Flatwoods Monster / Braxton County Monster (1952; West Virginia)

[Paul_Exeter]

Furthermore, WV is mining country and you can expect there to have been numerous private tramways serving the mines and later abandoned. We have our fair share here in Cornwall from the tin mining era.

Also, it is extremely difficult and dangerous to run along a ballasted, operational railway track comprising of sleepers and rail on a stone bed. This suggests to me that it was either an abandoned line devoid of track or a track that lead to or from a railway line (“the railway track”).

just my thoughts…

 

[Solexman]

Even has it's own website!
http://www.flatwoodsmonster.com

sureshot

That HAS to be the worst website I’ve seen in a long time!

 

[Paul_Exeter]

That HAS to be the worst website I’ve seen in a long time!

http://www.flatwoodsmonster.com

Good lord :

"...And finally reader, in what should be "coal to Newcastle" at this point...

"4 JETS CRASH IN FORMATION DIVE KILLING PILOTS IN GEORGIA MYSTERY." 1953 Dec., 5. Lawrenceville, GA. Four ANG F-84 Thunderjets enroute from Miami, FL to Dobbins AFB, Marietta, Georgia, "fell from about 11, 500 feet. One of the Thunderjets struck and demolished a small unoccupied house. The three others crashed nearby...there was no indication that the planes were in collision before striking the ground." The USAF also reported, "The formation was starting its descent from 27,000 feet and would report again at 11,500 feet, but the fliers were not heard from again." In closing, "Officials at Dobbins Base said all the men were experienced jet pilots and they knew of no reasons for the crashes."

[Yes, a sad loss at a time when jet technology was still new, but wait...]

This is only the tip of the iceberg! There are many, many more folks.

Science Fiction? Again, reader, that's not the record, for the record!"

 

[Paul_Exeter]

The second Flatwoods Monster encounter, a day after the Kathleen May encounter:

"The creature moved closer until it was directly in front of the car. It reached out a spindly arm that ended in a soft bisected fork of “fingers” and ran it across the windshield and hood, as though it was examining the car. Then it turned and glided into the woods, disappearing from sight. Within a few minutes a globe of light rose slowly above the trees and moved into the sky, suddenly shooting away in a trail of brilliant light."

https://ufoconjectures.blogspot.com/2023/02/a-rosales-fb-post-typical-of-his-vast.html

 

[Carse]

The famous black and white line drawing of the skirted, floating Flatwoods Monster towering over a man complete with claws for hands and glowing eyes reproduced in the Reader‘s Digest Mysteries of the Unexplained book was, for me as a child, so completely and utterly pee-your-pants terrifying that I couldn’t bear to open the page. When I was flicking through the book to find something (it was one of my favourite books and I would always be looking in it for something or other) I would do it with my eyes half closed ready to snap them shut if I thought I was in danger of seeing that picture. Even now as an adult I am reluctant to do a Google image search to remind me of it, not that I need to as it is seared into my memory! I’ve never understood the attempts to dismiss it as an owl.

I didn’t know there was a second sighting of a similar nature, so that’s very interesting to read.

(edited to add that having now taken the time to actually read the whole thread I see the image in question is shown on the first page and although I just meant it as a humourous turn of phrase, one of the boys who witnessed it is alledged to have genuinely peed his pants in fear upon encountering the monster.)

 

[Carse]

Just for old times' sake I dug out the RD MotU book today, summoned up all my courage and turned to the dread page. The image is much smaller than I remember - or perhaps I am bigger - and I had also forgotten about the expressionless woman holding the drawing, who has a hint of Myra Hindley about her:



Still, there you go. Strange to think I used to have nightmares about it when I was around 8 or 9.