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Ceramic monster marks 50th anniversary of UFO sighting

As posted in Ananova
Link is dead. The MIA article can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050413051831/http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_669248.html?menu=


Ceramic monster marks 50th anniversary of UFO sighting

A ceramic green monster has been created to mark the 50th anniversary of a famous UFO sighting.

28692.jpg


The monster is based on descriptions of a strange creature spotted by townsfolk in Flatwoods, West Virginia.

On September 12 1952, police were called out to reports of a burning object falling from the sky near the Elk River.

Later the same day, four boys playing football reported seeing a mysterious craft land on top of a hill close to Flatwoods School.

They were joined by a local woman and her two sons, who walked towards it. Nearby they claim to have seen a 10ft tall creature with a bright red face, bright green clothing and a head which resembled the ace of spades.

They ran off when it seemed to float towards them. The mystery has never been solved, although the local sheriff believes the object was a meteor.

He thought the "green monster" was the eyes of an animal in a tree glowing in reflected light.

UFO enthusiasts are gathering in Flatwoods for a three day festival to mark the anniversary, with two of the witnesses - Kathleen May and her son Fred - among the guests of honour.

Story filed: 11:15 Thursday 12th September 2002

Kinda looks like one of those Nintendo Pikmin to me...
 
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The Flatwoods 'thing' is one of the weirder UFO-related entities, I must say. It's interesting that the two original witnesses will be at the conference.
 
Help needed

I am trying to retrace an incident and hope someone out there can identify it.

It was in the U.S.A. and probably 1950's. It was in a swampy/bayou/everglades type area.
A small group of people, woman and child/baby, National Guardsman go to investigate noises/lights.
They encounter large lizard type alien with a helmet on it's head.

I know it's not much detail, but any help would be appreciated.
 
erm, not much help but the only thing i remember about this was it was featured on a program about ufo's and aliens one christmas time a while back, the artists impression scared the life out of me, for some reason! Sorry, it's not much use!!
 
A bit of the Flatwoods creature description:

The light revealed a towering "man-like" figure with a round, red "face" surrounded by a "pointed, hood-like shape." The body was dark and seemingly colorless, but some would later say it was green, and Mrs. May reported drape-like folds. The monster was observed only momentarily, as suddenly it emitted a hissing sound and glided toward the group. Lemon responded by screaming and dropping his flashlight, whereupon everyone fled.

The group had noticed a pungent mist at the scene and afterward some were nauseated.

This is from (of all places) CSICOP!

TVgeek
 
TVgeek said:
A bit of the Flatwoods creature description:

The light revealed a towering "man-like" figure with a round, red "face" surrounded by a "pointed, hood-like shape." The body was dark and seemingly colorless, but some would later say it was green, and Mrs. May reported drape-like folds. The monster was observed only momentarily, as suddenly it emitted a hissing sound and glided toward the group. Lemon responded by screaming and dropping his flashlight, whereupon everyone fled.

The group had noticed a pungent mist at the scene and afterward some were nauseated.

This is from (of all places) CSICOP!

TVgeek

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

sureshot
 
This is the case that always terrifed me, from the very first time I read about it. Certainly there've been far more lurid sightings since then, but there's just something about this one. I think part of it is the 'B movie' aspect - the small-town kids going off to investigate the mysterious fireball, etc.

Don't miss http://www.flatwoodsmonster.com/ as well. This has a painting of the monster depicting it more as a robot. According to some, this is closer to what was actually seen (although the artist seems to have gratituously added some sort of death-ray shooting out of the eyes). The website's atrociously over-designed, but if you can last through all the fades, dissolves and animations, there's some neat stuff here. The fellow has a book coming out too.
 
When I first read about this, in a comic like the "Lion" or "Hurricane" in the mid sixties, the creature looked like a T Rex with a crash hat on!
 
According to some, this is closer to what was actually seen (although the artist seems to have gratituously added some sort of death-ray shooting out of the eyes).
For some reason, that made me smile :)
 
The modern, allegdely accurate depiction of the monster is much more interesting than the one commonly portayed.
 
