizens of these communities saw a devilish and speedy winged creature that made “indescribable” shrieking noises that sent shivers down the spine.

By January 27th, Paterson had enough. A “Slaughter Brigade” composed of self-proclaimed “Vampire Hunters” set out with sh****ns to dispose of the creature.

And they succeeded.

They tracked it to the Richfield Hotel and opened fire. The cryptid was riddled with bullets and fell to the ground. When the trigger-happy party recovered the co**se, they discovered that the winged vampire devil was a rather large horned owl.

đź“– Passaic County Historical Society

10/17/2026

Since we started posting our 2014 paranormal investigation of Allaire Village using footage we recently re-discovered, several groups have reached out to say that they think this might be the only investigation to happen at this location.

If you want the full back-story, look through our recent posts. We were allowed to do this in May 2014 during a Civil War encampment event. It was done with knowledge of park staff who sent someone to show us around.

Two years earlier, they let the BIO Channel film an episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories. Our investigation was to be their testing of the waters with paranormal groups.

We had hardly any following then, so the videos were only on a team member’s personal YouTube and viewed collectively by less than 3,000 people (we hope to get that and more on a single video today). There’s a few more clips we will be posting, including this one here.

If anything, these are a time capsule and pure nostalgia from a simpler time when everything was relatively new and exciting. View counts and publicity not even really a thought.

This might have been the first investigation that we used an Ovilus III-- opinions are certainly divided on that.

10/16/2026

Did you know that there was a wave of Jersey Devil sightings in 1909? ⬇️

From January 16-23, newspapers from Philadelphia all the way across south Jersey to Cape May reported hundreds of eyewitness accounts of a strange creature that was terrorizing the Pine Barrens and towns on its outskirts.

While a unnaturally shaped winged being had been seen before (including high-profile 19th century sightings by Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte and Commodore Stephen Decatur) the sheer number of alleged encounters in 1909 caused a panic.

Some towns closed their schools. People locked themselves inside. Newspapers offered rewards for its capture. The Philadelphia Zoo put up $10,000 hoping they could nab the creature for an exhibit.

And as fast as the Jersey Devil was seen by seemingly everyone, it was gone.

Was this a hoax perpetrated to sell papers? A case of mass hysteria that started with a simple misidentification? Or were people genuinely seeing something?

We'll leave that for you to decide.

10/15/2026

With so much attention on Keyport, New Jersey and a potential cancer cluster, it is possible that the quaint bayside town will become the poster child for what happens when landfills are not properly closed or remediated. ⬇️

With over 600 open landfills in New Jersey, it is only a matter of time before other people start questioning their health and safety, especially when cancer is involved.

Whether Keyport is truly experiencing a cancer cluster and if it has anything to do with the Aeromarine Landfill, you can be sure that this is going to spark nationwide reaction and concern.

Greg Remaud is the Baykeeper and executive director of NY/NJ Baykeeper. He is a trustee of the Meadowlands Conservation Trust and a past president of Liberty State Park Conservancy.

This is part 8 of 9.

10/15/2026

As promised, here is the first of what will be several videos from our May 2014 paranormal investigation of Allaire Village. ⬇️

At the time, we were told we would be the first group to do this there. Hardly anyone has seen this footage in 12 years.

We started in the blacksmith’s shop while it was still light out. After explaining to the spirits what we were going to do, we set the SB-7 down on the anvil and heard “wedge”. We assume this tool would be used in some way by blacksmiths. A few seconds later, the same voice says “work”.

While orbs or light anomalies are dust 99% of the time, it was interesting to see one enter the frame and appear to cause a disturbance. Immediately, you can hear a glitch and from then on the rest of the video, the audio was slightly delayed causing our words to come before our mouths move.

Greg picked up a shovel and asked, “What am I doing?” to which a voice responded, “stop dummy”. We then heard “businessman” and “we’re here”.

We took a moment to introduce Tom Burke on camera, and then cut to four minutes later (there were no remarkable phrases) and a voice says “Hi Tom!”. As we are discussing it among ourselves, a final message of “just words” comes through.

