The Fire-Breathing Monster of Flatwoods and Other Weirdness

On September 12, 1952, seven people in Flatwoods, WV would witness a sight that would not only affect their lives forever...but would become an event cemented in the study of ufology for decades.  After a group of boys playing football observed what they thought might have been a meteor or even a plane crash on a nearby farm, five of the boys, including Eddie and Freddie May, were accompanied by their mother, Kathleen May and Gene Lemon, a 17 year old National Guardsman in pursuit of the wreckage.

You know I love to share vintage newspaper articles covering strange happenings, and since I've already discussed the Flatwoods Monster incident a few times before (plus, there are so many other great resources on this case) I thought today would be a good day to just share the UP article that hit newspapers across the country! The clipping I chose at random comes from the Record American (Pennsylvania) of September 15th, but the same article, with differing headlines, would be published in MULTIPLE newspapers on the 15th and 16th. I'll transcribe it below for easier reading:

The Record American (Pennsylvania)
15 September 1952

West Virginia Folks Saw Monster with Green Body, Red Face

Sutton, W.Va. (UP)---Eyewitness accounts of a tall, glowing monster with a blood-red face skulking in the hills divided Braxton County Monday into two camps---believers and skeptics.

Seven persons said they saw the unearthly being, described as "worse than Frankenstein," in the hills above Flatwoods, W.Va. Friday night.

State police and a number of residents hooted at the reports as a product of mass hysteria. Police said the eyewitness' guess as to the monster's height varied from seven to 17 feet.

The excitement began when the two young sons of Kathryn May, a Flatwoods beautician, said they saw a "flying saucer" land on C.B. Fisher's farm near here.

Mrs. May, National Guardsman Gene Lemon and five boys climbed a hill on the Fisher farm to look for the "saucer."

Mrs. May said a "fire-breathing monster, 10 feet tall with a bright green body and a blood-red face," bounced and floated toward them."

"It looked worse than Frankenstein," she said. "It couldn't have been human."

Lemon, 17, said he thought he saw a 'possum or coon until he put his flashlight on "the thing." It was then that he saw the monster with the blushing face and green body "that seemed to glow."

Mrs. May said Lemon stared and then screamed as the monster duckwalked toward them. All of them fled, occasionally looking over their shoulders. 

The monster, Mrs. May said, had an overpowering metallic odor that nauseated them. She said they vomited for several hours. A. Lee Steward, co-publisher of the Braxton County Democrat, received the first report from Mrs. May. The veteran newspaperman organized an armed posse and went to the scene. 

"The odor was still there," Stewart said. "It was sort of warm and sickening. And there were two places about six to eight feet in diameter where the brush was trampled down." 

Stewart did not know what to think. 

"I hate to say I believe it, but I hate to say I don't believe it," Steward said. "Those people were scared---badly scared, and I sure smelled something." 

Authorities said they believed the "flying saucer" which Mrs. Mays' sons saw was a meteorite. The incident occurred during a meteor shower over a three-state area. 

Theresa's Note: On September 13, 1952 newspapers along the East Coast noted that reports of meteorites being seen in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and Ohio had flooded local law enforcement the night before. Many witnesses assumed they were witnessing planes going down in fiery crashes. A woman in McMechen, WV reported seeing a noiseless object, shooting blue and white flames out of one end. A man in West Liberty stated he saw several objects that looked like Roman candles. And, a Hinton preacher saw what he described as an "old time streetlight". Many witnesses to these "meteorites" claimed that the objects were moving horizontally and at very low altitudes. 

I'm not an expert in astronomical matters, but it seems like these were a little more than your normal meteorites, especially when you take into consideration the incident at Flatwoods, as well as similar incidents at Frametown and Wheeling (more about those in upcoming blogs!). There was even a couple of UFO reports from Raleigh County that occurred on the 13th of September. Was there a massive invasion across the East Coast that September...or was it simply a combination of natural phenomena and mass hysteria? 

Hinton Daily News
13 September 1952

The Flatwoods Monster Lantern

Flatwoods Monster Lantern
from my personal collection

Postcards. T-shirts. Stickers. All of these make great souvenirs for those wanting to remember all the fun events they attend and all the scenic travel destinations they visit. But...for a truly unique experience, one needs a truly unique souvenir!

I love traveling the great state of West Virginia, taking in her majestic beauty and learning about her fascinating history. And, over the years, I've tried to commemorate my trips with some fun souvenirs. Aside from the everyday postcards, stickers, t-shirts, etc., my collection contains reproduction grotesques from the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, a fidget spinner from the former WV State Penitentiary at Moundsville, and more Mothman plushies than any child could ever need. However, one of my favorite pieces I've collected is a treasure just as unique and fascinating as the story from which it originates: The Flatwoods Monster Lantern.

