Monroe County UFO Seen by Hinton Woman

The citizens of Hinton, WV seem to have a knack for spotting UFO’s around Summers and the surrounding counties! I recently stumbled upon a newspaper article from the January 10, 1948 edition of the Hinton Daily News highlighting a strange sighting of fireballs in the sky by Mrs. J.W. Bland.

Mrs. Bland and her husband were returning to their home in Hinton from a nice little day trip to see Organ Cave in nearby Greenbrier County. About 7pm that evening, they were passing through the small community of Pickaway in Monroe County and Mrs. Bland noticed something in the sky. She described it as a big, round ball of fire with a dark thing in the center—a thing that resembled a human body. At first, her husband tried to convince her she was just seeing the evening star, but when the strange flaming ball descended straight down rapidly, he decided to pull over for a better look. 

They watched this ball of fire for about 35 minutes as it circled around trees at varying speeds, seemingly governed by the wind. Not only did the speed fluctuate, but the very shape of the thing did as well, going from a perfect sphere to more oblong in shape. After awhile it just zoomed straight up and disappeared.

The following day, Mrs. Bland called the local newspaper office to report her sighting. Earlier that week, the topic of flying saucers and strange lights in the sky was once more a hot issue, as similar reports had been coming in from Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, even being spotted by Air Force personnel. However, Mrs. Bland is credited as being the first to witness this particular flap of aerial phenomenon in West Virginia. 

Interestingly, the summer before when the country was collectively deciding what to make out of the news of a potential UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico, another Hinton housewife, Lee Ramsey (interestingly, who lived on the same street as Mrs. Bland a couple of blocks down) saw a group of saucer-shaped craft over her home. And the story continues…

In 1952, the UFOs returned to Hinton. In July, a group of women on Summers Street (the SAME street that Mrs. Bland and Mrs. Ramsey lived on) saw a big round spinning thing over the New River from their porch. A month later, the passengers on a bus driving through Hinton also had a weird sighting of what they described as an aluminum bathtub-shaped object in the sky near the ballpark. 

I’m not sure what makes Hinton residents so inclined to see strange aerial phenomenon, or maybe just more willing to report it and publish it, but I’m happy that we have these stories preserved. My grandmother grew up just outside of Hinton, and while she tended to tell more tales of ghosts than UFOs, it makes me wonder. Her family had already moved to Beckley by 1940, however, so they missed out on these well-known post WWII UFO flaps. Also…I think I need to do a little more digging into this Summers Street phenomenon. I know that it is a main thoroughfare that runs quite a distance through town with many residences along the way. But, there’s something that just sticks out to me about this “Ladies’ Summers Street UFO Club.” Did these ladies know each other? Did they talk about their sightings? Why in the world did so many women on Summers Street see UFOs???

Lee Ramsey UFO Sighting