Status: Explained — one proposed explanation is a meteor plus a barn owl in a tree; not universally accepted.
Credit: Tim Bertelink · Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons) · Source
At about 7:15 p.m. on September 12, 1952, two brothers and a friend in Flatwoods, West Virginia, saw a bright object cross the sky and appear to land on a nearby farm. They told the boys' mother, and a group that included West Virginia National Guardsman Eugene Lemon and several local children walked up the hill to look.
The group reported a pulsing red light. Lemon aimed his flashlight and said it briefly lit a tall, man-like figure with a round red face inside a pointed, hood-like shape. Descriptions of the being varied, but it was often said to be about ten feet tall, with glowing eyes and a hissing sound. The witnesses said it glided toward them, Lemon screamed and dropped his flashlight, and everyone ran.
The “Braxton County monster” became a national story. In 2000, paranormal investigator Joe Nickell suggested the bright light was a meteor and that the creature may have been a barn owl perched in a tree, whose shadows and shape could resemble a large figure. Flatwoods still keeps the legend alive with a local monster museum, and the case remains a favorite of folklore as well as UFO history.
Sources: Wikipedia: Flatwoods monster
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