JerryB said:
The modern, allegdely accurate depiction of the monster is much more interesting than the one commonly portayed.

The common one looks more like a candleholder than something that should come from (cue music) OOOOUUT THEEEeeeere.

I'm sure it made a better hood ornament to sell at conventions, though ;)
 
Dec 10, 5:16 PM

1952 military engagement with UFOs myth or mystery?

Port Orange man details the day in 1952 when Air Force took on UFOs

BY BILLY COX
FLORIDA TODAY

In an account of a military engagement sure to leave critics scoffing, a UFO investigator claims more than a dozen U.S. Air Force jet fighters were destroyed by flying saucers on a single day in 1952. But not before their guns and rockets crippled several UFOs that wound up making emergency landings in rural West Virginia.

"I know how it sounds," says Frank Feschino, the Port Orange artist whose new book attempts to reconstruct what would be the biggest dogfight since the Marianas Turkey Shoot in 1944. "But I think it's going to come out real soon. There's a lot of guys out there who know what happened but are too scared to talk."

Feschino's book -- "The Braxton County Monster: The Cover-Up of the Flatwoods Monster Revealed" (Quarrier Press, $29.95) -- revisits a mystery that has been a part of West Virginia lore for more than half a century.

At its core are a dozen eyewitnesses to a strange, robotic creature that appeared on a hilltop following the crash of an alleged meteor on the evening of Sept. 12, 1952. But following an investigation that took 14 years to research and write, Feschino claims the beginning of the incident involved a UFO air battle that began in Florida, shifted to the Eastern seaboard and ended in an Air Force whitewash.

Thirty five years ago this month, the USAF officially terminated its UFO study, called Project Blue Book, by concluding there were no national security aspects to the phenomenon. Arguably the most hectic phase of Blue Book's 22-year existence was 1952, when a record 1,501 reports were logged. July was the busiest month. Warplanes were scrambled to chase nocturnal UFOs that buzzed Washington, D.C., on consecutive weekends.

Even Patrick Air Force Base got splashed by the wave on July 18 of that year, when seven on-base airmen observed a series of silent amber-red objects approaching restricted air space late one evening. One UFO passed directly overhead before pulling a 180-degree U-turn and disappearing to the west. According to the Blue Book reports, none of the objects were spotted on radar and no planes were dispatched to confront them.

Blue Book ruled the avalanche of UFO sightings across the southeast on Sept. 12, 1952, could be attributed to a meteor.

But no meteor showers were scheduled for that night, and the Harvard Meteor Project, which tracked 2,500 cosmic fireballs from 1952 to '54, recorded no activity on that date.

Feschino also quotes Indian Harbour Beach astronomer Hal Povenmire, author of "Fireballs, Meteors and Meteorites," as dismissing the meteor explanation. Povenmire declined to comment on Feschino's book, but he reiterated his stance for FLORIDA TODAY: "It definitely wasn't a meteor."

Retired Air Force Col. William Coleman, chief spokesman for Blue Book in the 1960s and head of the USAF's Public Information Office from 1969 to '74, wasn't around for the 1952 investigation, and could only speculate on the meteor theory. "Occasionally, you'll get a loner when you're not passing through a belt," he says from his home in Indian Harbour Beach. "It'll come in on a flat trajectory, which means it'll be exposed to a longer burn in the atmosphere and leave a longer trail."

But Coleman is emphatic about one thing: No military aircraft were ever destroyed during UFO encounters.

"Of all the (12,618) reports we collected, only 105 cases were what we'd call 'worrisome,' from a military point of view," says Coleman, who chased a UFO in a bomber in 1955. "These might involve pilots seeing things in the air that also showed up as solid objects on radar. Sometimes they'd pace our planes, sometimes they'd depart abruptly. But we never lost anything to hostile activity."

