Take Me Home, Country Roads

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Story 1.

The Flatwoods Monster

Since this channel's inception, we have examined several encounters with strange entities, which took place in remote North American communities.

In many of these cases, the bizarre nature of the incident has gone on to immortalize not only the being itself, but also the location in which it was seen.

In this episode, we will be exploring one of America's most infamous encounters.

Join us as we recount the tale of the Flatwoods Monster.

When researching the specific culture and history of each of the 50 states of America, one will unearth many tales of alleged cryptid and alien encounters.

These stories, having been continually retold and passed down through the years, ultimately grant both the location of the event itself and its unexpected visitor something of a celebrity status.

Such incidents have included the Lizard Man of South Carolina's Skatepoor Swamp, Iowa's bizarre van meter visitor, and the haunting Dover Demon.

With these tales being so numerous, Commentators will often jest that every U.S.

state possesses its own infamous and exotic monstrous inhabitant.

In one of our earliest episodes, we recounted in some detail the story of West Virginia's most bizarre visitor, the mysterious Mothman of Point Pleasant.

But the Mothman is not the state's only celebrated cryptid, with another strange being having generated an equal degree of notoriety some 15 years prior, located only 25 miles to the east of the small city where the Mothman sightings occurred.

An equally mystifying creature, whose intentions still remain unexplained to this day, and forever changed the lives of the small group of people who encountered it.

The events in question played out during the early evening of September the 12th, 1952, on the outskirts of Flatwoods, a small town situated within West Virginia's central Braxton County.

Dusk had just begun to fall when two brothers, Edward and Fred May, were still outside playing near their home along with another of their young friends.

Just as the game they were playing was coming to an end, they suddenly caught sight of something unexpected slowly appearing in the skies above them.

They watched on with increasing curiosity at what appeared to be a brilliant red fireball materializing from within the dark clouds hanging low above their heads.

Initially believing this to be a falling meteor, their excitement quickly turned to confusion when they observed the manner in which the fiery object was traveling.

It seemed to be decelerating in speed as it travelled towards the ground, almost as if it was carrying out some form of controlled descent.

In no time at all, the glowing object disappeared from sight, apparently having landed amidst the trees of some nearby woodland.

Bewildered by what they had witnessed, Edward and his brother quickly hurried home with their friend to tell their mother.

Initially sceptical of the story, Kathleen May's resolve shifted when she saw the unwavering concern and alarm in her two children.

Their insistence spurred her to take action and investigate the matter herself.

At their behest, She warily agreed to escort them into the woods to the location where they believed the object had landed, stating that they would take the family's pet dog with them as a precaution.

She further decided to call a family friend, Eugene Lemon, to go with them, believing that his experience as a National Guardsman would provide further safety.

Lemon duly attended the May household a short time later, accompanied by two of his own friends.

before the entire group then slowly set off on foot into the woods.

Cautiously, the small group made their way deeper into the tree line, realizing that they were traveling in the direction of a local farm which belonged to one of their neighbours.

Several minutes later, upon cresting a small rise which looked down onto an open patch of land within the forest boundaries, they located what the boys had witnessed.

All would describe it as an egg-shaped craft of some kind, which was continually radiating a dull crimson glow, generated from somewhere deep inside its interior.

In addition to this pulsing red light, the strange object was emitting a large amount of greenish vapor, which seemingly clung low to the ground where it had landed.

Acting on instinct, the family dog aggressively slipped its lead and then ran down towards the object.

where it then suffered a violently adverse reaction to the vapor.

Immediately becoming distressed and agitated, it turned and ran directly past its astonished masters, heading back in the direction of their home.

But before anyone could turn to follow the animal, the group had been disturbed by a loud and persistent hissing sound emanating from somewhere above them.

As they had tried to identify this unsettling commotion, The beam from Eugene's torch suddenly picked out an unnatural shape, concealed within the reaches of a nearby tree.

The dim light caught only fleeting glimpses of a strange figure, but even those few features were sufficient to ignite an immediate and overwhelming sense of terror in those standing below.

Somehow suspended in mid-air was a humanoid figure approximately 10 feet tall, emitting a green mist from its body, similar to the eerie substance emanating from the nearby object.

It was attired in what looked like a dark green cloak which rose up to form a hood, the shape of which resembled the ace of spades, framing a bright red head and face.

