Watch For Flying Saucers (and Skanks)

 

A friend recently posted this hilarious photo, "WATCH FOR FLYING SAUCERS AND SKANKS," and I had a feeling there was more to the story! There was. This is a real sign, but the original wording before it was digitally altered was "skunks".

That's still weird, right?

That was the point! This, and other weird, humorous signs, once dotted the highways of Idaho. They were the creation of Farris Lind, the man behind the Stinker Station chain of gas stations. When Lind first opened in 1936, he sold fuel for way cheaper than the oil companies thought he should. One even publicly called him a 'stinker.' So, he called his stores Stinker Stores, and the mascot became a skunk named Polecat Pete, with red boxing gloves later added to symbolize the fight against Big Oil.

The signs came later, in 1946. Following WW2, the exterior plywood needed for roadside ads was scarce. Interior plywood was available, but it had to be painted on both sides for it to have a chance of surviving out in the elements. Since it had to be painted anyways, Lind began adding hilarious sayings to the back of his signs. One side was a normal advertisement for his gas station. The other side was a bright yellow message warning of lonely women, urging tourists not to annoy the locals, and suggesting a gift of petrified watermelon to the mother in laws.

The signs helped entertain drivers during those long, monotonous stretches of highway and were a staple for years, but many were removed when the Highway Beautiful Act was passed in 1965. Still, a few can be found if you know where to look! Obviously, I love all the ones I've found so far, but the original "Watch for Flying Saucers and Skunks" is my favorite. Starting in 1947 and lasting all throughout the 1950s, reports of flying saucers dominated news headlines throughout the country and advertisers absolutely jumped on the bandwagon, using those viral stories in their advertising. Here in West Virginia, Hinton Furniture Company was using flying saucers as early as 1947 in their newspaper ads!

Lind passed away in 1983, and the stores are now family owned and operated by the Jones family, who continue to uphold Lind's legacy of humor and fair pricing. And now, with the widespread sharing of this hilarious altered image, I hope that Lind's creativity and knack for advertising can once again be appreciated and experienced by a new generation.

Sources and Further Reading:

Farris Lind and the Stinker Station Signs (Idaho Farm Bureau Federation)

Weird Universe: Stinker Station Signs

Stinker Station Website

The Ghost Bug of Charleston's West Side

Ground Beetle
Source: Insect Identification

It was a normal September evening in 1924. A housewife on Magazine Hollow was sitting in her bedroom, awaiting the return of her husband, who had been on a trip downtown. Suddenly, the doorway between the bedroom and the dining room filled with smoke.

The housewife sat dumbfounded as an eerie shadow emerged through the door. It was that of a large bug, with horns the size of ice hooks. This shadow made its way around the room, only visible by the dark black shadow it cast on the walls. And, as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished out the same door it had come through. 

The woman eagerly told her husband all about the strange sight she had witnessed, but he chalked it up to her being tired and having an overactive imagination. Still, the woman couldn't get this eerie experience out of her mind. She knew what she had seen and she was going to prove it. So, she started telling neighbors about the giant shadow bug with ice hook horns. The curiosity was strong among those living in Magazine Hollow, and so over the next few nights, onlookers sat up in the evenings at the 'haunted' house, awaiting their own encounters.

1961 Flooding of Magazine Hollow
National Guard Jeep outside Magazine Freewill Baptist

Many of these neighbors actually did see the phantom bug, as described. However, some never did, including the man of the house. Skeptics tried to tell the believers that what they were witnessing was simply a normal-sized housefly, landing on a lamp and walking around. The shadow it cast only looked huge due to the fact that the fly was so close to the light source. But, the witnesses remained steadfast. They had tried to debunk the fly theory and no such fly existed, especially not one with HORNS. 

These manifestations wouldn't last, and the phantom shadow bug ceased its nightly constitutionals around the Magazine Hollow bedroom. So what the heck was this thing? Out of curiosity, I looked up horned beetles in West Virginia, and we do have a few that may fit the description (albeit on a much smaller scale), including the Big-Headed Ground Beetle. But even if there was such a beetle in the house and it was somehow causing a shadow to project on the wall....what was with the accompanying cloud of smoke that entered through the doorway whenever the beetle made its appearance?

Charleston Daily Mail
10 September 1924

Looking through a more spiritual lens, I learned that beetles symbolize several concepts throughout different cultures. They typically represent transformation, resilience, and the cycle of death and rebirth. Their protective exoskeleton also makes them a symbol of protection. The ancient Egyptians considered the scarab beetle to be a sacred symbol of the sun god. Interestingly, at the time of this sighting, the United States was heavily under the influence of ancient Egyptian art and culture, as the tomb of King Tut had been discovered and opened less than two years prior. 