Speaking during a book-signing tour in Charleston, W.Va., where sales are brisk, Feschino says he began looking into the Flatwoods Monster case in 1990. Ten local kids and an adult, Kathleen May, were alerted when a flaming, low-flying object apparently went down early one Friday evening on a hilltop outside rural Flatwoods. After hiking to investigate, they stumbled upon a "monster," reported to be 12 feet tall, lurking in a tree. It glided away upon an apron of flames, but not before dribbling what appeared to be an oily fluid onto the ground and their clothing.

Feschino says he grew more intrigued when he read scores of old newspaper clippings about other UFO activity that night, from Pennsylvania to Florida. Many reported objects trailing tails of fire, following three separate westward trajectories from the Atlantic Ocean. Especially compelling were newspaper reports concerning the loss of an F-94 Sabrejet fighter over the Gulf of Mexico earlier in the day.

Flying out of Tyndall AFB near Panama City with three other jets, Lt. John Jones, the pilot, and radar operator Lt. John DelCurto apparently got separated during bad weather, were ordered to land at Moody AFB in Georgia before losing radio contact, and presumably crashed after running out of fuel. Their bodies were never recovered. Feschino doesn't buy that story.

When he attempted to locate official records of the incident through military archives, Feschino says he got a bureaucratic runaround and was informed paperwork on those pilots doesn't exist. (Feschino interviewed DelCurto's brother in Oregon, and took a photo of Jones' memorial marker in Ocala.) Upon matching additional air defense activity that day with the numerous UFO reports, Feschino began assembling time lines, integrating them into maps, and produced a unified field theory that "as many as 20" American planes attacked, and were shot down by, UFOs.

"The Braxton County Monster" goes into exhaustive -- not to mention inferential, unsourced and highly speculative -- detail to support Feschino's other premise, that multiple sightings over the Flatwoods area on Sept. 12 was a "rescue mission" to salvage a damaged spacecraft.

"Of course you could cover this up," insists the Connecticut native. "They do it all the time. Look at all the planes that got shot down during the Cold War on missions that didn't supposedly exist. They made up cover stories and told the families back home all sorts of lies."

That's true, says historian William E. Burrows. But the author of "By Any Means Necessary: America's Secret Air War" doubts UFOs were in the mix.

The director of New York University's graduate program for science and environmental reporting says up to 166 U.S. servicemen were shot down over Russia, China and North Korea in 16 attacks between 1950 and 1969.

"They would always attribute it to navigational errors or typhoons, because they had to say something to the wives and kids," Burrows says. "It always bothered me, because these guys were brave men who were made to look like nitwits. But I don't believe in UFOs. And as soon as the Cold War ended, the UFO sightings ended."

Feschino says Flatwoods had nothing to do with the Cold War. He interviewed retired Army colonel Dale Leavitt who, on Sept. 12, 1952, said he got an order from the Air Force to investigate the West Virginia crash site. Then with the National Guard, Leavitt said he led a 30-man detachment to the area, where they found minor debris and burned vegetation, which they forwarded to the USAF. Before his death, Leavitt told Feschino he never learned the results.

"I find it very strange that the military would send troops out to investigate a meteor," Feschino says. "That doesn't make any sense."

Feschino's efforts notwithstanding, the Flatwoods case will likely remain the stuff of legend, pending military eyewitness testimony. But that may not happen soon. Despite Blue Book's assertion that the military is no longer interested in the phenomenon, UFOs continue to fall under the cloak of national security, according to John Greenewald.

A television producer who posts UFO-related government documents on his Web site -- www.blackvault.com -- Greenewald showcases Air Force manuals instructing pilots on how to report unidentified flying objects. The system is called Communications for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings (CIRVIS), and reports are forwarded to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which tracks unidentified objects entering U.S. and Canadian air space.

"They're hard to get," says Greenewald, "because NORAD says they're exempt from FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests."