The beam from Lemon's torch had just picked out what resembled a pair of claw-like talons at the extremities of the creature's arms, when something even more bizarre took place.

Two columns of red light shot vertically from the entity's head, almost as if it had opened its eyes and was scanning the skies above.

These beams then gradually moved down towards the onlookers below and rested upon them for a moment, before the entity generated a further sinister hissing sound.

Moments later, the bizarre apparition began to slowly descend from its hiding place, its body gliding along a steady and controlled path as it did so.

The two beams of light being projected from its eyes remained firmly fixed upon the small group, as a growing cloud of mist accompanied its descent.

At this point, with a cry of unrestrained fear, Lemon dropped his torch and turned on his heel, running as fast as he could from the woods, hurriedly followed by everyone else.

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In the aftermath, The May household called the state police for assistance.

Meanwhile, the health of several individuals who had been present in the woods rapidly deteriorated.

Not only were several of those who had encountered the entity affected by dizziness and vomiting, but the family dog was also in a bad way.

The police officers listened impassively as the witnesses related their tale, exchanging quizzical looks before they later headed off into the woods themselves.

They would return after half an hour, stating that there was no trace of either the object, the mysterious entity that had accompanied it, or the green mist the witnesses had described.

Statements were taken and then the officers left, with word quickly spreading through town about the alleged incident, leading to further searches by neighbours over the coming days.

But beyond some undefined indentations found in the ground at various points throughout the area and some freshly broken foliage, no physical evidence of the encounter was found.

However, the fantastic nature of the story continued to propel it far beyond the boundaries of Flatwoods.

With national media outlets hungry to hear more about the incident, numerous publications ultimately descended upon the town.

leading to Kathleen May and Eugene Lemon being asked to participate in a CBS television interview to recount their tale.

At this point, more witnesses came forward, adding further credence to a story which had seemed completely unbelievable prior to these additional accounts.

Several weeks before, a young girl named Audra Harper and her friend had been taking a shortcut home through woodland near the town of Heaters,

located not far from Flatwoods.

Suddenly, the skies above them were bathed in an eerie red glow, which appeared to be emanating from a large orb that had landed atop a nearby hillside.

Disturbed by a movement behind them, the two girls turned to see an impossibly tall and thin shadowy figure emerging from within the adjoining tree line.

They immediately ran off as quickly as they could, later sharing the encounter with their parents, who had instead admonished them for walking alone in the woods after dark.

Then, a married couple named Edith and George Snatowski came forwards to describe an incident which they claimed had taken place the day after the May family sighting.

That evening, the husband and wife had been travelling in their car with their 18-month-old son along Route 4, around 20 miles south of Flatwoods.

Without any warning, The engine of their car had cut out, causing it to coast to a complete stop, where it had then stubbornly refused to restart.

George had then popped the bonnet and stepped out of the vehicle to investigate further, when he suddenly stopped, as both he and the car were illuminated by a bright light coming from above.

Overcome by an intense smell of sulphur, a dark figure materialised on the road ahead of him.

and began to make its way towards the car.

Taking refuge back inside the vehicle, George and Edith watched as this reptilian-like figure approached, resting its hands on the bonnet and peering in at them through the windows in an inquisitive manner.

Seemingly satisfied with what it had observed, this unearthly visitor then turned and walked back the way it came, vanishing with the light being cast down onto the scene.

Not long after, the engine of the Snitowski's car had inexplicably fired back into life, allowing them to continue with their journey.

As with many similar incidents from the North American mainland, the Flatwoods monster has gone on to cement itself firmly in supernatural lore.

It has been depicted in movies and television shows, as well as being recreated as an antagonist in the highly successful video game franchise, Fallout.

And yet, with no apparent physical evidence that that the incident ever took place, is there anything more to this tale than the questionable testimony of a small group of people?

Skeptics point to alterations in the descriptions of the creature provided by the May family and their associates, as the story inevitably went on to gain traction across the country, and later, internationally.

For instance, The figure was originally described as having been of average human height, but appears to have grown to twice that size over the lifetime of successive retellings.

Elsewhere, the complexion of the entity was somewhat unclear.

Both Edward and Fred were convinced it was robotic in nature, most likely some form of automated guardian or sentinel, which had been watching over the nearby craft before becoming aware of the approaching witnesses.

But in the same breath, they describe very animalistic and organic talons at the extremities of the creature's arms.

