1973 UFO Flap Hits Kanawha County

West Virginia State Police Headquarters South Charleston

Happy World UFO Day! As we celebrate flying saucers, UFOs, and little green men across the globe, let’s take a second to shout out another story (or stories) from right here in the Mountain State!

 In October of 1973, UFOs dominated the skies over much of the eastern United States. West Virginia had its fair share of reports that month, with a large concentration of sightings in the southern part of the state, namely around Beckley surrounding areas. But, although less talked about, Kanawha County got it’s fair share of weird reports, too. The West Virginia State Police detachment in South Charleston took calls on two separate incidents of a potential UFO CRASH! The reports came in from the Coal Mountain area of St. Albans and from the Alum Creek area. 

The St. Albans call came first, and the caller was reported as being a ‘sober-sounding’ male saying that he had seen a strange craft covered with lights and making weird noises descending from the heavens. Bob Gunnoe, state police dispatcher, rather dryly comments that it must have ascended just as quickly, because the only thing matching that description (lights and weird sounds, I guess) was a jukebox in the local beer joint.

The second call came in around 10pm on October 17th. This time, a lady caller from Alum Creek reported an oddly colored and illuminated object falling from the sky. When troopers arrived on scene, they didn’t find any spacecraft—just a drunk guy who they arrested for public intoxication. Before the article cuts off and is continued on the next page (which is conveniently missing from the archive service I’ve used), one last dig at the UFO sightings is given. A story about a married Clendenin man experiencing a “flying saucer”, along with a flying ash tray and cup at breakfast that morning was shared, because in 1973 domestic violence was hilarious. 

Anyway, I’m kinda bummed that the second part of the article is missing. I’ll have to head out to the library to see if I can find the second page, and see whether or not it has additional information. St. Albans is no stranger to UFO sightings, and in fact, local UFO researcher, Ralph Jarrett, developed his interest in the phenomenon when he saw not one, but THREE separate UFOs over his St. Albans home between 1966 and 1967. I’d be interested to see if those sightings were cited, or if any mention was made about the weirdness over the skies of Beckley, which you can read about HERE and HERE and HERE.

Keep your eyes to the skies! 

The Charleston Daily Mail 18 October 1973