For years, locals in this area called these woods the Green Ears Woods. This is the story of how that came to be.
Captain Kidd, the infamous pirate, sailed the waters of the Raritan Bay for much of his career. But he was captured in 1699 after being lured from New York to Boston by Richard Coote, the Earl of Bellomont, with promises of clemency. Prior to sailing to Boston, Kidd made various stops in present-day New Jersey, dropping anchor off the coast of what is now Monmouth County, and sending landing parties ashore to buy safety from corrupt local politicians and hiding some of his treasure. Except some of that treasure was never hidden. One of his crew slipped away with the treasure and made his way down the Raritan to the area that is now Edison. He was known in his pirate days as Green Ears, named for the colorful earrings he wore, but his real name was Robert Hood.
Hood bought land here with the treasure and began farming it. Unfortunately for Hood, the land was directly on top of an ancient burial ground of the Lenape people who inhabited the area.
Driven by fear of an attack, Hood armed himself heavily and took to attacking the Lenape. On one overnight raid, Hood came upon a group of sleeping Lenape and killed six while capturing three more. Legend has it that Hood performed unspeakable horrors on his prisoners before setting them free, as a warning to the other Lenape about what would happen to them if they continued to try to drive Hood off of their burial grounds.
But that was not all. To serve as a long-term reminder of his claim to the land, Hood cut off an ear of each of his victims and hung them around these woods. On May 23, 1701, the exact day that Kidd was executed in England, the Lenape extracted their revenge on Hood. Survivors of Hood's torture led this raid, and they made sure to torture him in precisely manner that Hood had tortured the three Lenape, and they buried him near here. As their reminder to the settlers who followed about what would happen to those disrespecting their ancestors, they hung Hood’s ear nearby for all to see.
This cache is part of the Socially Distanced Halloween series. A number is listed on the log sheet that will allow you to find the bonus mystery cache, The Mysterious Outbreak of 1720. This cache only has room for a log, so BYOP.
Here are the other caches in the series: