"Braxton Monster" Causes Car to Stall in Pocahontas County

 

Raleigh Register, 05 January 1961

"The Braxton County "monster" is back again and apparently branching out."

In yesterday's blog, I shared with ya'll a newspaper article from 31 December 1960, discussing a very strange experience with a hairy man-like creature, just outside Braxton County in the Hickory Flats area of Webster County. Charles Stover, a delivery driver for a bakery, was coming home from his shift around 11pm when he saw a creature, standing about 6 feet tall with hair all over its face and body, on the edge of the road. Local papers were quick to draw parallels between this sighting and the 1952 monster sighting, known today as the Flatwoods Monster...but completely ignored the more close resemblance of the creature to perhaps a small Bigfoot.

Less than a week later, a newspaper out of Beckley, WV reported on yet another very strange monster sighting, which again was compared to the original Flatwoods Monster as seen by Kathleen May and others, or even perhaps a bear...but not a Bigfoot. Bigfoot or not, this newest sighting of the hairy creature seemed to have a really unique ability!

W.C. Priestly of Alum Creek was driving along a backwoods road along the Williams River in Pocahontas County in October of 1960. As his car began to sputter and die, he looked to his left and saw a creature with long hair. The long hair was standing straight up, pointing up toward the sky. As another car approached, the creature's hair fell back down and it ran off, allowing Priestly to start the car and drive off. He notes, however, that a short time later the points completely burned out.

Now, its not completely unheard of to associate various forms of paranormal activity with electrical disturbances, but this is the first case I've heard of in which a hairy monster was accused of causing a car to stall with its HAIR. I don't want to speculate too much because this is already such a weird report---but what if there was something else causing the car to stall AND the creature's hair to stand on end? Something like a UFO, perhaps?  Maybe the creature seen by Charles Stover, W.C. Priestly, and others in the coming months, really was more closely related to the Flatwoods Monster than I previously thought!  

This story isn't over quite yet! A similarly described creature was reported in local newspapers a few more times in 1961, so please check back tomorrow for the latest adventures of the 'Braxton County...Thing'!

Be sure to checkout yesterday's blog, the first in this series:

Braxton County's Other Monster Seen By Delivery Driver