Did you know?
With Halloween fast approaching in 1952, there was a “mysterious” local sighting that made the front page of the Uniontown Evening Standard on Oct. 28. “Just What Is ‘The Thing’ Seen Near Elliottsville,” asked the headline.
It seems a Summit Hotel waitress claimed that she and her daughter had seen a “thing” that had a “head like a dog, a long snout, the body of a deer,” it was reported.
Another woman, from Pittsburgh, reported seeing a “huge beast” during her stay at the Summit Hotel. And the manager at the Summit, Sam Stewart, theorized that the mysterious beast could have been connected to something that he called the “West Virginia monster.”
It seems on Sept. 12, 1952, there had been the report of a contact with an extraterrestrial being in Braxton County, W.Va. The “Flatwoods Monster,” or “Braxton County Monster,” had reportedly been spotted by two brothers (ages 12 and 13) and their 10-year-old friend.
Others reported witnessing a UFO land in the hills. A number of people were interviewed about what they’d seen, and a 17-year-old National Guardsman, Eugene Lemon, claimed to have not only gotten a close-up look at a “creature,” but he later complained of suffering from a sickness after being exposed to a mist the supposed creature had emitted.
It was later discovered, in 2000, that what people had seen on that September night in 1952 was most likely a meteor. But that hasn’t stopped the folks in Flatwoods from having an annual three-day “Green Monster” festival.
As far as the report of that “huge beast” that had been reported in the hills above Uniontown in 1952 — I was unable to find any further reports about it.
That could have been a result of a much more important story that appeared on the front page, the day of the “beast” sightings. “1200-Acre Mountain Blaze Still Burning,” said the bold front-page headline.
It was reported that 150 firefighters were battling to contain a forest fire “in the Jumonville-Coolspring section above Hopwood.” The “tinder-dry and windy” conditions made fighting the fire “hazardous and difficult,” the report said.
The following day, on Sept. 29, there was some optimism that the worst could be over. “Forest Fires in Region Now Under Control,” said the headline on the front page of the Evening Standard.
The fire in the Jumonville-Coolspring sector had been put out, but it was also reported that the fires had been more widespread than just in Fayette County. “2000 Acre Fire in Somerset Region Put Out By Firemen,” said the sub-headline.
It was thought that the fires had been set by “the carelessness of a hunter or a hiker with a cigaret (sic) or campfire.”
That theory didn’t really seem to be very plausible. The fires had not only been set in Fayette and Somerset counties, but there had been over 30 grass and brush fires that had to have been extinguished in Greene County. (There would have had to have been a lot of hunting and hiking — and a whole lot of carelessness for all of those fires.)
But there was still optimism that the fires could be controlled. Adding to that optimism, there was a forecast that temperatures could dip that night to 15 degrees.
Unfortunately, though, two days later, the optimism — not the fires — was extinguished, when it was reported that the thermometer never dropped to 15 degrees, and “Raging Fires Threatening Coolspring; 1,000 Acres Burning” was the headline that greeted the readers of the Evening Standard that day.
“Flames shooting high into the air had burned over more than 1,000 acres, as a dense cloud of smoke covered the vicinity,” it was reported.
There were now 250 firefighters from all over the area on the scene. “Forest fires sweep district,” was the front-page headline atop the Nov. 1 1952 edition of the Evening Standard. There was also an ominous sub-headline above that day’s coverage: “Liberty Powder Plant at Mount Braddock Threatened; 3,000 Acres Are Covered.”
“Heroic efforts by hundreds of hard-pressed firefighters had prevented major disasters up to this morning,” said the report.
It was also becoming increasingly clear that the “carelessness of hunters or hikers” had not been the cause of the widespread fires.
“There were rumors in almost every section about ‘firebugs’,” it was reported.
And by Nov. 4, with the fires completely under control, hunters and hikers were, at least in news reports, exonerated.
“‘Firebug’ Suspected In Numerous Forest Blazes,” was the front-page headline that day.
Because many of the fires were started in remote, “inaccessible” areas, police investigators theorized that they were set deliberately. However, as far as I can tell, nobody was ever held responsible.
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