The Flatwoods Monster, also called the Braxton County Monster or the “Green Monster,” is a towering figure with a glowing red face and a spade-shaped hood reported by a group of children and adults in the small town of Flatwoods, West Virginia, on the evening of 12 September 1952. It arrived at the height of America’s first flying-saucer craze and became one of the classic “alien encounter” stories of the twentieth century. Investigators have since offered a detailed, ordinary explanation for each part of the event, but the witnesses’ fear was real, and the monster is now a proud part of local identity.[1][2]
| Other names | Braxton County Monster, Green Monster, Phantom of Flatwoods |
|---|---|
| Location | Bailey Fisher farm, Flatwoods, Braxton County, West Virginia |
| Date | About 7:15 p.m., 12 September 1952 |
| Witnesses | Kathleen May, Eugene Lemon and five or six boys aged about 10–14, plus a dog |
| Typical description | 7–12 ft tall, red face, glowing eyes, spade-shaped hood, green “skirt” hanging in folds, claw-like hands |
| Key skeptical study | Joe Nickell, Skeptical Inquirer, 2000 |
| Leading explanation | A meteor, aircraft beacons and a startled barn owl in a tree, seen by frightened witnesses |
The evening of 12 September 1952
At about 7:15 p.m., a group of boys playing football at the Flatwoods school saw a bright light streak across the sky and appear to come down on a hilltop on Bailey Fisher’s farm. They ran to tell Kathleen May, a local beautician and the mother of two of them.[1][3]
A small party set off up the hill to look: Mrs. May; her sons Eddie and Fred; Eugene “Gene” Lemon, a seventeen-year-old National Guardsman, with his dog; and other boys including Neil Nunley, Teddy Neal, Ronnie Shaver and possibly Tommy Hyer. Accounts differ on exactly who was there and who held the flashlight.[1][3][4]
Near the top of the hill they ran into a sharp-smelling mist that stung their eyes and noses. They saw a pulsating red light on the hilltop, which some described as a large, ball-shaped object. Lemon’s dog began growling at something off to the left. When Lemon turned his flashlight toward two glowing points near an oak tree, the beam fell on a huge figure.[1][3]
What they saw
The witnesses described a figure seven to twelve feet tall, with a round, blood-red face and two glowing, greenish-orange eye-like features. Around the head rose a tall, pointed hood shaped like the ace of spades. Below, the body seemed dark green or black, with what looked like a skirt hanging in folds, and some witnesses saw small, claw-like hands. It made a hissing sound and seemed to glide toward them. Lemon dropped his flashlight, and the whole group fled down the hill.[1][3][4]
The aftermath
- The sheriff. The group called the sheriff, who with a deputy had been out investigating a report of a plane crash. When they searched the hill later that night, they reported that they saw, heard and smelled nothing.[1][3]
- The newspaperman. A. Lee Stewart Jr. of the Braxton Democrat went back up the hill with Lemon. He reported a lingering, sickening smell, and the next morning found two long “skid marks” in the field and an odd, gummy deposit, which flying-saucer enthusiasts took as evidence that a craft had landed.[1][3]
- The illness. Several witnesses reported irritated noses and throats, swelling, nausea and vomiting, and some were reportedly ill for weeks. A doctor who examined them found no clear cause.[1][3]
- The investigators. The story spread nationally within days. The West Virginia writer Gray Barker and the naturalist Ivan T. Sanderson came to investigate, and both concluded that an extraterrestrial craft was involved. Sanderson wrote a 36-page report.[1][3]
Joe Nickell’s explanation
In 2000 the investigator Joe Nickell, of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, published a detailed reconstruction in Skeptical Inquirer. He argued that each element of the encounter has an ordinary explanation:[5]
- The light in the sky was a meteor. A bright meteor was widely seen over Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia that evening. Meteors often seem to land “just over the next hill” when they are actually far away.[1][5]
- The pulsating red light was an aircraft beacon. Three flashing red navigation beacons stood in the area, and one seen through trees in an unfamiliar setting at night could appear close and hovering.[1][5]
- The “monster” was a barn owl. A barn owl perched on a tree limb has a round, pale or reddish face with large, dark eyes that shine in a flashlight beam, and a heart-shaped facial disk that could look like a hood. Seen from below, the foliage beneath it could look like a skirt, its talons gripping the branch like claws, and its hissing screech is startling. Fear, darkness and the expectation of something from outer space would do the rest.[1][5]
Later skeptics added further details. A local boy, Max Lockard, admitted to driving his pickup truck to the site soon after the event, which could explain the tracks and oil. Appalachian valleys often fill with evening mist, nearby sulfur springs could explain the smell, and the witnesses’ symptoms are consistent with fear, hysteria and a hard run up and down a hill.[3]
The skeptical writers who have studied the case generally accept that the witnesses were sincere and that something frightening happened to them. Their point is that a chain of ordinary events, met by frightened people during a nationwide saucer scare, can produce an extraordinary story.[3][5]
The monster at home
Flatwoods and the county seat of Sutton have embraced their monster. Flatwoods put up a sign calling itself “Home of the Green Monster,” the town held a festival for the fiftieth anniversary in 2002, and an annual Flatwoods Monster convention has run since 2019. The free Flatwoods Monster Museum on Main Street in Sutton displays memorabilia, and the county visitors’ bureau installed five giant monster-shaped chairs around the area for visitors to photograph.[1][6]
The monster also appears in video games such as Fallout 76, the 2019 TV series Project Blue Book and the manga and anime Dandadan.[1]
For another West Virginia legend, see Mothman and the Grafton Monster, and for another small-town encounter, the Dover Demon.
References
- “Flatwoods monster,” Wikipedia, citing G. Barker, Fate (January 1953), J. Haught, Charleston Gazette (1954), H. Byrne, Beckley Post-Herald (1955) and others.
- Gray Barker, “The Monster and the Saucer,” Fate 6, no. 1 (January 1953): 12–17.
- Ryan Haupt, “The Braxton County Monster,” Skeptoid episode 434 (30 September 2014).
- Buddy Griffin, “Braxton County Monster,” e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia; see also Buddy Griffin, “The Legend of the Flatwoods Monster,” Goldenseal 28, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 56–61.
- Joe Nickell, “The Flatwoods UFO Monster,” Skeptical Inquirer 24, no. 6 (November/December 2000): 15–19.
- Braxton County Convention and Visitors Bureau and Flatwoods Monster Museum, Sutton, West Virginia, as described in Wikipedia.
Correction note (October 2026): This entry was rewritten from contemporary accounts and later investigations, replacing an earlier general description. The illustration above is an artistic impression based on the witnesses’ descriptions.