FIELD FILE · FLATWOODS-MONSTERHUMANOIDREGIONAL LEGEND

Flatwoods Monster

Also known as Braxton County Monster, Braxxie, Phantom of Flatwoods, Green Monster

Fisher farm hillside, Flatwoods, Braxton County, West VirginiaFIRST REPORTED: 1952HUMANOIDS & STRANGE BEINGS

A ten-foot figure with a glowing face and spade-shaped hood that seven witnesses met on a West Virginia hillside after a light fell from the sky in 1952.

The Flatwoods Monster is one of the classic encounters of the 1950s flying-saucer era. On the evening of September 12, 1952, a group of boys playing in the schoolyard of Flatwoods, a small town in Braxton County, West Virginia, saw a bright, pulsing light streak across the sky and apparently come down on a hilltop farm owned by G. Bailey Fisher. They fetched Kathleen May, the mother of brothers Eddie and Freddie May, and with a 17-year-old National Guardsman named Eugene Lemon, three more local boys and a dog, the party climbed the hill in the dusk to see what had landed.

Near the top they reported a pulsing red glow and a sharp, metallic, choking mist. When Lemon shone his flashlight toward a pair of shining eyes in the trees, the group said they saw a towering figure – perhaps ten feet tall – with a round, reddish face, glowing eyes and a tall, pointed hood shaped like the ace of spades, which seemed to glide toward them with a hissing sound. Everyone fled down the hill. Several witnesses later complained of irritated throats and nausea, which they blamed on the mist.

Local newspaper publisher A. Lee Stewart went up the hill with a shotgun that night and later said the witnesses were the most frightened people he had ever seen. The story went out over the wires, the creature’s reported height grew with each retelling, and Kathleen May and Gene Lemon travelled to New York to appear on CBS television. Investigators including Ivan Sanderson and Braxton County native Gray Barker – who later helped invent the “Men in Black” mythos – wrote about the case, and the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book filed it among the many saucer reports of 1952.

The most widely cited explanation comes from the US Air Force and, later, investigator Joe Nickell: a bright meteor seen over several states that evening was mistaken for a landing craft, a flashing red aircraft beacon on the hill accounts for the pulsing glow, and the “monster” was a startled barn owl perched on a branch, its heart-shaped face and wide eyes lit by a flashlight, with the leaves below it read as a huge body and the hood. Fear, darkness and the saucer craze of 1952 did the rest. Some witnesses and their families have always maintained that they saw something far stranger.

Braxton County has turned the story into an affectionate local mascot nicknamed “Braxxie”. The Flatwoods Monster Museum in Sutton doubles as the county visitor centre, giant monster-shaped chairs are dotted around the county for photo hunts, and a fan convention began in 2019. The creature reached a new generation through the 2018 video game Fallout 76, set in a post-apocalyptic West Virginia.

Type: Humanoid
Status: Regional legend
First reported: 1952
Best-known location: Fisher farm hillside, Flatwoods, Braxton County, West Virginia
Also called: Braxton County Monster, Braxxie, Phantom of Flatwoods, Green Monster
Reported in: West Virginia

What witnesses describe

A figure about 10 feet (3 m) tall with a round, blood-red or glowing face, two large luminous eyes, and a tall pointed cowl or hood shaped like an ace of spades. The body was described as dark or green, sometimes like a pleated skirt, with small claw-like hands. It moved with a gliding motion, hissed, and was surrounded by a pungent, sickening mist.

Where and when it’s seen

Wooded hillsides and farmland around Flatwoods and Sutton in central West Virginia; the famous encounter happened at dusk after a bright light was seen in the sky.

Notable sightings

Mid-September 1952National media attention New York City
Kathleen May and Eugene Lemon travelled to New York and appeared on CBS television to describe the creature, with an artist’s drawing based on their accounts. State police, meanwhile, dismissed the affair as mass hysteria.
September 12, 1952The encounter on Fisher’s farm Flatwoods, West Virginia
Kathleen May, her sons Eddie and Freddie, Tommy Hyer, Neil Nunley, Ronnie Shaver and Eugene Lemon climbed a hill after seeing a light fall from the sky and reported a towering, glowing-faced figure in a choking mist. All fled, and the story was in national newspapers within days.
2000Joe Nickell’s investigation Flatwoods, West Virginia
Writing in Skeptical Inquirer, investigator Joe Nickell argued that a meteor, a red aviation beacon and a barn owl explain every element of the story. The explanation echoed conclusions reached by earlier investigators, including the U.S. Air Force.

What could explain it?

A bright meteor seen over several eastern states on the evening of September 12, 1952, could account for the “landing” light.
A pulsing red aircraft warning beacon on a nearby hill could explain the red glow witnesses saw near the creature.
A barn owl perched in a tree – with a heart-shaped face, large eyes and a hissing call – fits the face, the hood-like outline and the sudden “gliding” movement when lit by a flashlight.
Nausea and sore throats may have come from fear, exertion or the smell of crushed vegetation, rather than any toxic gas.
The 1952 UFO wave primed witnesses and journalists to interpret strange lights as spacecraft, and the creature grew in size with each retelling.

Legend, culture and tourism

Braxton County celebrates its monster with the Flatwoods Monster Museum and visitor centre on Main Street in Sutton, a trail of oversized monster chairs (photograph them all for a souvenir sticker), ceramic figurines, “Home of the Green Monster” signs and an annual fan convention. Gray Barker’s writing about the case fed into the Men in Black legend, and the creature appears in Fallout 76, Japanese pop culture and countless UFO documentaries.