This element in particular offers an alternative explanation for the encounter, with the claws sounding very much like those of a barn owl perched up in the tree, its shape and shadow possibly being grossly distorted by the torchlight that was cast upon it.

This was a theory put forth by Joan Nicoll, who, it should be noted, has something of a reputation for dismissing alien encounters as the misidentification of owls, attempting to debunk both the Kelly Hopkinsville case and the Mothman sightings in the same way.

That being said, the encounter took place at a highly tense period during America's history.

The national media generated a great degree of fear relating to Soviet spies and military incursions.

So it's not entirely beyond the realm of possibility that the family witnessed something they could not explain and allowed their imaginations to fill in in the gaps.

And yet, there is evidence that the US government may have acted to try and cover up this event, along with several others that occurred around the same time, for reasons which remain unknown to this day.

Many years later, a local National Guard officer named Captain Dale Levitt disclosed that he and his men had been deployed to the forests around Flatwoods soon after the event.

Apparently, they had seized metal fragments and oily residue which they had discovered nearby.

The men had then packed these up and sent them off to Washington, DC for analysis.

At the same time, there was a much wider string of UFO sightings taking place along America's eastern seaboard, which resulted in the loss of a military interceptor aircraft.

An F-94 Starfire had taken off from its base in Tampa, Florida, around the exact time that the Flatwoods incident was alleged to have occurred.

Its pilot was ordered to follow a patrol route as part of an increased offensive strategy generated by the wave of UFO sightings that were being reported at the time.

But not long after it had arrived within its patrol area, the Starfire unexpectedly disappeared from radar screens, prompting a far-reaching yet unsuccessful search and rescue mission.

In the years that followed, all record of the aircraft and its crew, John Jones Jr.

and John Del Curto, were quietly removed from United States Air Force records.

The military refused to answer any subsequent inquiries over the incident, including those submitted by the families of the two missing airmen.

Speculation has been prompted that whatever came down from the skies above Flatwoods may have been involved in an encounter of its own with the missing military interceptor.

When all is said and done, the Flatwoods incident is similar to many other such encounters of its ilk in that no other related sightings were again reported after it took place.

The creatures involved in such cases are presented in a very different manner to other mysterious entities, such as the Skinwalker or Sasquatch.

seeming to have only visited for a very brief and solitary time rather than settling into any extensive residence.

And yet, despite its remote nature, its wider legacy sees thousands of visitors to the small and otherwise unassuming West Virginian town every year,

all desperate to find evidence in favour of the story and to spend their hard-earned cash on souvenirs from its retelling.

But in the end, only those who are there that day will ever know the truth.

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Story 2.

The Grafton Monster

Of the various territories across the USA, Few have produced as many high-profile encrypted encounters as West Virginia.

This mountainous region has been the backdrop for both the Flatwoods monster and the Mothman sightings of the 1950s and 60s.

However, a lesser-known creature is also said to haunt its countryside, an entity that would later become known as the Grafton Monster.

During the 1830s, plans were devised to construct a vital road link through the inhospitable Appalachian Mountains.

As part of this endeavor, those involved began to consider locations along the proposed route which might lend themselves to the establishment of new communities.

One of the sites eventually chosen was a patch of land situated on a steep hillside adjacent to the Tygart River.

The few families who initially established farmsteads in the area had tentatively named their community Grafton.

A decade later, this fledgling town would unexpectedly become the intersection between a new stretch of railroad and the existing highway.

Fully accessible by road, rail and river, Grafton began to expand significantly.

However,

Along with the prosperity that accompanied such development, the town's residents soon found themselves in a precarious position.

Grafton's strategic importance made it the site of violent clashes during the American Civil War.

Despite this, the years following that conflict heralded a period of unrestrained economic growth which would continue for nearly a century, with numerous companies selecting the settlement as a place for keen investment.

By the 1950s, however, this prosperous era came to an end as both financial and environmental factors led to the widespread withdrawal of industry.

This left the once thriving community a shell of its former self, marked by abandoned and dilapidated factories and struggling to maintain its identity amidst the chaotic politics of the Cold War.

It is fair to say that its residents were completely unprepared for an unexpected and haunting encounter which would thrust them back into the national spotlight.

At roughly 11pm on the 16th of June 1964,

a young man named Robert Cockrell was driving through the town making his way home from work.

Cockrell, a reporter for the local newspaper known as the Grafton Sentinel, was eager to head straight to bed and get some sleep after working late at the paper's offices that evening.