Whatever the manifestation was or wasn't, it does seem like there may have been an element of transformation and rebirth rooted in its symbolism when you examine the events of the area nearly 40 years later.

When I found this article, I wasn't familiar with an area known as Magazine Hollow, so I did some research. Magazine Hollow is more commonly known today as Garrison Avenue, on Charleston's West Side. A stream, Magazine Branch, runs parallel to and crosses Garrison Avenue several times. 

In July of 1961, the Kanawha Valley had experienced several days of heavy rains. The ground was saturated and the creeks were full. Then the rains picked up and five inches fell in under four hours. The waterways overflowed and large parts of Charleston and surrounding areas flooded. Cars, and even houses, were swept away as the screams of victims could be heard echoing throughout the valley.  Twenty-two people lost their lives in the flooding, including NINE from the Garrison Avenue/Magazine Hollow area. Five adults and 4 children were among the Magazine Hollow victims. For the survivors, their lives were changed forever.

Charleston Daily Mail
10 September 1924

It wasn't the only change. Today, there are no houses in the area with a Magazine Hollow address anymore. The Magazine Freewill Baptist Church, which was heavily damaged by the floods, donated their land to be used as a memorial to the flood victims, and rebuilt and rebranded as the Garrison Avenue Freewill Baptist Church. Aside from the memorials and the memories of those who lived through it, little remains to remind us of the Magazine Hollow neighborhood. But thanks to one weird old story in an old newspaper article, which prompted me to do a little research, I have had the opportunity to reach a new audience and bring awareness to the tragic history of a West Virginia community. 

The awesome website, My WV Home, has a great article, complete with photos and newspaper clippings from the 1961 flood. Check it out HERE. 

The Ghost of George: Mercy Hospital

 

Mercy Hospital in Logan, ca 1950s
Photo courtesy of Dewey Stepp (Logan County History and Nostalgia)

In the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, nurses and orderlies working the night shift at Logan's Mercy Hospital, in Logan, WV shared their space with a harmless, yet annoying entity they called 'George.' George, the resident ghost of the hospital, had only one purpose in his afterlife: man the elevator. 

Every night, nurses and other graveyard shift staff would peek out from their desks and see that the red signal button for the elevator had been activated, despite no living persons having called it. The elevator cage slightly whirred as it ascended to the top floor, then all the way to the basement, then finally coming back up to the second floor where it would finally come to a stop. 

When the Charleston Gazette published its story on George in December of 1950, George had been teasing the staff at Mercy Hospital for about two years. They all seemed to accept George as just another member of the overnight crew, but they were concerned that George would engage in his elevator shenanigans at a moment when the elevator was needed for a medical emergency. 

But who was George and why was he taking a round trip throughout the entire building every night?

From the nature of the ghost's behavior, it seems likely that George was a former employee of the hospital, still making his nightly rounds. Unfortunately, as of this writing, I haven't had any insight into an actual identity. 

Mercy Hospital began in the early 1900s as the Logan Hospital and was housed in the home seen to the left in the picture above. That structure later became a nurses' home when the new Mercy Hospital, with interests from Dr. H.H. Farley, Dr. L.E. Steele, and Dr. S.B. Lawson, was built in 1914.  This new hospital building was built upon the former home of Elias Hatfield, who was the father of Dr. Henry D. Hatfield, former governor of West Virginia. 

The 1914 building, located at 396 Dingess Street, would later be home to the Guyan Valley Hospital. As of 2015 it was still standing, although many of the buildings around it were long gone. Whether or not George has stuck around all these years, or has finally moved on, remains a mystery. 

The website, Logan County WV History and Nostalgia, has quite a few photos of the old Mercy Hospital and the 1914 building, as well as more information about the medical history of Logan County.

Mercy Hospital Building, 2015
Google Maps

Charleston Gazette
30 December 1950

Shapeshifting Squirrel Monkeys

Squirrel Monkey

I'm not sure if this is a case of synchronicity, or if I am just naive in my assumptions of how common an occurrence it is. But in my quest to bring ya'll wild and weird West Virginia content, I came across two different stories, nearly 40 years apart, of basically the same story. 

In October of 1923, Tom Saunders of Wheeling was visiting the Hinton, WV area to go squirrel hunting. He was in the Upland area when he saw a squirrel jump from one tree to the next. With cat-like reflexes, Mr. Saunders aimed and shot, hitting his mark. However, when he went to collect his prize, to his shock and horror, there was no squirrel. He was staring at the carcass of a monkey!

Apparently, for several months before the incident, a local kept claiming that a monkey was 'haunting' the Upland area, but no one seemed to believe him. Now there was proof, lying there wearing a leather collar with no markings. It was theorized that the monkey had gotten loose from a street carnival that had passed through Hinton. It was also noted that Mr. Saunders would have never knowingly shot a monkey, as their cries are way too close to a human's. 

