The Flatwoods Monster
📅 12 September 1952 · 📍 Flatwoods, West Virginia, USA
After a fiery object crashed onto a hillside, a group of locals came face to face with a towering, glowing figure with a spade-shaped head.
What happened
On the evening of 12 September 1952, a group of boys in Flatwoods, West Virginia, saw a bright object streak across the sky and come down on a nearby farm. They gathered several others, including Kathleen May, her two sons and a teenage member of the National Guard, and climbed the hill to look.
In the beam of a flashlight they saw a tall figure, perhaps 10 feet high, with a glowing red face and a spade-shaped hood, which hissed and glided towards them. A pungent mist made some of the group feel sick. They fled.
The story spread quickly through national newspapers. The Flatwoods Monster is now a local mascot, with a museum in nearby Sutton.
Timeline
- 12 September 1952A bright object is seen falling and the group encounters the figure.
- September 1952The story is reported across the United States.
🔍 The evidence
- Several consistent eyewitness accounts given within days.
- Reports of skid marks and an odd smell at the site the next morning.
🤨 The skeptic’s view
- A bright meteor was seen over several states that evening, explaining the object in the sky.
- Investigators suggest the figure was a barn owl perched in a tree, its face lit by the flashlight, with foliage below looking like a body.
Related reports on the map
News stories that mention this case and reports from the area around Flatwoods.
No recent reports linked to this case yet. Seen something in the area?
Report a sighting nearby