On the night of September 12th, 1952, seven residents of the small, central West Virginia town of Flatwoods were stunned as they witnessed a pulsing red light coming from a local farm. Searching the area by flashlight, they came face-to-face with an eerie, 10-foot-tall, green creature with a red face in the shape of the ace of spades.
In the 70 years since this terrifying incident, the legend of this strange being, which came to be known as the Flatwoods Monster, has continued to grow (despite the encounter being debunked by modern investigators), and has catapulted this quiet Appalachian hamlet into a tourist haven for intrepid travelers hoping to catch sight of the legendary creature.
On a recent road trip, I dragged my own family off the beaten path to visit Flatwoods after seeing a tourism brochure for the town mixed in with fliers promoting numerous local haunts. Upon