Fast forward to October of 1962. Wetzel Justice was squirrel hunting in Boone County, WV. He also shot what he legitimately thought was a squirrel but turned out to be a monkey. The mystery of where this particular monkey came from was soon solved when Ruben Lee Pauley came forward to claim the body.

Ruben had purchased the monkey for $19.95, plus shipping costs from a Miami company, Jungle Pets Incorporated. He only had the squirrel monkey for about a week before it escaped and made its way over the mountain ridge where it met its demise at the hand of the squirrel hunter. Not one to waste an opportunity, Pauley planned to have the monkey stuffed. I really wonder if somewhere out there, there's a taxidermy squirrel monkey sitting in someone's living room in Boone County. 

Obviously, monkeys of any type are not native to West Virginia, but they have a long history of getting away from circuses, street performers, and even private owners. It makes one wonder if there could have ever been enough of these rogue primates to create a breeding population, deep in the Appalachian Mountains. I also thought it was pretty interesting that in two separate incidents, those out squirrel hunting saw what they swore was a squirrel but turned out to be a monkey. It's actually kind of scary; I don't seriously think these were shapeshifting monkeys....but why were they so hard to identify? Are hunters really just out there shooting anything that moves? (Don't answer that, lol). 

Anyway, this isn't West Virginia's only weird primate story. In the summer of 1906, an incident with a circus train in the Great Bend Tunnel outside of Hinton led to numerous monkeys being suffocated. The bodies were taken on to Ronceverte for burial. It is thought that those monkeys haunt the tunnel to this day. Also, in 1915, a pet monkey named Mary Jane got loose and terrorized the citizens of Huntington, before finally being caught eating jam in a local home. Then of course we have several BigFoot-type sightings that have been blamed on gorillas and other bigger primates escaping circuses. I've added a few stories below for you to check out, but this fall, keep your eyes open in the woods, especially if you're out squirrel hunting. We're overdue for another shapeshifting squirrel monkey sighting!

Monkey Cemetery

Monkey Loose in Huntington

Hinton Daily News
29 October 1923

Beckley Post-Herald
31 October 1962

A Dancing Ghost in Lewis County

Early Hot Air Balloon

In June of 1872, a Braxton County man was tending to his colts in neighboring Jacksonville, WV, just across the border into Lewis County. He was in the area of Abram's run, and while most of the town were attending church services at the nearby chapel, the unnamed man noticed what he felt was a GHOST!

A field surrounding the local 'haunted house' was currently the site of a what appeared to be a fiery, dancing phantom image. Alarmed at what he was witnessing, the man ran and got the closest neighbor, a former Confederate soldier. Unfazed by the possibility of a supernatural entity haunting this particular field, the former soldier bravely approached it and snatched it up. 

Unfortunately for the paranormal enthusiasts reading this, it wasn't a ghost. It was a balloon! Emboldened now that the threat of spooks and spirits was no longer an issue, the first man grabbed the balloon by the string, declared 'finders, keepers,' and proudly took it back home to Braxton County, showing anyone and everyone who he ran into his cool new find. 

But why was there a balloon found in a field in rural West Virginia in 1872?

The Weston Democrat, the newspaper who covered the story, notes that the balloon was a Greeley Balloon from Cincinnati, sent out as a message of peace and hope. 

The previous month, the Liberal Republican Party held its convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. Newspaper editor, Horace Greeley, was nominated to represent the party in the upcoming Presidential Election, a choice even the Democrats cross-supported. In what we'd today call a viral marketing campaign, Greeley hired renowned balloon pilot, Professor Samuel Archer King to tour the east coast in a huge hot air balloon called Colossus. As Colossus sailed over the open skies, it waved Greeley's distinct campaign flag. Apparently, smaller balloons were also released, one of which found its way to a field in Lewis County, WV....right next to a rumored haunted house. 

Ultimately, Greeley would lose the election to Ulysses S. Grant, and Professor King would have multiple issues with Colossus. It was a cool concept, but it wasn't enough to sway the majority of voters. What it DID do was cause a couple of paranormal-related scares, as those not realizing what the stunt was all about were witnessing an unidentified craft fly through the air....and occasionally finding the remnants of smaller items in unexpected places. 

The Weston Democrat
10 June 1872

Witchcraft in Greenbrier County

 

Spencer State Hospital
Source: WV History on View

In June of 1937, a little old mountain woman made the trek from Greenbrier County to Charleston, WV. She came to see John Baker White, President of the Board of Control. She was on a mission; she had come to convince the Board of Control that her 57 year old brother, who was a patient at Spencer State Hospital, was not insane. Rather, he was bewitched.

