The Atlas Obscura Podcast · Thursday, August 13, 2026
Witnesses to the 1952 Flatwoods Monster sighting described a floating, 10-foot-tall creature with a red face, metallic attire, and a spade-shaped head, emitting a metallic odor. Despite a police investigation that found no evidence, the event became a media sensation, leading to further reports and connecting to broader cultural anxieties about unidentified aerial phenomena during the Cold War era.
“They didn't say that it walked or jumped, they said floated. And they had this like crazy metallic, stinky odor coming from its body.”
“So the police investigated. Um, they found nothing. They could find no evidence of any kind of organism or creature.”
“This was a period of time that I like to call the flying saucer period in America.”