The Flatwoods Monster, also known as the Braxton County Monster or the Phantom of
Flatwoods, is an alleged unidentified extraterrestrial or cryptid reported to
have been sighted in the town of Flatwoods in Braxton County, West
Virginia, United States, on September 12, 1952. Stories of the creature are an
example of a purported close encounter of the third kind.
Appearance Various descriptions of the entity
exist. Most agree that it was at least 7 feet tall, with a black body and a dark,
glowing face. Witnesses described the creature's head as elongated, shaped
like a sideways diamond, and as having non-human eyes; a large, circular
cowling appeared behind the head. The creature's body was inhumanly-shaped and
clad in a dark pleated exoskeleton, later described as a shadow. Some
accounts record that the creature appeared to have "no visible arms" due
to its incredible speed. Others reported long, stringy arms, protruding from the
front of its body, with long, claw-like fingers. The monster is referred to as
the "Lizard Monster" on the March 10, 2010, episode of MonsterQuest. A large,
pulsating red ball of light that hovered above or rested on the ground was
associated with the monster. Ufologists believe that it may have been a powered
craft that the entity had piloted. Chronology
At 7:15 p.m. on September 12, 1952, two brothers, Edward and Fred May, and their
friend Tommy Hyer witnessed a bright object cross the sky. The object
appeared to come to rest on land belonging to local farmer G. Bailey
Fisher. Upon witnessing the object, the boys went to the home of the May
brothers' mother, Kathleen May, where they reported seeing a UFO crash land in
the hills. From there, Mrs. May, accompanied by the three boys, local
children Neil Nunley and Ronnie Shaver, and 17-year-old West Virginia National
Guardsman Eugene 'Gene' Lemon, traveled to the Fisher farm in an effort to
locate whatever it was that the boys had seen.
Lemon's dog ran ahead out of sight and suddenly began barking, and moments
later ran back to the group with its tail between its legs. After traveling
about 0.25 miles the group reached the top of a hill, where they reportedly saw
a large pulsating "ball of fire" about 50 feet to their right. They also
detected a pungent mist that made their eyes and noses burn. Lemon then noticed
two small lights over to the left of the object, underneath a nearby oak tree and
directed his flashlight towards them, revealing the creature, which was
reported to have emitted a shrill hissing noise before gliding towards
them, changing direction and then heading off towards the red light. At
this point the group fled in panic. Upon returning home, Mrs. May contacted
local Sheriff Robert Carr and Mr. A. Lee Stewert, co-owner of the Braxton
Democrat, a local newspaper. Stewert conducted a number of interviews and
returned to the site with Lemon later that night, where he reported that
"there was a sickening, burnt, metallic odor still prevailing". Sheriff Carr and
his deputy Burnell Long searched the area separately, but reported finding no
trace of the encounter other than the smell. Early the next morning, Stewert
visited the site of the encounter for a second time and discovered two elongated
tracks in the mud, as well as traces of a thick black liquid. He immediately
reported them as being possible signs of a saucer landing, based on the premise
that the area had not been subjected to vehicle traffic for at least a year. It
was later revealed that the tracks were likely to have been those of a 1942
Chevrolet pickup truck driven by local Max Lockard, who had gone to the site to
look for the creature some hours prior to Stewert's discovery.
After the event, Mr. William and Donna Smith, investigators associated with
Civilian Saucer Investigation, LA, obtained a number of accounts from
witnesses who claimed to have experienced a similar or related
phenomena. These accounts included the story of a mother and her
21-year-old-daughter, who claimed to have encountered a creature with the
same appearance and odor a week prior to the September 12 incident. The encounter
reportedly affected the daughter so badly that she was confined to
Clarksburg Hospital for three weeks. They also gathered a statement from the
mother of Eugene Lemon, in which she said that, at the approximate time of
the crash, her house had been violently shaken and her radio had cut out for 45
minutes, and a report from the director of the local Board of Education in which
he claimed to have seen a flying saucer taking off at 6:30 a.m. on September 13.
