Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State: The Braxton County Monster: A Wrap-Up

This past week, Theresa's Haunted History has been dedicated to sharing some newspaper articles dating back to the early 1960's involving a Bigfoot-type creature, roaming the hills of West of Virginia. For lack of a better term, these sightings were all lumped under the name, The Braxton County Monster, and for some inexplicable reason, local newspapers tried making connections between these sightings to the infamous Flatwoods Monster sighting of 1952. As terms such as Sasquatch and Bigfoot entered the public vernacular, hairy man sightings across the country started being classified under one big umbrella. Still, here in West Virginia, mentions of the 'Braxton County Monster' lasted well into the 1960's. Here are two final articles that mention the monster---neither of which actually were reported in Braxton County, lol.

On August 23, 1966 The Charleston Daily Mail ran this photo by Ray Wheeler. It showed a series of 2 foot long yellow footprints, which had mysteriously appeared overnight on Montrose Drive in South Charleston. They led from a sewer opening on the curb, went up a hill, and disappeared into a field. Although alarming to local housewives, police surmised that the footsteps were made by a local fraternity/sorority or some 'mischievous youths'-----NOT the Braxton County Monster as suggested by the article's author.

This second article is also from The Charleston Daily Mail, dated November 10th, 1967. For two nights, a Grafton mother and her two children were harassed by what they thought was a monster. The family saw two shiny objects, almost like eyes, in a field outside their house, and then some ONE or some THING tried to break in. Cpl. D.L. Lake suggested that it was merely a human prowler, using binoculars to spy on the family, and that the shiny objects observed were just light reflecting off the lenses of the binoculars. The 'peeping tom' was never caught, but again, the author of the article notes that the incident brings back memories of the Braxton County Monster. I think in this case, I'd rather have the monster, as opposed to some person spying on my family with binoculars and trying to break into my house!