Flatwoods MonsterThe Braxton County Visitor
On 12 September 1952 a group of boys and a local mother followed a bright object to a hilltop near Flatwoods, West Virginia, and reported a ten-foot figure with a hooded, spade-shaped head and glowing eyes that glided toward them through a foul mist. Sceptics point to a barn owl on a branch and a meteor seen across three states that night; the town has embraced the creature as a mascot.
At a glance
- Home system
- Unknown
- Avg. height
- 10′0″ (reported)
- Appearance
- Towering, spade-shaped hood, glowing eyes, dark robe-like body
- Reported lifespan
- Unknown
- Social structure
- Unknown
- Technology
- Unknown
- Primary traits
- Silent, gliding, associated with a sickening mist
- Relationship to Earth
- A single evening sighting in West Virginia, 1952
Physical profile
Witnesses described a figure at least ten feet tall with a round, red face inside a large dark hood shaped like the ace of spades, glowing greenish-orange eyes, and a dark body that looked like a pleated skirt or robe, with small claw-like hands in some tellings and no visible legs. It hovered or glided rather than walked, and it emitted a hissing sound and a sickening, metallic mist that made several witnesses vomit.
Reported origin
No origin is claimed. The creature was seen beside what the witnesses took to be a landed craft: a pulsing red light in the trees.
Culture
None. The encounter lasted seconds.
Technology
None described.
Craft
A bright object seen crossing the sky and apparently landing on the hilltop; a pulsing red light near where the figure appeared. Later investigation identified a meteor seen over three states that night.
Communication
A hissing sound.
Earth encounters
On the evening of 12 September 1952, a group of boys playing football in Flatwoods, Braxton County, West Virginia, saw a bright object cross the sky and apparently come down on a nearby hill. With Kathleen May, the mother of two of them, a National Guardsman named Eugene Lemon and his dog, they climbed the hill in the dark. Near the top they encountered a foul mist, a pulsing red light and, when Lemon's flashlight swung toward the trees, the figure. It glided toward them; they fled. Several were sick that night, and a local reporter who visited the site later described lingering mist and an odour.
The sceptical explanation, developed by Joe Nickell in 2000, fits the details closely: a barn owl perched on a branch, its heart-shaped face and glowing eyes caught in a flashlight beam, its wings and the branches behind it forming the 'hood' and 'body', seen by frightened people who had just watched a meteor. The nausea is attributed to fear and to running in the dark.
Lore & history
Flatwoods has made the creature its own, with a museum, a festival and chairs painted in its image. The Flatwoods Monster is folklore of the best kind: a single vivid night, told and retold. XenoAtlas lists it as reported and folkloric.
Encounters on record
Source notes
- Flatwoods monster · encyclopedic summary
XenoAtlas documents extraterrestrial concepts appearing in mythology, contactee literature, popular culture, speculative accounts, and related sources. Inclusion does not constitute scientific verification.
Related species
See every type in the Types of Aliens guide.