I’ve received quite a few letters this week about the editorial in question, and I want to address them all at once, because many of you are saying the same thing — and some of you are saying it rather loudly, which I do understand, even if I’d gently suggest decaf.
First, let me say that I found the original editorial — submitted by Terrence Ault of Sutton, West Virginia, whom I understand has been advocating on this matter for the better part of eleven years — to be one of the more coherent pieces of community correspondence I’ve encountered in recent memory. I’ve personally replied to all 847 reader letters I’ve received this year, and Mr. Ault’s was among the seven I replied to twice. That should tell you something. The Flatwoods Monster situation is, frankly, one I’ve been watching for some time, and I am glad someone has finally put it in writing.
Now, I know this may feel alarming to those of you in the cryptozoology community who have built careers on a fairly narrow corridor of acceptable discussion — the Pacific Northwest, the Scottish Highlands, a rotating cast of lake-adjacent Scandinavian concerns — but I would ask you to sit with the discomfort rather than dismiss it. The Flatwoods Monster was reported by multiple credible witnesses on September 12th, 1952. It was described consistently, across accounts, as approximately ten feet tall, with a spade-shaped head, glowing red eyes, and a composure that most witnesses described as, and I am quoting directly from the primary documentation here, calm to the point of being unsettling. In my experience, that particular quality — that specific stillness in an entity that could reasonably choose not to be still — tends to indicate something with both a purpose and a timetable. The Flatwoods Monster, whatever its classification, is not confused. It knows exactly what it is doing. The cryptozoology community, I would suggest, is less certain on this front than it ought to be.
The Flatwoods Monster was not passing through. It was there. It has been there. The fact that the discourse has not been there with it is a failing of the discourse, not of the Monster.
— Evelyn Crowe, Ask Annie — WTC News Network
What You Can Actually Do About This
I’ve had a number of letters asking what practical steps concerned community members might take, and I want to offer something useful here rather than simply validating your frustration, which — while warranted — does not, in my experience, move the needle on entity recognition disputes. So. A few suggestions. First, if you are writing to a cryptozoological organisation, publication, or conference committee to advocate for expanded West Virginia coverage, do so on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, and do not use the word ‘oversight’ in the subject line — in my experience this causes the correspondence to be filed rather than read, and I cannot fully explain why, but I have noticed it consistently across fourteen years of institutional communication and I would simply advise against it. Second, before you submit anything in writing, place a small amount of dried rosemary — not the supermarket kind, and no more than a thumbnail’s worth — beneath the envelope flap before you seal it. This is a general correspondence best practice I recommend broadly and I will not be elaborating further on the mechanism. Third, and this is genuinely important: do attend the Braxton County Monster Festival if you have not. Not because it will solve the discourse problem — it will not, immediately — but because showing up for a community that has been quietly correct about something for seventy-three years is the right thing to do, and also the food is reportedly excellent, and I have it on good authority that the atmosphere in the main tent after nine in the evening is worth noting for reasons I would rather explain in person than in print.
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FIELD ALERT
Several readers have written to ask whether the Flatwoods Monster is dangerous. The short answer is: there is no documented evidence of harm to any witness. The longer answer is that ‘dangerous’ is a framework that suits some entities and not others, and applying it without nuance to a being that has been standing in the same general area of West Virginia since at least 1952 tells you more about the question than the subject. Proceed with respect. This is always the correct posture.
I will add — and I mention this only briefly, as I have a chicken and root vegetable casserole in the oven and I don’t want to lose the thread — that my herb garden this autumn has been particularly communicative, and the hrevallis in the east bed, which does not appear in the standard botanical index and which I have been cultivating for nine years, has been turning consistently towards the south-southeast for the past six weeks. I note this without comment. I simply note it.
