The Grafton Monster, Grafton West Virginia

Grafton, West Virginia is a unique town that showcases its railroad boomtown years and wealthy mining history through extraordinary architecture, landscaped parks and pop-up mansions. The small city center is surrounded by small farms and extremely dense forests. Its big city living in rural America. The humble populace is quick to point out two claims to fame for the town. The invention of Mother's Day there in 1908 and well...the other claim to fame...the thing that prowls on the outskirts of town, the thing in the forest...the Grafton Monster.

This is Unsolved Mysteries of the World Season 4 Episode 12 The Grafton Monster.

It was late at night, around 11pm on June 16th, 1964 when Robert Cockrell, a reporter for the Grafton Sentinal newspaper was heading home from the office. Driving along Riverside Drive, which parallels the Tygart River, he pressed his accelerator down picking up speed to about 50 Mph. He knew the road well, and knew that there would be no traffic this late at night. He rounded a wide curve and began accelerating when he exited the corner on the long stretch of straight pavement that lay before him.

Suddenly, he laid off the gas as his headlight beams hit something out of place. According to Robert Cockrell it appeared to be “a huge white obstruction on the right side of the road standing between the road and the riverbank on a cleared-off section of grass.”

Instinctively, he applied the brakes and noted that the out of place object was in fact a living beast, the likes of which he says he had never seen before. He claims the beast was stark white, with slick, seal like skin, or a covering, at least, that appeared to resemble seal skin. More oddly, it appeared to have no head.

His foot quickly went from brake peddle, back to the accelerator and he pressed it down to the floor board. He raced home, parked his car, went inside, locked his door and sat down on his sofa with a drink. His hands were trembling.

Twenty minutes later, with his nerves back he decided he should at least investigate. He called on two friends to join him and together they returned to the straight stretch of road where Robert claims to have seen the beast but after searching up and down the roadway, along the riverbank and into the forest a short distance they concluded that whatever was there was no where in sight.

They found no tracks but noted that where Robert had seen the beast, the grass was firmly mashed in to the ground. As they were about to give up on the search and call in a night, they heard an odd, low whistling sound coming from the direction of the river. The three noted that the whistling sound seemed to follow them no matter what direction they went to investigate. First, it was by the river, then down the road, then in the forest. They could not find the source and with the evening turning into the morning hours they decided it would probably be best to return in daylight and concluded the search.

Robert Cockrell went to work the next day, but did not mention his sighting, nor his search there afterwards. He sat at his typewriter and finally, after talking himself into it, he walked into his editor's office and told him about the encounter. The editor told Robert that they would publish a small piece about the incident and perhaps the public would be intrigued or have a possible answer to the mystery.

The June 18th edition of the Grafton Sentinel had a small article written by Robert about the sighting. The newspaper was quickly bought up that morning and word of the beast spread through town creating anxiety, hysteria and bravado. Suddenly, the small town of Grafton turned into the base for one of the largest monster hunting expeditions ever. More than a hundred adults and teens, armed with flashlights, mallets, crowbars, pitchforks, baseball bats, shotguns, revolvers and hunting rifles started searching the river bank and forested area where the monster was first sighted.

More than twenty searchers said they saw it while out monster hunting. Robert Cockrell interviewed the witnesses in detail and one teen suggested the creature was an escaped polar bear, but no one could determine where or what a polar bear was doing in Grafton, West Virginia.

The next day, with the town in a frenzy, local police started their own investigation. With the hysteria of the Grafton Monster now making news across West Virginia, county and state authorities also joined in on the hunt. Together, they made an extensive search of the area and found no evidence of a monster.

Police had more potential issues arising, however, as more than a few hundred people now descended on the town with an extensive armament of firearms. The roads were bumber to bumper with monster hunters.

It is by no coincidence, then, that The Grafton Sentinel printed off another article that day dismissing the monster a