How long has the Jersey Devil legend been around?

I’m only asking this becuase I came across a site YEAAARRSSS ago and never bothered to bookmark it for whatever reason, and it “suggested” that the Jersey Devil creature has been around longer than the well-known tale of the Leeds family in 17-whatever.

In the site, I swore I read a line saying that there was a Lenape word for the Pine Barrens, and that word meant “The place of the dragon”. I say “suggested” in quotes because the site itself wasn’t concerned with the Jersey Devil, it made no mention of it and was just about the Pine Barrens. By my understanding, it indirectly suggested that there has been some belief of a dragon-like creature in the Pine Barrens for a long time. I found it really interesting how the Native Americans called it that. I want to verify that what I read was really what I read, or if my memory is just playing games with me. I’ve been searching but just get nothing. I never came across that site again.