John Gibson with Lantern
Source

The story begins on September 12, 1952 when a group of kids playing ball in Flatwoods, West Virginia saw a strange sight overhead. Thinking a meteor had crashed on the hill near the Fisher farm, the boys headed to investigate, stopping at the home of brothers, Freddie and Eddie May. There, they were joined by their mother, Kathleen May, Eugene Lemon, a young National Guardsman, and the family dog. Grabbing a flashlight, they ascended the hill where they'd see something that would become the source of legend for years to come. 

The red-faced, spade-headed, pleated-skirt-wearing alien (?) that was seen up on that mountain that day is one of the strangest creatures to show up in UFO history and has since become a pop-icon the world over. Thanks to video games, artists, television shows, and social media influencers, the story of the Flatwoods Monster and its one-of-a-kind appearance have become almost mainstream. Braxxie, as the monster has affectionately become known as, shows up in various media across the world and instantly recognized by even those not in the paranormal community. 

UFO Researcher, Barbara Hudson
Charleston, WV 1969
From Gray Barker Archives

A monster as unique as the Flatwoods Monster deserves an equally cool and unique souvenir, and back in the late 1960's, the local chapter of the Jaycee's found a way to accomplish that...as well as keep the story of the monster alive AND make a few bucks! 

John Gibson doesn't remember whose idea it was exactly to create a LANTERN based on the 1952 monster sighting, but he was put in charge of the project and he ran with it! He had a little help from a pal named Bob Bossert, though. Bossert was a paint salesman. He also knew someone who could make ceramic molds. Together they worked on what would be the first run of Flatwoods Monster Lanterns. 

Complete with a paint lid base for a candle, and a paint can handle as the lantern handle (and of course, painted with Bossert's own paint inventory by his own family), a small run of Monster Lanterns was produced, and sold out rather quickly! The following production runs eliminated the paint can candle base, as it confused people, but the lanterns continued to sell better than expected. At $5 a piece, a profit of $500 was quickly made. Lanterns were sold at various events around the county, as well as being sold at a roadside stand during peak traffic times. An 8ft tall plywood sign would announce to travelers on Rt. 5 that they could own a piece of Fortean history for just $5. Apparently, a collection of lanterns was also sent to Charleston, WV to be sold off during a UFO convention held in 1969. 

L to R: Gray Barker, James Mosley and Ralph Jarrett
Charleston, WV 1969
Gray Barker Archives

Unfortunately, sales began to drop off, and John Gibson got busy with a new job, so production on the lanterns was put on hold throughout the 1970's. However, when the Clarksburg library was about to open its Gray Barker Archive in the 1980's, the librarian reached out to John. John brought a lantern to donate to the collection, which sparked a renewed interest in them from the UFO community. Production began again, and to this day, you can pick up your own unique souvenir of the Flatwoods Monster!

Darlene's Ceramics in Marietta, OH is responsible for creating these wonderful pieces of Fortean home decor, and even though the price has increased a bit (they usually sell for $80), you can find them at various locations around Flatwoods, including at the Flatwoods Monster Museum in Sutton, WV. I'm lucky to have one of these in my collection, but I feel kinda bad about how I acquired it...

Original Mold
On Display at Flatwoods Monster Museum

                                              

I'm not entirely sure when and where I first saw or heard about these lanterns, but I had known for a while that I REALLY wanted one. I was in one of my favorite local antique stores and as I had walked in the front door, a guy had one of the lanterns in his hand, asking the owner for a price. After a price was given, the guy frowned and put the lantern back down. I followed him down the aisle and as soon as he put it down and walked off, I snatched it up, ran to the front, paid for it and left! So yeah, I sniped a lantern, but I gave it a good home! It sits on the bookshelf year round, and at Christmas time, it's red and green color scheme make it a perfect center piece for our holiday mantle. A battery operated tea light candle completes the ambiance. 

If you can't make it to town to purchase your own Flatwoods Monster Lantern, you CAN order one on-line when they are in stock from CryptidMart. Also, during the 2020 Covid lockdowns, Andrew Smith, who runs the Flatwoods Monster Museum, finished an excellent 22 minute documentary on the history and production of the lamps. You can watch it for free at YouTube! 

Information for today's blog post comes from The Lantern, a Short Documentary by Andrew Smith (2020), as well as Braxton County's Visit Braxton Website. 

Did Members of the Flatwoods Monster Fleet Make it to Raleigh County?