He had been travelling along Riverside Drive not far from where he lived, but had to reduce his speed as the road ahead transitioned into a series of meandering bends.

As the reporter was negotiating one of the sharper bends, he was suddenly forced to slam his foot on the brakes.

The headlights of his vehicle illuminated the outline of a bulky figure, standing in the middle of the carriageway.

Staring straight ahead, Cockrell could not quite believe his eyes, as this lumbering creature ponderously continued its journey from one side of the road to the other.

Considering the size and shape of the shadow it cast, he had at first reasoned that the hulking frame must have belonged to a bear.

But at the same time, he realised it was almost completely white, rather than the black or brown he would have expected to see.

In addition, the vehicle headlights were reflecting off what appeared to be a slick and almost oily pelt, like that of a seal as opposed to the furry coat of an ursine mammal.

Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of this creature was that no matter how much he stared, the young reporter could not discern anything that remotely resembled a head situated anywhere atop its body.

Instead, it appeared to possess a powerful set of upper arms and shoulders, which emphasised an almost rectangular profile supported by two short and stocky legs.

Seemingly unaware of either Cocrel or the car he was driving, the enormous being continued on its way regardless, emitting a shrill and high-pitched whistling sound as it did so, despite lacking any discernible mouth or other orifice which might have enabled it to produce such a commotion.

Seconds later it was gone, pushing through the long grass at the side of the road and penetrating the tree line before disappearing from view.

For the next 30 seconds or so, Cockrell remained dumbfounded at the wheel of his car, his eyes flitting from the centre of the road to the point where he had last seen the creature.

His mind eventually made up, he turned the vehicle around and headed back into the centre of the city.

in order to share the story of this encounter with two of his colleagues.

At first, neither Jerry Morse nor Jim Mauser had been keen to assist their co-worker, reasoning that he was merely overtired from the long day they had shared in the newsroom.

But through his persistence, Cockrell was finally able to persuade both men to accompany him back to the location where he had seen the mysterious creature.

Several minutes later, the trio found themselves standing out on the roadside surveying a trail of trampled flora and fauna, which led off into the woods.

No sooner had they plucked up the courage to venture further through the tree line in pursuit of the strange entity, than all three men suddenly stopped in their tracks.

A strange and protracted whistling sound came from in amongst the trees ahead of them, accompanied by the snapping of twigs and branches underfoot.

This commotion immediately prompted the three reporters to retreat to Cockrell's car car and drive directly back to their offices, where they would remain until daybreak debating whether they should share the story of what they had experienced with the rest of their community.

Having missed the deadline for publishing a fresh news story, Cockrell instead spent the day writing an article on his encounter with the creature.

before submitting it to his editor.

Thus, it was the following morning that the citizens of Grafton awoke to the news of a towering monster which had been seen lurking on the outskirts of their city.

Far from the ridicule that Robert Cockrell had anticipated, he instead found himself besieged by requests for further detail about what he had experienced.

Within days, national newspapers had taken hold of the story, with the officers of the Grafton Sentinel being sent accounts of identical creatures seen around neighbouring cities.

So great was the interest in the sighting that for the rest of that summer, the local police were forced to turn away armed hunting parties and gangs of drunken youths looking to enter the woods.

Many of these groups were causing issues for the residents on the outskirts of Grafton as they rampaged across boundaries and fence lines searching for evidence of the creature.

Despite several further sightings, the city authorities moved to quickly push back on Cockrell's account in an effort to stem the rising tide of would-be monster hunters.

But over the coming years, more witnesses would approach the newspaper with their accounts of having seen the bear-like entity that the Cockrell incident had made famous.

During one such encounter, A father and son had been felling trees in a patch of woodland which was situated not far from Grafton's city limits.

As they had been coming towards the end of their task, the two dogs which they had brought with them for company had begun to bark uncontrollably.

Lowering their chainsaws, the pair now became aware of a commotion approaching them, coming from deeper within the woods.

Thinking they were being stalked by a bear, The two men moved across to their vehicle and retrieved their shotguns.

Turning to face whatever was approaching, their jaws fell open in surprise.

The bracken ahead of them parted to reveal an enormous being, entirely covered in a glistening white pelt, as if it had recently emerged from some water source.

This beast's torso was broad and powerfully built, giving it the appearance of a gorilla or other large primate.