-----------------
Available online

"The Braxton County Monster: The Cover-Up of the Flatwoods Monster Revealed"
By Frank Feschino (Quarrier Press, $29.95) The book can be ordered online at www.flatwoodsmonster.com

Source
 
Has anyone noticed that the picture is of a rather typical 1950s robot housewife?
The obvious "BS!" Alarm always cries out on these 'Stylised' images and/or desciptions. Like the Adamski UFO pictures of 1950s/60s lampshades! :D
It would be interesting to see a piece with illustrations and photographs of UFOs/aliens through the decades. To note the styles and similarities with the then popular culture and fashions/Science fiction etc, would more than tip a hat towards bollocks fabrication.
I think the mother of all hypothosese on these occasions...is simply "Convenience".
What say you?
 
This one's always scared me the most. It's hard for me to put my finger on why exactly, but I think it's because, more than any other case or sighting I've read about - including the greys - this one "feels" authentic to me. I mean, if for no other reason than the fact that this is an alien that is truly "alien" and not just a slight variation on the human form.

It's easy to imagine the Flatwoods Monster as a robot of sorts, though, maybe something like an alien version of the ones we've been throwing up on Mars and elsewhere. Also, I think those "death rays" refer to spotlights that were present in the original story.
 
The interesting thing about the Flatwoods monster case is the change of Kathleen May's opinion about what she had witnessed in the space of two years.

In 1954 she was supportive of the UFO/monster explanation.

Charleston Gazette (October 31, 1954)

1556867537461.png


In 1956, she was supportive of an airplane hypothesis, noting that:

"Some of the people I talked to twisted what I told them to make it look as if it were some sort of living thing". "It really didn't look alive. There's no question in my mind but what it was some kind of airplane or rocket ship."

This is taken from Charleston Gazette (October 7, 1956).


1556867465746.png
 
This is consistent with the times, UFO's became weather balloons, strange sightings became swamp gas and housewives persuaded they saw experimental craft. The original story itself is very interesting.
 
The description of the Flatwoods alien is by far one of the weirdest in all of ufo literature... it didn't fit any of the usual types...that alone makes it fall into the 'something other than a space alien' category.
Those kinds of cases makes me think of Keel and his 'Superspectrum'.
 
A couple of good videos on this case:

The Flatwoods Monster Case - Ivan Sanderson's 1953 report


From the uploader:
Here's a video presentation of renowned author, newspaper & magazine reporter and investigator Ivan Sanderson's 1953 audio report (during a radio interview in New York) of what he discovered only 1 year earlier in 1952. The Braxton County (West Virginia) incident is world famous and continues to be evaluated with the top UFO investigators. Considered one of the world's most unusual happenings, the UFO (sometimes referred to the Braxton County Monster and not to be confused with that other famous West Virginia monster, The Mothman") was seen by at least 14 people. Hear Ivan Sanderson talk about what the kids saw... and how they (and a dog) reacted. The date was September 12, 1952. What the boys saw was described as a "shooting star" that fell to earth on the top of the hill adjacent to the playground. About the length of a football field away, they all saw an object that was glowing and hissing. Walking closer to check out the "star", they noted that it was about 10 feet around. A few feet away from this glowing object they saw two lights, much like the glow of flashlights, about 12 inches apart. One of the boys had a flashlight and when he turned it on the object a huge creature with "...a bright red face, bright green clothing, a head which resembled the ace of spades, and clothing which, from the waist down, hung in great folds" was seen. Newspapers sent special reporters to cover the story.

Frank Feschino Jr. (08-17-06) The Braxton County Monster

 
Its a great and scary story.

