Posted on 09/12/2002 9:37:37 AM PDT by itzmygun
Science still cannot explain fact or fiction
NORMAN JULIAN
Ever heard of the Flatwoods Monster seen on Sept. 12, 1952, in Braxton County?
More on that in a minute.
Most of us who have been exposed to science believe in a rational universe without miracles.
When something comes into conflict with something else that has been proved by scientific research, we tend to dismiss it or believe it has an explanation that can be attributed to natural causes.
So where do unidentified objects or appearances that boggle our logic come in?
The movie "Signs," starring Mel Gibson, dramatizes those crop circles that turn up in crop fields.
Recently on WAJR, an expert dismissed them as elaborate human hoaxes. And what about those unidentified flying objects whose appearances peaked in the 1950s?
Was someone trying to perpetrate a hoax, or hallucinating?
I believed so until someone I had known all my life told me she saw a flying saucer in the 1950s at Clarksburg.
This was when sightings and strange happenings were occurring in the United States, like at Roswell, N.M.
The eyewitness I knew was a stable person not given to fantasy or hysteria. I saw her every day. She said the object looked exactly like a saucer that seemed to be spinning as it looped across the sky. She told only her immediate family.
And what about the Flatwoods Monster? The fall edition of GOLDENSEAL, a magazine of state history and culture, (goldenseal@wvuculture.org) includes a 6-page spread on The Legend of the Flatwoods Monster by Buddy Griffin.
Griffin cites Associated Press stories that reported that seven Braxton County residents vowed to have seen a hominoid-like "monster" 12 feet tall.
First they spotted a fireball that crashed. They trekked over a hill to see what happened and saw pulsing lights amid a weird fog. There was a metallic scent.
Then a "monster" with fiery glowing eyes emerged from the miasma. Officials checked out the site and noted two long skid marks, trampled, greasy grass and that distinctive odor.
When the national media got hold of the story, it took off, even as the UFO craze that was sweeping the country did. "Flatwoods" was voted one of the nation's Top 10 stories by the AP for 1952.
It was left to Gray Barker, a freelance writer who was born in Braxton County, to do the definitive research while living in Clarksburg. He wrote a book titled "They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers" (1956), that made him a reputation as an expert.
Much of his research still is stored at the Clarksburg-Harrison Library. Former library director Merle Moore showed me the room where scores of boxes of his materials were assembled.
Barker sometimes visited the newspaper where I worked. He was easily recognizable about town because he drove a late model Lincoln. What he was up to was often a topic of conversation.
That the universe likely is teeming with life is a proposition some scientists say is likely. That the Earth has been visited by alien man-like creatures isn't.
As the late astronomer Carl Sagan explained on his popular public television program, "The Cosmos," life emerging elsewhere would take a different course.
Something as yet fully unexplained did happen a half century ago at Flatwoods.
Flatwoods Monster
It is strange that it seems to be quite an original character - not the little bug-eyed gray men most claim to see.
My dad, the straightest-laced, most unassuming guy I know, has quitely told the story (only once or twice) of watching a "steel looking cylinder" slowly fly over him just above the treetops making no sound. His UFO. BTW, he would know a BLIMP if he saw one. He has not looked for any publicity.
Not quite an alien, but a little too 'lite' to make a decent monster, Mothman carved out a territory of his (her? its?) own.
Scary, yes. But manageably scary...
You knew if you ever saw him flying alongside the car on a dark night all you had to do was roll up the window to be safe.
I remember the description of the stench and glowing eyes... non-humanoid.
Hey... is Art Bell coming back tonight? ;^D
I know someone who swears he and his whole family saw a UFO. I know another dude who swears one night he saw a ghost moving stuff around. Seriously.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure Tom Laney was the one moving the ouija board around that night, I'm just not sure how he knew the answers to some of those questions...
Despite his left-wing tendencies, I found Sagan's TV productions to be fascinating entertainment. It may be somewhat trivial, but I believe the series was simply titled "Cosmos".
I do believe in a rational universe, mostly, but I don't discount miracles.
If it doesn't fit current models, it doesn't exist or didn't happen.
If a policeman or fire chief said that I might believe it.
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