Flatwoods monster
A towering, man-like figure that a group of boys and a local woman reported near Flatwoods, West Virginia, on 12 September 1952.
Meaning
Near dusk on 12 September 1952 some boys playing football in Flatwoods saw a fireball streak across the sky and come down beyond a hillside. With Kathleen May, a local beautician, they went to look, and said they saw a man-like creature nearly 12 feet tall and about four feet wide (e-WV, the West Virginia Encyclopedia). May and Eugene Lemon reported it, and a search of the area that night found nothing (Visit Braxton).
What did they see?
The investigator Joe Nickell visited in 2000 and talked to witnesses. He concluded that the fireball was a meteor, seen that night in at least three states, and that the creature was a barn owl protecting her young (Snopes). Braxton County has since put up five huge chairs painted in the monster's image (Visit Braxton).
Read next
- Next in Cryptids and folklore creaturesDover DemonA small creature with glowing eyes that teenagers reported in Dover, Massachusetts, on two nights in April 1977.
- The same shape in Chinese zodiacFire Horse2026 is a Fire Horse year (丙午 bǐngwǔ), the first since 1966: by the Hong Kong Observatory’s calendar it began on 17 February 2026 and ends on 5 February 2027. In Japan, where the year is called hinoeuma, a belief about girls born in it was followed in 1966 by a fall of about a quarter in births.
See also
Mothman, Kraken, Sea serpent, Loch Ness Monster, Champ (Lake Champlain monster), Bigfoot (Sasquatch).
Sources
- Flatwoods Monster (e-WV, the West Virginia Encyclopedia), e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia, entry 2127, West Virginia Humanities Council
- The Flatwoods Monster (Visit Braxton, WV), Braxton County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Visit Braxton, WV
- What Was the Flatwoods Monster? (Snopes), Snopes, Snopes
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 28, 2026. How we research
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