= Sickness = After encountering the creature, several
members of the September 12 group reported suffering from similar
symptoms, which persisted for some time and which they attributed to having been
exposed to the mist emitted by the creature. The symptoms included
irritation of the nose and swelling of the throat. Lemon suffered from vomiting
and convulsions throughout the night, and had difficulties with his throat for
several weeks afterward. A doctor who treated several of the witnesses is
reported to have described their symptoms as being similar to victims of
mustard gas, though such symptoms are also commonly found in sufferers of
hysteria, which can be brought on by exposure to a traumatic or shocking
event. Conventional explanations
After examining the case 48 years after the event, Joe Nickell of the paranormal
investigation group Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, then known as CSICOP,
concluded in 2000 that the bright light in the sky reported by the witnesses on
September 12 was most likely a meteor, that the pulsating red light was likely
an aircraft navigation/hazard beacon, and that the creature described by
witnesses closely resembled an owl. Nickell claimed that the latter two of
which were distorted by the heightened state of anxiety felt by the witnesses
after having observed the former. Nickell's conclusions are shared by a
number of other investigators, including those of the Air Force. The Mothman and
the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter have also been dismissed by skeptics as owl
sightings. The night of the September 12 sighting,
a meteor had been observed across three states—Maryland, Pennsylvania and West
Virginia—and had been mistakenly reported as a flaming aircraft crashing
into the side of a hill at Elk River, approximately 11 miles southwest of the
location of the Flatwoods sighting. Three flashing red aircraft beacons were
also visible from the area of the sightings, possibly accounting for the
pulsating red light seen by the witnesses and for the red tint on the
face of the creature. Nickell concluded that the shape,
movement, and sounds reported by witnesses were also consistent with the
silhouette, flight pattern, and call of a startled barn owl perched on a tree
limb, leading researchers to conclude that foliage beneath the owl may have
created the illusion of the lower portions of the creature. Researchers
also concluded that the witnesses' inability to agree on whether the
creature had arms, combined with Kathleen May's report of it having
"small, claw-like hands" which "extended in front of it", also matched the
description of a barn owl with its talons gripping a tree branch. However,
some have asked why the witnesses did not see it as an owl, even after shining
a searchlight directly at it. Many investigators have countered that this
and the creature's supposed 'gliding' can be ascribed to hysteria and the
heightened state of tension amongst the witnesses causing them to be panicky and
irrational. Alternative explanations included those
put forward by the local media: that the September 12 group had witnessed the
impact of a meteor which resulted in a man-shaped cloud of vapor, and those of
Kathleen May and her sons; that they had seen some kind of covert government
aircraft. Another possible explanation lies in a remark an elderly resident of
Braxton county was overheard making to a visiting family member a few weeks after
the incident: "_____ [his son] thought he was going to scare somebody . . . ."
References in popular culture Every year there is a festival in
Flatwoods to celebrate the "Green Monster". The three-day festival
consists of a weekend of live music, the Green Monster museum and trips to the
site of the original sighting. A creature resembling the description of
the Flatwoods monster appears as the final boss of the 1988 NES videogame
Amagon and as the stage 02 boss of the videogame Space Harrier II. Other
videogame aliens with a similar appearance are "Gimme" in the Wii U game
The Wonderful 101, the aliens referred to as "Them" in The Legend of Zelda:
Majora's Mask, the Space World boss in Tumblepop, the Hayokonton in Wild Arms,
enemies in the Las Vegas level of Ninja Baseball Batman. The player is capable
of conjuring a version of the monster in the Scribblenauts game series. The
Flatwoods Monster appears in the "Mystery" apartment look in Tomodachi
Life. The monster is shown in chapter 218 of the anime Shinryaku! Ika Musume,
where one character uses its picture to scare another.
The Flatwoods Monster is the subject of the Argyle Goolsby and the Roving
Midnight song "The Being". The monster inspired the Braxton County
CVB to create a series of over-sized chairs in the likeness of the monster
placed in Braxton County. The Braxton County Monster Chair project started in
2014. See also
List of UFO sightings References
External links Here There Be Monsters - Saturday Night
Uforia Investigative Files: The Flatwoods UFO
Monster - Skeptical Inquirer