The Flatwoods Monster Sighting
A group followed a bright object to a hilltop at night and fled from a ten-foot hooded figure with glowing eyes. A meteor, a barn owl and fear are the accepted explanation, and the town has made the monster its emblem.
- Date
- 12 September 1952
- Place
- Flatwoods, Braxton County, West Virginia, USA
- Witnesses
- Kathleen May, Eugene Lemon and five boys
- Status
- Conventionally explained
What happened
Boys playing football in the early evening saw a bright object cross the sky and seem to land on a hill belonging to a local farmer. They collected Kathleen May, mother of two of them, and Eugene Lemon, a seventeen-year-old National Guardsman, and climbed the hill with a flashlight and a dog. Near the top they met a mist and a metallic smell, saw a pulsing red light in the trees, and when the flashlight swung toward it, the figure. It glided toward them; the group ran. Several were sick that night, and the local sheriff's search found nothing.
The being
At least ten feet tall, with a large hood shaped like the ace of spades framing a round reddish face, glowing greenish-orange eyes, and a dark, pleated body without visible legs. It hissed and gave off the mist. Later illustrations gave it claws and a metallic skirt.
Aftermath
The story ran in newspapers nationwide within a week, and Kathleen May appeared on television. Flatwoods embraced the creature: a museum, a festival and chairs painted in its image line the town. It is one of the founding cases of American UFO folklore.
Explanations
The object in the sky was a bright meteor reported across Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia that evening. Joe Nickell's investigation identified the figure as a barn owl on a branch, whose heart-shaped face, reflective eyes and spread wings match the description closely when lit from below, seen by frightened people expecting something. The nausea is attributed to fear and exertion. The explanation is widely accepted, which does not stop the monster being a good story.
