The Flatwoods Monster: Case File #001
Location: Flatwoods, Braxton County, West Virginia
Date: September 12, 1952, 7:15 PM
Status: Unresolved
The Sighting
On the evening of September 12, 1952, brothers Edward and Fred May and their friend Tommy Hyer watched a bright object streak across the sky and land on a hillside at the property of local farmer G. Bailey Fisher, just outside the small town of Flatwoods, West Virginia.
The boys ran home. Their mother, Kathleen May, along with local children Neil Nunley and Ronnie Shaver and West Virginia National Guardsman Eugene Lemon, followed them back to the Fisher farm to investigate.
What they found at the top of that hill has never been satisfactorily explained.
Lemon aimed his flashlight toward a pulsing red light in the trees. The beam illuminated a figure — approximately ten feet tall, with a round, blood-red face surrounded by a pointed hood-like shape. Eye-like openings emitted a greenish-orange glow. Its body was dark, almost black, and it appeared to float above the ground. It hissed. Then it glided toward them.
Lemon screamed and dropped the flashlight. The entire group ran.
The Aftermath
The witnesses reported a pungent, metallic mist hanging in the air at the site. Several members of the group experienced nausea and vomiting that lasted for hours. Lemon reportedly suffered convulsions and throat irritation for weeks afterward.
When investigators returned to the hillside the next morning, they found skid marks in the dirt and a strange, oily residue on the ground where the object had reportedly landed. The smell lingered.
What They Saw
Descriptions varied slightly between witnesses, but the core details remained consistent across independent interviews:
- Approximately 10 feet tall
- A round, red face surrounded by a pointed, spade-shaped or hood-like structure
- Eye-like openings that emitted greenish-orange light
- A dark body — black or dark green — with clothing-like folds
- Small, claw-like hands
- It did not walk. It glided.
- It hissed before moving toward the group
Skeptics have suggested the figure was a barn owl perched in a tree, its silhouette distorted by shadow and panic. The bright object in the sky was likely a meteor — one was confirmed over the region that evening. But the physical symptoms, the oily residue, the skid marks, and the consistency of the witness accounts across multiple people have never been fully reconciled with the owl theory.
The Name
The creature became known by several names: the Flatwoods Monster, the Braxton County Monster, the Phantom of Flatwoods. Locally, it picked up a simpler name — Braxie — after Braxton County, where the sighting occurred. The name stuck.
Today, Flatwoods, West Virginia embraces the legend. A roadside marker stands near the sighting location. A museum dedicated to the event operates in the town. The creature's spade-shaped silhouette has become an icon of American cryptid lore.
But nobody who was on that hillside in 1952 ever called it a legend. To them, it was the thing they saw. The thing that moved toward them. The thing that sent them running into the dark.
Current Status
No further sightings matching the original description have been confirmed at the Flatwoods site, though Braxton County continues to report unexplained lights and sounds in the hills surrounding the town.
Braxie is the first entry in our Sighting Series. View the Braxie Sweatshirt.