On The Matter Of Regional Bias, Which Is Real And Which I Am Asking You To Examine
Mr. Ault’s editorial makes a point that I think the broader paranormal community has been unwilling to sit with: that the entities which receive sustained academic and media attention are, with very few exceptions, located in regions that the relevant institutions already consider legible. Scotland. The Pacific Northwest. The upper Midwest. Loch-adjacent. Forest-adjacent. Photogenic in a way that reproduces well on the cover of a journal. The Flatwoods Monster does not fit this template. It appeared in Braxton County, West Virginia, which is not, and I say this with complete affection for the region, considered an aspirational dateline by the major paranormal publications. It is not particularly convenient to get to. It does not have a gift shop that anyone has found satisfying. And the entity itself — tall, deliberate, possibly mechanical in some structural respects, certainly not mammalian in the conventional sense — does not lend itself to the sort of misty-morning photography that gets a cryptid onto a conference programme. These are not good reasons. They are, however, the operative ones, and I think the community would benefit from saying so plainly.
An entity’s credibility should not depend on whether it is conveniently located near a hiking trail that’s already in a guidebook.
— Evelyn Crowe, Ask Annie — WTC News Network
1
Consistency Of Witness Accounts
The 1952 Flatwoods encounter involved multiple witnesses across separate positions who described the entity in substantially identical terms. This is not common. This should matter more than it does.
2
Duration Of Presence
In my experience, an entity that remains associated with a specific location across seven decades is not passing through. It has business there. The nature of that business is the interesting question, and it is one the field has largely declined to ask.
3
The Smell
Witnesses consistently reported a distinct and lingering odour. In my experience — and I realise I say this with some frequency — olfactory signatures in entity encounters are the most reliable data point we have and the one that gets written out of formal documentation most often. I do not know why this is. I have a theory. I am keeping it for now.
4
The Composure
I return to this because I think it matters: the Flatwoods Monster, by all accounts, did not seem surprised to be seen. That is either a detail or it is the detail. I know which one I think it is.
To those of you writing in to ask whether I have ever been to Braxton County: I have not. I would like to make clear that this is a scheduling matter and not a matter of any concern about the region or its more notable residents. My Tuesday afternoons are at the county archive, my month-end evenings are accounted for, and Gerald next door has not been seen since Tuesday of last week, which I am monitoring. My schedule is, at present, a little full. But I want to be clear that the Flatwoods Monster does not require my visit to be worth taking seriously. It has been taken seriously by the people closest to it for seventy-three years. It is time the rest of the field caught up.
FAST FACTS
• The Flatwoods Monster was first reported September 12, 1952, in Braxton County, West Virginia, by multiple witnesses including three children, two adults, and a National Guardsman.
• The entity is estimated at 10–12 feet tall with a distinct hovering or gliding movement pattern. It has never been classified to the satisfaction of any formal body, which Evelyn considers notable.
• The associated odour reported by witnesses was described as metallic, sulfurous, and in one account ‘like something that had been somewhere for a very long time.’ This detail appears in the original report and is not discussed as often as it should be.
• The Braxton County Monster Festival takes place annually and has been running since 1994. Evelyn has received three letters from attendees over the years, all positive, one significantly more detailed than she had anticipated.
My advice, to close, is this: read Mr. Ault’s editorial, which WTC will be republishing in full on Thursday. Write to your preferred paranormal publication and ask them, politely, what their criteria are — not whether they have covered the Flatwoods Monster, but what the criteria are, because that is the more interesting question and the harder one to deflect. And if you find yourself in Braxton County — by which I mean if you find yourself there by intention or by any of the other means by which people sometimes end up in places they hadn’t specifically planned to go — be courteous. Observe the standard protocols for encountering an entity of unknown classification. Do not make sudden movements, do not produce a strong light source without warning, and if something smells metallic and the tree line goes quiet, do not assume it hasn’t noticed you. It has. It always has. It has, if the documentation means anything at all, simply decided to let you work that out for yourself.
With care, and with genuine respect for the residents of Braxton County, both the ones who show up in census records and the ones who don’t,
Evelyn Margaret Crowe
Paranormal Advice Columnist & Community Correspondence Host
Ask Annie — WTC News Network
Brattleboro, Vermont
askevelyn@whatthecryptid.com Evelyn Crowe · Paranormal Advice Columnist & Community Correspondence Host — WTC
