There's no shortage of stories and urban legends concerning unidentified flying objects and
extraterrestrial visitors. But few accounts feature a being as strange as the one reported
by seven witnesses in Flatwoods, West Virginia in 1952. Was their encounter proof that we've
been visited by beings not of this world or is there another explanation for their strange
sighting?
Flatwoods is a small town with a current population of around 300 people. Located in central West
Virginia, it's surrounded by dense forests and mountains. It's not a place you'd expect
to make national headlines, but today it is well known for the events of September 12,
1952.
Brothers Edward and Fred May, along with their friend Tommy Hyer, were enjoying an evening
game of football when they saw a bright object streak across the sky and crash down on a
nearby hill. Frightened, the boys ran to the home of Edward and Fred's mother, Kathleen
May, a local beautician. Along with two other children and 17 year old National Guardsman
Eugene Lemon, the group of 7 headed toward where the boys believed they saw the object
crash.
After traveling less than a mile, the group reached the top of a hill where they spotted
a pulsating red light about 50 ft. ahead of them. The object was surrounded by a strange
cloud of red mist and they detected a pungent, metallic odor in the air that made their eyes
and noses burn. To the left of them, they spotted two smaller blue lights hovering underneath
an old oak tree. Mrs. May told Eugene Lemon to point the flashlight in the direction of
the lights. The group was stunned at the sight of a grotesque 10 ft. tall creature, with
a circular head surrounded by a spade-like cowl. It appeared to have two glowing eyes
which the witnesses described as portholes. The lower half of the creature seemed to have
been made up of metallic tubes that Mrs. May said reminded her of her window drapes.
The being emitted a loud shrill hissing noise and began to glide toward them. The witnesses
bolted back toward the house and immediately contacted Sherif Robert Carr, as well as a
newspaper reporter. Both of the men visited the site separately later that night and also
reported smelling a strong metallic odor in the air, but no other sign of the creature
or the red light remained.
In the days and weeks following the encounter, several of the witnesses fell ill, suffering
from throat irritation, as well as nausea and stomach pains. Eugene Lemon was deeply
affected by the incident and suffered from vomiting and convulsions and had trouble going
out at night for months after.
But what did the witnesses really see out there that night? Skeptics claim that it could
have been something as simple as a barn owl perched on top of a large bush, giving the
appearance of a large human-shaped creature. The head of a barn owl, which are not uncommon
in West Virginia, closely resembles a spade with two large eyes. Keep in mind that the
encounter only lasted a few seconds while the witnesses were in a heightened state of
anxiety after witnessing the large, fiery object flying through the sky. The object
was likely a meteor.
The loud hissing noise that the creature emitted could also be explained as coming from an
owl.
It's also worth noting when the sighting occurred. The 1950s were the height of the flying saucer
craze. The alleged UFO crash at Roswell had happened only a few years before the Flatwoods
incident. Movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Man from Planet X and The Thing
from Another World had come out the year before. They all featured humans encountering strange
beings from other worlds. Aliens, and extraterrestrial threats, were definitely in the public consciousness
at the time.
The May children maintain to this day that they really saw something out of this world
out there in the woods. Whether or not they really had a close encounter or were simply
overcome by their fearful imagination is something we'll likely never know.
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