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| From the Grafton Monster Facebook Page |
West Virginia is home to a number of strange and unusual incidents, and quite a few popular 'monsters' of pop culture today got their start here in the Mountain State! Joining Mothman, Veggie Man, and the Flatwoods Monster is a weird, white, headless horror from Taylor County known as the Grafton Monster.
On June 16, 1964, Robert Cockrell was headed home along Riverside Drive in Grafton. For the most part, Riverside Drive is a straight stretch of road with the Tygart River on one side, and much of the other being either steep cliff or heavy underbrush. At around 11 p.m., Robert had just rounded the last curve and had hit the straightaway. Going about 50 mph with no other car in sight, he flipped on his high beams. The bright lights of his vehicle illuminated something that immediately grabbed his attention. Standing to the right of the road, in the narrow strip of land between the road and the riverbank, white a GIANT white mass.
Standing 7 to 9 feet tall and measuring about 4 feet wide at its widest point, this THING lacked a discernable head, but Robert knew immediately it was some type of living creature. It had seal-like skin, or some type of covering with a distinct sheen to it. Understandably, Robert floored it and raced towards his house. But, by the time he got there, he had calmed down and realized that as a reporter for the Grafton Sentinel, he really should go back and investigate.
Robert grabbed two buddies, Jerry Morse and Jim Mouser, and the three men headed back to the spot where the creature had been seen. Fortunately for them, the monster was nowhere to be found, and it didn't leave any tracks that would have aided in its identification or direction it took off in. What they did find, however, was that quite a bit of the vegetation in that area had been mashed down, like you'd expect to see if a giant creature had been stomping through.
The three men looked for about an hour and never saw any proof of the monster. What is strange, though, is that intermittently, they would hear a strange whistling sound coming from the river that they just couldn't place. Robert made a decision to keep quiet about the whole incident, but it leaked out and by the next night, dozens of teens ascended on Riverside Drive, armed with such things as mallets and crowbars, to do some literal monster hunting. Robert claims that at least 20 people mentioned that they had seen something similar in the area, and it was even claimed that the creature was spotted in Morgantown and made its way south to Grafton implementing the river system.
Two newspaper articles appeared in the Sentinel in the following days, but as opposed to being a serious account of Robert Cockrell's experience, these articles were more tongue-in-cheek, focusing on the teen monster hunting aspect, and theorizing that the monster was nothing more than either someone pushing boxes on a handcart, or a combination of boredom fueled by ANOTHER monster sighting from Michigan that was making newspaper headlines across the country. Known as the Dewey Lake Monster, there were a few definite similarities, but it doesn't seem plausible that Michigan's creature would come vacation in West Virginia for the season. Other explanations explored included an escaped polar bear or even someone hauling a refrigerator.
By July, Robert had reached out to West Virginia's own colorful and controversial UFOlogist, Gray Barker. Barker interviewed Robert and even wrote an article chronicling the account. That article doesn't appear to have ever been published, but it, along with some letters back and forth between Barker and Cockrell, including newspaper clippings, are preserved in the Gray Barker archives, housed on the campus of the Harrison County Public Library in Clarksburg.
Unlike the Mothman sightings that would hit Point Pleasant two years later and last over a year, nothing more was mentioned about the Headless Horror of Grafton, and the monster faded into obscurity for many years. Lucky for us, the tale was rediscovered and shared to the masses through an episode of Mountain Monster and of course, the creature's inclusion in the popular Fallout 76 video game.
Today, the Grafton Monster has its own pop culture following and has taken up its rightful place in West Virginia folklore. There's even an annual Grafton Monster Festival held in Grafton, featuring speakers, vendors, and so much more. And, if you ever find yourself on Riverside Drive at night, make sure to turn on your high beams and scan the riverbank. You never know what you'll encounter!
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| Articles from the Grafton Sentinel Gray Barker Archives |
Theresa's Note: I may transcribe the newspaper articles, the correspondence between Barker and Cockrell, and Barker's unpublished article at a later date. Instead of making a separate post, I'll probably just update this one, so if that's something you're interested in, please check back! You can also find these documents transcribed in Tony Breeden's Gray Barker's Book of Monsters Volume II.