But where there should have been a head, there was instead only a thick corpus of sinew and muscle.

Taking in the creature's powerful frame and large hands, both men immediately cocked their weapons and took aim, as their dogs continued to bark.

They did not, however, open fire, as it became increasingly clear that the towering interloper seemed to be completely unaware of their presence.

It stood for a moment as if surveying the ground, despite having no eyes or ears, and then took a step forwards.

Slowly covering the 50 yards between it and the two woodcutters, it moved past them and their animals, utterly oblivious to their watching eyes, before then moving out of sight into a thick patch of trees.

The pair were left dumbfounded, whilst their dogs barked and held themselves hoarse.

beside them.

A decade later during the mid-80s, police officers based in Grafton responded to reports of a disturbance at a local campsite.

Upon their arrival, the deputies found several Good Samaritans huddled around a bedraggled camper who had obviously fallen into the water.

As he slowly regained his composure, The shivering victim explained how he had decided to take a boat out on the nearby river to do a bit of night fishing.

Over the next hour or so, he had gleefully netted a few sturgeon, pleased with his decision to fish when there was nobody around to compete with.

That wasn't till he had felt something firm and unyielding bump heavily against the hull of the boat he had appropriated.

Leaning forwards to look down over the side, the fisherman could not see anything that might impede the boat's progress.

only for the water behind him to suddenly explode in an upwards torrent.

The cause of this disturbance was a large and deathly pale figure, which was thrashing all around itself in a wild and seemingly distressed manner.

Its huge fists hammered back and forth until they made contact with the side of the boat, which it immediately began to push down upon.

The force of this action caused the hull to quickly disappear beneath the surface of the water, sending its sole occupant into the river.

As he thrashed around and screamed for help, desperately trying to avoid drowning, the fisherman became aware of lights now being switched on in the nearby campsite.

Meanwhile, the pale-skinned giant continued to grab and reach out around itself as if it was searching for him.

As with the two woodcutters, it seemed unaware of any audible stimuli.

as it didn't appear to react to his cries for help.

It then moved off away from him until it disappeared from sight beneath the flowing water, seemingly satisfied with having sunk the boat as if that had been the creature's goal all along.

The fisherman was rescued in short order by his fellow campers, who saw no sign of the boat he had been in nor any evidence of his attacker, save for a few loose items left floating on the surface of the water, which slowly drifted away on the river's current.

The Grafton monster is markedly different to similar cryptid encounters which have been reported across the United States due to the unique description of the creature involved.

There have been multiple sightings of Sasquatches, dogmen and lizard-like entities amongst many others, but nothing that seems to match what was described by the Grafton witnesses.

It has been speculated that this being is likely an unknown species, which has only sparingly come into contact with humans.

Possibly something with no natural predators to inhibit it and which usually resides within a dark and watery environment, with no need for sensory organs pertaining to light and sound.

Others have theorised that the creature may well be an existing species, such as a bear which has either been badly injured or mutated by an external factor.

It is equally possible that the entity may indeed possess a head, but that the stress brought on by its monstrous appearance has affected the recall of those who have encountered it.

This was certainly the belief during the initial reports of the encounter, with Robert Cockrell's editors believing he had seen someone pushing along a heavily laden hand cart, with the upper body and head of the pedestrian being obscured behind the load they were moving.

They theorized that Cockrell's fatigued mind had instead constructed what he believed to be a headless creature.

But there is one final hypothesis which is unlike any other we have explored in any of our previous episodes.

It focuses upon the lack of an obvious head or the need for one and suggests that what was witnessed was in fact a golem.

This is a type of being fashioned or created out of mud and clay by those of the Jewish faith.

and borne into existence through religious belief.

This would mean that it had no mind or consciousness of its own and therefore lacks the trappings of an organic creature.

It simply wanders the land long after the death of its creator, requiring neither sustenance nor rest in order to prolong its existence.

Although sporadic reports of this headless creature have continued into recent times, They have steadily diminished since the initial wave experienced during the 1960s, a decade that was notorious for sightings of strange and unknown entities.

This was perhaps largely due to the stresses exerted upon the population by the looming spectre of possible nuclear war, which in turn created a need for distractions.

We can only wait and see if the remains of a similar creature are ever recovered, either from below the waters of West Virginia's rivers and lakes, or deep within the boundaries of its woods and forests.

Until then, we are left at the mercy of anecdotes and unending speculation.