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Friday, October 3, 2008

The Braxton County Monster

A good story for this time of year:

On September 12, 1952, four children reported seeing a large "shooting star" that slammed into a hill in Braxton County, West Virginia. The children ran to the home of Mrs Kathleen May and together the children, Mrs. May and her two sons climbed the hill. When the reached the top they were surrounded by a warm mist, and in the light of their flashlights they saw a terrible sight: a creature 8-10 feet tall, with a bright red face and wearing bright green robes.

A strong odor surrounded the creature and later Mrs. May, who was a beautician, found an oily substance on her uniform and holes burned into it. The children and Mrs May ran away, going so fast that in some accounts they say Mrs May jumped a gate in one hurdle. They called the police, but there were many sightings of unusual things in the skies above Braxton County that night and the police were out on other calls.

The next morning the story ran in nationwide news reports. an investigative team led by the local National Guard reported that there was indeed an oily substance on the site, and he took samples to Washington DC for study, but the findings, if any, were never made public. Others reported "skid marks" and an unusual odor at the site. Mrs May's uniform was also collected for study and never returned to her.

There is much more to this story, but this is the bones of the tale. No real explanations were given for what Mrs. May (who is still living) and the children saw that night on a lonely mountaintop in Braxton County, West Virginia. But the story lives on in tellings around campfires and in books, and for the past few years there has been an annual festival celebrating the Braxton County Monster--also known as the Flatwoods Monster because the sighting occurred near the small town of Flatwoods, WV. On the 50th anniversary of the sighting, a documentary was filmed with Mrs May and others who remembered the strange events of that night and the following days and weeks as investigators flocked to the area.

No answers, only questions remain: what really did happen on that hilltop? Was it a flying saucer? a practical joke? a military test of some sort? The government isn't telling, and no one really knows the answer.

Except Mrs. May. She knows what she saw, and it wasn't any weather balloon.

For more about this story, check these websites:

4 comments:

  1. Wouldn't it be fun if it *were* a military test, and we had Generals running around in bright green robes? Awesome!

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  2. Agreed! The details of this incident are so like other UFO accounts re the government's refusal to release information that you have to wonder whatreally happened.

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  3. Hi, I found your sweet comment on my blog and came over to visit. So glad I did! Just loved reading and looking! Blessings, Kathleen

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  4. My brother Jason is in love with the Braxton County Monster. He must have 10 figures of it at his house! Very disconcerting, but then again, so is he!

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