Source

1952 was a BIG year for ufology, especially here in the Mountain State! By now, most of my readers are going to be pretty darn familiar with the September 12th sighting in Flatwoods (Braxton County) by a group of school boys, National Guardsman Eugene Lemon, and mother of two of the kids, Kathleen May. What they encountered up on a hill on the Fisher farm would forever be known throughout the world of high strangeness and eventually into the mainstream, as the Flatwoods Monster. 

Skeptics will just say that the boys followed a meteor, and were surprised by an owl sitting in the tree branches. And, while its true that reports of a meteor were reported that night over several states (including West Virginia) what they saw was no owl. It was a spade-headed, red-faced monstrosity with glowing yellow eyes, stick-like arms, and what can only be described as a lower half shaped like a pleated skirt. 

Sounds pretty far-fetched, right? Despite the documented physical effects from the encounter and the fact that none of these witnesses had any reason to lie...or to NOT be familiar with what an owl looked like...it's a super strange story. It just doesn't FIT in with more common UFO reports. But because of all that, that's why I think this story has continued to fascinate so many people over the years. However, the story doesn't end in Flatwoods...

Following the Flatwoods encounter on September 12th would come the Frametown Monster incident the next evening, when a couple with a young baby driving along State Route 4 between Frametown and Gassaway had their car engine stall, and witnessed a reptilian creature before finally being able to drive off. There was also the Bashful Billy incident in Wheeling, WV on September 15th where a 'meteor' crashed near the Vineyard Hills housing development, but disappeared...not before the rumors started flying though. I'll be covering both of these cases in future blogs, but for today, I wanted to focus on two reports from Raleigh County that came out in the days following the Flatwoods sighting.

Flatwoods Monster

The first sighting comes just the day after the initial Flatwoods encounter, on Saturday September 13th. Around 11pm, 16 year old Franklin Smedley and two other boys witnessed what looked like gallon-bucket sized orange objects flying over an area of Raleigh County called East Gulf. Franklin initially saw two of the objects, which moved faster than any airplane he'd ever seen, but didn't say anything because he didn't believe in flying saucers. However, when four more of the objects showed up, he alerted his friends, and all three got a good look at the objects.

The next morning, Smedley's father would tell the tale of the flying saucers during Sunday school. It was then that Mr. Shelby Deaner felt brave enough to confirm that he and his wife had also seen the objects the previous night. The couple was out watching for meteors, but shortly after going inside to get ready for bed, Mrs. Deaner looked out the window and alerted her husband. They both saw two orange objects at the same time the boys' had seen them and noted that they appeared to be moving at least twice as fast as an airplane that had passed overhead thirty minutes earlier.

The Smedley/Deaner report of East Gulf was documented in the Tuesday, September 16th edition of the Raleigh Register and reported without bias. However, an article appearing a few days later in the same publication would be a little more...tongue-in-cheek. It shared the story of Mrs. Earl Hutchinson of Skelton who reported 'something shiny' seen in the sky near the Greenbrier Dairy (Interesting side note: My grandfather was working at the Greenbrier Dairy at this time!) This thing didn't zoom across the sky like the Smedley/Deaner objects. Rather, it hovered. Mrs. Hutchinson initially believed it was a man with a parachute, as the object appeared to swing back and forth and jump up and down. That article expresses the idea that maybe the Flatwoods Monster was en route to Beckley to meet up with some other monsters? (Check out my Beasts of Beckley blog!)

So just what was going on in mid September of 1952? Why were all of these UFO/Monster sightings reported across the state within just days of each other? It simply could have been monster mania brought on by a recent meteor shower and a series of misidentifications and hoaxes. Or, it could be something else. In his book, The Braxton County Monster: The Cover Up of the Flatwoods Monster Revealed, author Frank Feschino poses a very interesting theory. Feschino believes that there was actually some sort of 'invasion' of the east coast by flying saucers.  In the case of the Flatwoods Monster, perhaps it was either shot down or crashed and subsequent sightings were follow-up rescue missions, other crafts that crashed/were shot down, etc. I can't possibly do this theory justice within a few lines, so definitely check out the book for a better understanding. 

What's important to remember is that the Flatwoods Monster is just the tip of the iceberg. That's the story that everyone seems to know, and for good reason. It has solid witnesses who stuck to their story, a unique creature unlike any other, and has been well-documented and shared throughout the years. But, the Flatwoods Monster was not the only strange thing reported in West Virginia that week! 

Keep your eyes to the skies and your heart and mind open! 

The Raleigh Register
21 September 1952

The Raleigh Register
16 September 1952