Let's go back to September 12, 1952. That's the evening that seven people (children and adults) believe they witnessed an unidentified extraterrestrial now known as the
Flatwoods Monster. The event took place in Braxton County, West Virginia in the town of Flatwoods. As the story goes, three young boys were playing outside (because they had no video games) and saw a bright object seem to land on a neighboring farm. Thinking a plane had crashed they ran and got their mother, who along with several other children and teens, hiked out to the site. They all claim they saw a pulsating fiery light and there was an acrid smell that burned their throats. When they looked to the right, they saw two glowing eyes and a green creature that hissed and came at them. Like any reasonable people, they ran.
You can read the rest of the story on
Wikipedia or go to the "official"
Flatwoods Monster website, but what interests me most about this story is the description of the creature. Similar to other recounted alien sightings, the creature had an elongated head, but this one's head was diamond shaped and the the body was at least 7 feet tall. Alas there are no photos just some awesome drawings.
The community recovered from their scare and the story has become a well-loved legend. In past years there was a three-day Flatwoods Monster Festival; the West Virginia Department of Education has a
Green Monster Salad on the school lunch menu; and best of all, the Braxton CVB has a page on the monster with
directions to the location of the sighting and
coloring book pages for the kids. No, wait, there's more! You can buy t-shirts of depictions of the monster and a groovy ceramic lantern. Good for you, Braxton County, good for you.
For a more skeptical account of the story (and probably a bit closer to the truth) read
The Flatwoods UFO Monster from the CSI Blog. It still makes for a great story.
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