đź“ą This paranormal investigation was facilitated by Tom Burke in May 2014 during a Civil War encampment at the site that weekend. He arranged with the park to have a staff member take us around to different buildings in the village. There have probably been many paranormal investigations since, but this was a special moment to be told we were first.

We just found a bunch of footage from May 2014 when we conducted a paranormal investigation of Allaire Village in Farmin...
10/15/2026

We just found a bunch of footage from May 2014 when we conducted a paranormal investigation of Allaire Village in Farmingdale, New Jersey. This was before we called ourselves Ghosts on the Coast.

At the time, they said we were the first group allowed to do a paranormal investigation and publish findings. This was, we joked, because we only had 300 followers and nobody was going to see it anyway. 

BIO’s Celebrity Ghost Stories had filmed an episode there two years earlier and the site was supposedly testing the waters with actual investigating. 

Videos from this evening have hardly been seen by anyone over the last 12 years, and we will be posting a few clips over the next week or so. There's some pretty cool stuff in there.

We were invited by the late Tom Burke who was running a Civil War encampment and cleared it with park staff. They sent us a caretaker who was quite the skeptic (and a bit cantankerous!). He introduced himself by saying, “They told me I have to show you wherever you want to go. I don’t believe in this stuff and I am to be with you at all times.”

He led us around, saying everything we were doing was fake and how ghosts were not real. After several buildings, he warmed up. Eventually he heard something through the SB-7 that he said was “unexplainable”.

Temperament changed and he began not only offering buildings and areas normally off-limits, but drove us around in his golf cart and even ordered us a pizza! It was the most comical change of opinion I have ever seen.

The video series was filmed as “Haunted Travels” by Jake Reid. Investigators: Greg Caggiano, Brett Bodner, Doug and Carla Balduini. We even had a special appearance by professional wrestler Ric Savage!

10/14/2026

We thought we had the paranormal holy grail with this picture, but we got a little too excited. ⬇️

In 2014, we did an investigation at the Strauss Mansion Museum and contacted the spirit of a young man.

Moments later, Lou Fligor took this photo with an actual camera and managed to capture what looked like a floating head above another investigator, Jake Reid. 

He showed us immediately. It was not a prank. It was not fraud.

We posted it. We didn’t have many followers then. One of our close friends, the late Cary Vena, was a professional photographer and asked to analyze the original file.

As it happens, she determined that the shutter speed was 2.5 seconds and the mere act of pushing the button on the camera moved it just enough to put Jake’s face in two places. If you look closely enough, you can see that he blinked in those 2.5 seconds and likely sat down into the chair.

Looking back on it now, it is so obvious and we let our excitement and imagination get the better of us. This image and its debunking are in every one of my lectures and in both of my books to demonstrate to people how rigorous we should have been then, but are now.

As the saying goes, if it's too good to be true, then it's not. 

This was a good lesson.

We know people like to collect old pictures of towns, so here are our screenshots of the Hazlet, New Jersey Train Statio...
10/14/2026

We know people like to collect old pictures of towns, so here are our screenshots of the Hazlet, New Jersey Train Station as seen in 1958 for the film "Rocket Attack USA".

Since the movie is public domain, feel free to download these directly from our Facebook or screenshot on Instagram.

10/14/2026

For the nostalgia lovers, here is the Hazlet, New Jersey Train Station scene from "Rocket Attack USA", filmed in 1958 and released in 1960.

Longtime residents and visitors will recognize some familiar sites that still remain.

The movie is in the public domain and available for free streaming on Tubi.

10/13/2026

So this is what the Hazlet Train Station parking lot looked like when I was a child growing up down the street. Today, no such structure exists. ⬇️

This was a chimney from the early 20th century Vecchi Ketchup Factory and last surviving remnant of a massive fire in 1963. It was then operating as a foundry.

The monolith was demolished in 2002 with the bricks being sold to raise money for a 9/11 memorial.

Vecchi also made canned tomatoes, apple butter, and cider. 

Monmouth County had a rather rich ketchup history due to its agricultural legacy. Another company, E.C. Hazard’s “Luxury” Tomato Ketchup operated to great success in Shrewsbury from 1883-1914. The Vecchi Factory was built circa 1917.

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