I've just bought myself this book, which looks exceptional. Full of witness reports and original newspaper clippings:

The Braxton County Monster Updated & Revised Edition the Cover-Up of the Flatwoods Monster Revealed - Expanded
Frank C. Feschino, Jr., the authority of the "Braxton County Monster" incident has returned with an Updated and Expanded version of his 2012 book. His ongoing and diligent 21-year investigation into this case reveals an invasion of gigantic aliens that occurred over America on September 12, 1952. Feschino meticulously reconstructed a timeline of events and recreated the scenario of that terrifying day, which includes the "Flatwoods Monster" and "Frametown Monster" incidents, a massive wave of UFO sightings and crashes and the cover-up of a USAF jet fighter that disappeared that night. This book contains new documentation about the "Braxton County Monster" case and startling UFO events of that day and includes additional witness information, newly discovered sightings, crashes, landings and more. It contains more than 225 visuals, including new articles, photos, maps, graphics and illustrations, which credit Feschino as the world's most thorough investigator of this UFO incident in history.

Amazon Link to Book
 
I bought Frank Feschino’s book when I actually passed through Flatwoods a few years ago - it was for sale at the office of the RV park where we stayed! Feschino did a great job of locating original witnesses and convincing them to talk to him - most had been misused by the media back in the day and had long sworn off of talking to journalists. The first part of the book was riveting - whether factually true or not it’s an absolutely terrifying tale and all the more so hearing it from the people that lived it. He also dug up some info about either National Guard or military personnel (I can’t remember which) that purportedly went into the Flatwoods area that same night to investigate UFO activity. All great stuff. Unfortunately in the last third of the book he starts pulling in miscellaneous other contemporaneous meteor and UFO reports from hundreds of miles away and starts spinning a completely batshit crazy tale of military-UFO dogfights and downed aircraft and everything but the kitchen sink. I found it hard to fathom why he found it necessary to go there. It casts the whole book in a very bad light and I came away feeling very dubious about the whole business. He really should have stuck to the original witness tales and left it at that.
 
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Bumping this thread because my mother and grandmother saw the bright light over Braxton on that night in 1952, and knew the people who saw the alleged creature (it was a rural sort of place where everyone knew everyone). The way my mother told it, she was at home with her mother, my grandma (mom was about 20 at the time), in Newville, WV maybe 15 miles from Flatwoods. Grandma was out on the front porch and suddenly yelled "Oh my God!" Mom went out to see what was up, and they both saw the bright light moving across the sky.

Within the next couple of days, word about the purported alien invader had gotten around. Like I said, my relatives knew the people near the site, who went out to investigate, and mom said that one of the boys who saw the damned thing was scared so bad he peed his britches.

Not having been there, and being very skeptical about anything paranormal, mom admitted that she didn't know *what* to make of the story (other than having been one of the people who saw the brilliant light streaking across the sky).

I found out about the Flatwoods sighting from reading a newspaper story about the Mothman incident which mentioned it--I was eight when that happened, a kid who doted on monsters and weird stuff, so of course I was fascinated by Mothman) and when I asked my mother if she knew about the Flatwoods incident, that was what she told me.
 
Bumping this thread because my mother and grandmother saw the bright light over Braxton on that night in 1952, and knew the people who saw the alleged creature (it was a rural sort of place where everyone knew everyone). The way my mother told it, she was at home with her mother, my grandma (mom was about 20 at the time), in Newville, WV maybe 15 miles from Flatwoods. Grandma was out on the front porch and suddenly yelled "Oh my God!" Mom went out to see what was up, and they both saw the bright light moving across the sky.

Within the next couple of days, word about the purported alien invader had gotten around. Like I said, my relatives knew the people near the site, who went out to investigate, and mom said that one of the boys who saw the damned thing was scared so bad he peed his britches.

Not having been there, and being very skeptical about anything paranormal, mom admitted that she didn't know *what* to make of the story (other than having been one of the people who saw the brilliant light streaking across the sky).

I found out about the Flatwoods sighting from reading a newspaper story about the Mothman incident which mentioned it--I was eight when that happened, a kid who doted on monsters and weird stuff, so of course I was fascinated by Mothman) and when I asked my mother if she knew about the Flatwoods incident, that was what she told me.
Thank you for posting, fascinating to read.

