Jon Solo Sebastian 08/23/2024:
It’s the year 1952 and we’re in Flatwoods, West Virginia. America is in a state of anxiety due to atomic bombs no longer being the sadistic dreams of mad scientists, but a reality of fear for all of humanity. We’re in Cold War America where conspiracies, spooky sightings/stories, and aliens from outer space feel more probable than impossible. A few years prior to the sighting of the Flatwoods Monster, the Soviet Union had successfully tested an atomic bomb, which has put the country on high alert. Add all of this to the LIFE magazine story citing credible sources, including Air Force pilots reporting encounters with flying saucers a few months before what was witnessed in Flatwoods, and you’ve got a small village and a tense nation in a whirlwind of fear and questions.
First Roswell, Now This?
A normal early evening in a small town where kids are playing on the school yard before it’s time to go inside for the night becomes instantly strange and terrifying. Like something out of a movie, brothers Ed and Freddie May, along with their friend Tommy, watched a pulsing red light streak across the sky and crash into the hillside of a nearby farm. They ran to check out what it was, and grabbed their mother, Kathleen May, along the way. Joining them in the exploration was National Guard member, Gene Lemon.
The group reached the crash site with Lemon leading the charge; flashlight in hand. They see the pulsing red light, which I’ve seen no other description of other than red pulsing light. Is it a spacecraft, or one of the glowing orbs sent down from spacecrafts that we still hear about today? Your guess is as good as mine. I will note this as the one detail about the encounter that lacks any detail, which doesn’t necessarily discredit the event, but it makes me wonder why no one reported on it or asked questions about it. I suppose that’s due to the ten foot monster scaring the socks off of everyone and sending the small town into panic mode.
From the crash site, Lemon scanned the area with his flashlight searching for the glowing eyes he had seen upon their arrival. Lemon and the group froze when they saw what is now called the Flatwoods Monster. A ten-foot-tall creature with a head shaped like an ace of spades wearing what came across as being a dark metal-like dress. It had hands for claws, and its eyes were glowing orange—side note: a lot of the creatures I write about seem to have glowing orange eyes; I’m starting to put some puzzle pieces together, so stay tuned for that.
It appeared to levitate off the ground, and before they realized it, it was chasing them. If this isn’t all strange enough, some of them were suffering with throat irritation, nausea, and vomiting. Some ‘experts’ claim it to be side effects of hysteria, while one source mentions them as being signs of mustard gas exposure. So either this was some sort of secret military test, which is possible considering the timeline, or the Flatwoods Monster uses a mustard gas-like defense or attack mechanism. I could go either way with this one. If it was an alien from outer space, all cards are on the table.
Though the monster was never seen again, things took off from there. Some folks believed the story, others laughed it off. One reporter claimed the government’s “Men in Black” arrived on scene posing as reporters while trying to interrogate witnesses. “Apparently, the US government sent some men—‘men in black’ to their house who investigated the sighting, took down their witness reports–which apparently all of them were the same. Mrs. May got some of the oil on her dress that night from the ship, and they took the dress. They said that they would return it, and they never did,” said Burns.”
Project Blue Book got involved in the investigation, as well. This one was concluded with the Air Force stating meteors were seen streaking across the sky frequently in the area. They determined the levitating monster to be an owl.
I could see this as being the perfect cover-up, or what it actually was because owls are big; not ten feet tall, but they’re large animals. It could have been resting or sleeping in a nearby tree when a small meteor crashed. What the witnesses had seen could have been altered due to a reaction from the meteor impact, which could then cause them to see things they didn’t really see. I’m no expert, but you see how easy it is to tell that more believable story? Or it could be exactly what the witnesses reported, and this is the cover-up. What do you think?
Flatwoods Monster Convention
As with most towns or states who’ve encountered creatures of the unknown, the small village of Flatwoods and Braxton County as a whole, embraced the strange—and capitalized on it. As tourists make their way toward the town, they’re greeted with highway signs: Home of the Green Monster. There’s a museum, bumper stickers, shot glasses and mugs, a meet and greet photo op with the monster itself; though it’s just someone in costume, not the real monster ha ha.
Between spring and fall, the town expects hundreds of tourists popping in to see all the Flatwoods Monster merchandise, eat the Flatwoods Monster themed burger, and leave with a t-shirt. If the encounter has done anything, it has put another small town on the map for people like me to visit and spend hard earned money on this gimmicky sort of thing.
On that note, mark your calendars for September 14, 2024 for the Flatwoods Monster Convention. It’s approximately a five hour drive from where I live, and right around my wedding anniversary, so it’s possible I might work out a way to attend. I imagine the convention is like most; vendors, costumes, contests, merchandise—lots of merchandise, I’m sure. But if that’s something you find interesting, here’s the link for more information: https://braxtonwv.org/event/flatwoods-monster-convention-2/
jonsolosebastian.org 