The woman claimed that no less than four families, all with the powers of witchcraft, had used "little birds and dogs" as messengers to do their evil bidding against not just her brother, but her mother as well. These families allegedly wanted control over the bewitched family's farm in Frankford. 

To White's credit, he did order an investigation into the brother's confinement, and wrote to the Superintendent at Spencer State Hospital. However, it was deemed that the man in question wasn't bewitched. He was suffering from "abnormal imaginary ideas" and needed to stay hospitalized. 

Oddly, this wasn't the first time Spencer State Hospital dealt with a patient who blamed witchcraft on their ailments. Twenty years earlier, Crews/Cruse Hall, a farmer from Mercer County, was adjudged insane after claiming he, his farm animals, and even his farm equipment had been put under a spell by his neighbors. He had suffered similar delusions several years before, and sadly passed away from tuberculosis in 1919 at the hospital. You can read his story here: Bewitched Man Adjudged Insane

The Independent Herald (Hinton, WV)
09 June 1937

The Charleston Daily Mail
10 June 1937

Monster Bird Haunts Webster County

When the first reports of a monster terrorizing the area around Pt. Pleasant, WV started pouring in at the end of 1966, the sightings all had one thing in common. Not one witness ever described an actual...moth. The term Mothman was the invention of a newspaper reporter, taking inspiration from pop culture at the time. What people WERE describing was a bird. A very, very large, man-like bird. 

This wouldn't be the first time a giant bird would haunt the people of West Virginia. In February of 1895, Webster County would be the site of a rash of sightings, and even attacks, by what locals referred to as a giant eagle. 

The trouble began when Landy Junkins, the ten-year-old daughter of Dan Junkins of Bergoo mysteriously disappeared. Landy's mother had sent the young girl out one Friday around noon to visit the cabin of Joe Warnick. Landy was to walk the 1.5 miles from the Junkins cabin to the Warnick cabin to check on Mrs. Warnick, who had been ill. When she didn't return home by that evening, her father set out to look for her. Thinking perhaps she had stayed with the Warnicks, he went straight to their cabin, only to find that Landy never made it there. 

An intensive search began that evening and lasted all the next day. The only thing that was found of the girl were her tracks in the snow. Her tracks led off the trail and into a small clearing, where it became apparent that she circled around, rather frantically, before her tracks just disappeared. It was almost as if something had come down from the sky and carried her off....

That's exactly what people believed happened as in the following weeks, more and more reports of a giant bird were made public. Peter Swadley, a bear hunter, was out with his dog Gunner, hunting on Piney Ridge. Suddenly, a giant bird swooped down on him and attempted to lift him. The creature's sharp talons tore into his back and head, ripping his coat to shreds, and partially scalping him. The only thing that saved him was that his dog came running. The bird stopped attacking Swadley, and turned its attention to the dog, ripping it open before carrying it off. 

Swadley made it over a mile away to the cabin of Abe Kitsmiller, who brought him to town to treat his wounds. Despite a severe loss of blood and other injuries, Swadley recovered. His dog, however, was never seen again. 

In another incident, Deputy Sheriff Rube Nihiser and his son also had an encounter with the giant bird, and from a 'safe' distance away, were able to get a good description of the creature as it attacked a doe and her fawn. The Nihisers described the bird to have a wingspan of 15 to 18 feet and a body as big as a man. Its feathers were dark brown, with white on the wings. The eyes were large and shining. The sound it made was a terrible, shrill shriek.

Dogs, deer, and even sheep were not immune to the dangers of the giant bird. Hanse Hardrick kept a few sheep in a shed during the winter months. He locked the shed and headed into town, but upon his return, saw that someone or something had made a huge hole in the roof of the shed. Wool was caught around the edges of the hole and one of his sheep was missing. No tracks were observed anywhere near the shed or property, and the sheep was never found. Hardrick, believing a ghost, or 'harnt' as he called it, was to blame, covered the shed and property with small crosses made from hemlock boughs. 

But it wasn't a ghost. Ol' Pap Tammen, the oldest man in Webster County knew what it was. Many years before, TWO giant birds spent an entire winter terrorizing the countryside. It was believed that those two birds, as well as this one, made their den atop the isolated Snaggle Tooth Knob, an area inaccessible by man even in the best weather. It is unclear as to whether the creature of 1895 was one of the original two giant birds, their off-spring, or another altogether. 

Was the Mothman of Pt. Pleasant simply another one of these 'giant eagles,' or was the 'giant eagle' of Snaggle Tooth Knob actually an early visitation by the creature we now know as Mothman?

St. Louis Globe-Democrat
14 February 1895