Small Town Monsters found original witnesses for this event and their documentary is one of their better ones and left me convinced that something out of the ordinary definitely took place:

https://www.smalltownmonsters.com/shop/theflatwoodsmonsterdvd

(Also available on iTunes)
 
Small Town Monsters found original witnesses for this event and their documentary is one of their better ones and left me convinced that something out of the ordinary definitely took place:
It so happens I have been enjoying reading through all online episodes of 'The SAUCERIAN' and the first edition has a special, cover feature. I wondered if there might be some helpful, early material therein?

www.forteanmedia.com/1953_09,Saucerian.pdf
 
It so happens I have been enjoying reading through all online episodes of 'The SAUCERIAN' and the first edition has a special, cover feature. I wondered if there might be some helpful, early material therein?

www.forteanmedia.com/1953_09,Saucerian.pdf

I've spent several frustrating hours faffing around with the snippets of info available, most of which are just recyclings of the same (very) basic facts.

The following is my best guess, repeat guess, at the geography of this incident:

The initial witnesses - the boys - are reported as having been playing football:

"...on the grounds at the grade school...

They decided to have a look and walked up to the depot and around the road that leads to the spot. While on the way they passed the May home and, after telling their story, Mrs. May and sons decided to go with them."

http://www.noufors.com/the_braxton_democrat.html

"The hill where Kathleen May and the young men saw the Monster is easy to find behind a used car lot..."

https://theblackcentipede.blogspot.com/2012/11/true-tales-flatwoods-monster.html

The most appropriate match I can find for "the depot" and "behind a used car lot" is Depot Street, which is behind Keith's Alignment & Mechanical Services, a garage at the west end of Depot Street:

Screen-Hunter-360-Mar-23-11-27.jpg


The school playing field, from which the witnesses initially saw the anomaly, is at top centre, the playing field itself being under the legend "Flatwoods Community Building".

"They decided to have a look and walked up to the depot and around the road that leads to the spot. While on the way they passed the May home and, after telling their story, Mrs. May and sons decided to go with them."

http://www.noufors.com/the_braxton_democrat.html

My theory is that the boys walked south along Highway 19 until they came to the May house (location unknown). They then "...walked up to the depot [Depot Street?] and around the road that leads to the spot..."

As can be seen from the Google Earth screen grab below, Depot Street (running from 4 to 2) is curved enough to account for the phrase "...around the road..."

Flatwoods-map-earth-annotated.jpg


Key:

1 = School playing field
2 = East end of Depot Street
3 = East end of Hoard Drive
4 = Keith's Alignment & Mechanical Services


Here's the topography of the area from the US Geological Survey:

Flatwoods-topo-marked.jpg


School playing field starred; Depot Street circled

Once more from Google Earth, here's what I believe to be the locus, with the same numbering system as the key above:

Google-Earth-annotated.jpg


The locus is said to have been flat, but with a gully nearby into which the craft vanished. The area at the top of Depot Street (2) seems to satisfy those criteria in general.

One fact that tends to support my hypothesis is that, from the investigation reported in The Saucerian, the writer interviewed a witness: "On a nearby hill, in complete view of the fateful hilltop, lives G.D. Hoard..."

https://www.forteanmedia.com/1953_09,Saucerian.pdf [Page 18: "What did Mr. Hoard see?"]

Zooming into Google Earth reveals that the road ending at (3) above is labelled "Hoard Drive". It would be quite a coincidence for the names "Hoard" and "Depot" to occur in a tiny town of ~300 people, under circumstances that didn't relate to this story.

A recent aerial photo of Flatwoods, indicating the area I suspect to have been the locus:

Flatwoods-aerial-photo-circled.jpg


The school is just to the right and below the orange ellipse, in the narrow "V" between the roads.

A fly in my ointment is that The Saucerian's account refers to the investigating party "...running up the railroad track towards the foot of the hill...".

https://www.forteanmedia.com/1953_09,Saucerian.pdf [Page 12]

The only railroad track I can find in the area is on the wrong side of the hill for my theory:

Flatwoods-map-earth-annotated.jpg


Track of railway roughly marked in red

:dunno:


maximus otter
 
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I've spent several frustrating hours faffing around with the snippets of info available, most of which are just recyclings of the same (very) basic facts.

