The Flatwoods Monster (also known as the Braxton County Monster and the Phantom of Flatwoods) is the reported extraterrestrial, or cryptid, sighted in Braxton County, West Virginia, United States. The report was on September 12, 1952. The tale begins with a burning craft that fell from the sky and crashed into the earth. The first sighting was just a witness who called the local sheriff and deputy, who both assumed the object was an airplane that had malfunctioned.
But then there was a second sighting shortly after this first one. The second sighting was four boy who were playing football when they too saw an object fall out of the sky. And of course with childhood curiosity they went to investigate. They saw a glowing, hissing object and when a light was shined on it a creature appeared from the object. The boys ran to call the sheriff (and some of their friends) to come investigate. Though the sheriff did not see anything, there were plenty of witnesses who claimed to see the mysterious object.
The Flatwood’s Monster was initially reported of being nearly ten feet tall and four feet wide, over the years has been modified to be about seven feet tall. The monster has a black body and a dark glowing face. The head was shaped like a sideways diamond with and inhumanly shaped body that was covered in a dark pleated exoskeleton that some described as a shadow. Some reported that there no arms, while others report there were long, string like arms that came from the front of the body and had long fingers that looked like claws. There were also reports of a large ball of light hovering near the monster.
There are some conventional explanations for the Flatwood’s Monster as with any paranormal event. One of the more common ones is that there was a meteor that was seen in three states (including West Virginia) on September 12, 1952 that was mistaken has a flaming aircraft crashing eleven miles southwest of the Flatwoods location. There were also three red aircraft beacons that were seen that night as well, which could have been the large ball of light seen near the monster. Some also believe that the monster itself was simply the barn owl that was sitting in a tree branch. Another possibility is that the group was seeing the aftermath of a meteor and all the dust it stirred up.
So what do you think? Could there possibly be a Flatwoods Monster roaming around? Or was it simply an illusion? Sadly we will never know for sure, but it sure is fun to think about what went on the night cold night over 50 years ago.