The following is my best guess, repeat guess, at the geography of this incident:

The initial witnesses - the boys - are reported as having been playing football:

"...on the grounds at the grade school...

They decided to have a look and walked up to the depot and around the road that leads to the spot. While on the way they passed the May home and, after telling their story, Mrs. May and sons decided to go with them."

http://www.noufors.com/the_braxton_democrat.html

"The hill where Kathleen May and the young men saw the Monster is easy to find behind a used car lot..."

https://theblackcentipede.blogspot.com/2012/11/true-tales-flatwoods-monster.html

The most appropriate match I can find for "the depot" and "behind a used car lot" is Depot Street, which is behind Keith's Alignment & Mechanical Services, a garage at the west end of Depot Street:

Screen-Hunter-360-Mar-23-11-27.jpg


The school playing field, from which the witnesses initially saw the anomaly, is at top centre, the playing field itself being under the legend "Flatwoods Community Building".

"They decided to have a look and walked up to the depot and around the road that leads to the spot. While on the way they passed the May home and, after telling their story, Mrs. May and sons decided to go with them."

http://www.noufors.com/the_braxton_democrat.html

My theory is that the boys walked south along Highway 19 until they came to the May house (location unknown). They then "...walked up to the depot [Depot Street?] and around the road that leads to the spot..."

As can be seen from the Google Earth screen grab below, Depot Street (running from 4 to 2) is curved enough to account for the phrase "...around the road..."

Flatwoods-map-earth-annotated.jpg


Key:

1 = School playing field
2 = East end of Depot Street
3 = East end of Hoard Drive
4 = Keith's Alignment & Mechanical Services


Here's the topography of the area from the US Geological Survey:

Flatwoods-topo-marked.jpg


School playing field starred; Depot Street circled

Once more from Google Earth, here's what I believe to be the locus, with the same numbering system as the key above:

Google-Earth-annotated.jpg


The locus is said to have been flat, but with a gully nearby into which the craft vanished. The area at the top of Depot Street (2) seems to satisfy those criteria in general.

One fact that tends to support my hypothesis is that, from the investigation reported in The Saucerian, the writer interviewed a witness: "On a nearby hill, in complete view of the fateful hilltop, lives G.D. Hoard..."

https://www.forteanmedia.com/1953_09,Saucerian.pdf [Page 18: "What did Mr. Hoard see?"]

Zooming into Google Earth reveals that the road ending at (3) above is labelled "Hoard Drive". It would be quite a coincidence for the names "Hoard" and "Depot" to occur in a tiny town of ~300 people, under circumstances that didn't relate to this story.

A recent aerial photo of Flatwoods, indicating the area I suspect to have been the locus:

Flatwoods-aerial-photo-circled.jpg


The school is just to the right and below the orange ellipse, in the narrow "V" between the roads.

A fly in my ointment is that The Saucerian's account refers to the investigating party "...running up the railroad track towards the foot of the hill...".

https://www.forteanmedia.com/1953_09,Saucerian.pdf [Page 12]

The only railroad track I can find in the area is on the wrong side of the hill for my theory:

Flatwoods-map-earth-annotated.jpg


Track of railway roughly marked in red

:dunno:


maximus otter
One railroad passed through Flatwoods and a second line branched off from iit, so in effect two railways :

“The West Virginia and Pittsburgh Railroad extended a branch through Flatwoods in the late 1800s.[9] Later, the line was taken over by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and Flatwoods was a halfway point on the B&O Railroad's Clarksburg-Richwood branch, approximately 62.6 miles from the Clarksburg terminal, and 59.1 miles from the Richwood terminal.[10] The town also served as the origin of West Virginia & Pittsburgh Railroad's Sutton Branch.[9

source: Wikipedia
 
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