The Greene County Winged Humanoid

by Cole Herrold

Winged humanoid accounts seem to be a variety of creatures. There are large birdmen accounts, as seen with the Freeport Owlman, Owlman of Mawnan, and the Mothman. Accounts of hairy flying hominids and angelic-type beings are a not-so-common occurrence but have been reported. The most common variety aside from the birdmen are the humanoid bat-winged creatures. While this phenomenon is as ancient as our ability to record such accounts, it appears that there has been a surge of flying humanoid reports with a crescendo occurring in the Great Lakes area of the United States in recent years. These flying humanoids, known collectively as the Chicago Mothman or Lake Michigan Mothman, have been seen en masse during the span of 2016-2020 with reports still coming in. Flying humanoids are because of this flap of sightings and several other accounts reported in states like Wisconsin, Ohio, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska believed to be an entirely midwestern phenomenon. However, reports of similar creatures are seen throughout the United States with some frequency in Pennsylvania. There are scads of reports mostly chronicled by Lon Strickler and Stan Gordon of a variety of bizarre flying humanoids, most of which are from the southern border of the state.

Greene County in Pennsylvania is so predominant in strange occurrences and cryptid sightings that Rosemary Ellen Guiley and Kevin Paul recently released a book called Haunted Hills and Hollows. It is an extremely useful tome for research on Fortean topics in a specific segment of Pa. In it are tons of bizarre encounters from lizardmen, frogmen, dogmen, bigfoot, black spectral mole-like figures, ghosts, and UFOs. Yet of all these topics, there was one of an extra bizarre and more esoteric nature that would add to the already growing list of encounters with creatures known collectively as Flying Humanoids.

It was during July of 2009 when an unnamed witness was driving home. The setting sun had already dipped, and twilight was behind him as he traversed the stretch of road in Wayne Township. The dusk was blackened due to the onslaught of an incoming thunderstorm. The clouds amassed, and flashes of light could be seen illuminating the aerial abyss. This was followed by the cloudy roar of thunder and the sound of cracking light. Soon the natural sound and light display were followed by the onslaught of incoming heavy rain. The torrential downpour sent the driver to slow down as he entered even further into the maelstrom and also the twilight zone. The pelting rain tapped rhythmically on the windshield, and the hypnotic sound distracted him until he saw in the distance something silhouetted in the flash of lightning. He slowed even more as he saw something standing on a fence post a short distance down the road. He noticed that the figure was tall and slender "maybe it's a Great Blue Heron?" he thought as he slowed almost to a crawl. The lightning flashed, and the thunder roared, and the rain beat down on both car and the strange figure seen standing on the fence post. As if this encounter was not reminiscent of a thousand other horror movies, it was going to reveal to be just as cinematic for as the car approached the figure, a streak of lightning erupted from behind the figure, illuminating it and revealing to the startled driver that this was no bird. The once believed feather figure showed instead to be a smooth and slick tight gray-skinned creature. The figure stood 6-7ft tall as it stood perched on top of the fence post, the figure staring in the direction of the moving vehicle with large black teardrop-shaped eyes embedded in a large conical-shaped head. While the large eyes stared forward, there appeared to be nothing else noticeable on its face, no eyes, ears, or mouth, just the large, mesmerizing eyes. The gray-skinned creature had two long human-like arms that were attached in a similar way to a person. The most sinister aspect of this creature, aside from its face or lack thereof a face, was the features that jutted out of the beast's shoulder blades. For there springing forth was a set of a large set of bat-like wings which had tips which were pointed down towards the fence post giving it almost a cape-like appearance. The witness continued to stare at the bizarre beast, yet the creature did not return its gaze. It continued to stare ahead, either not noticing the vehicle or zoning out on the side of the road. The witness got within 15ft of the creature as the car passed the beast on the driver's side. The creature remained motionless, not phased by the mechanical contraption or assumedly the weather. The driver soon passed the winged weirdo and continued at the same speed he was at, frozen in both awe and fear. He soon, however, regained his senses, and as the panic and terror filled his body to the flight aspect of fight or flight, he proceeded to drive away like a bat out of hell, leaving the other bat out of hell behind in the cold and rain never to be seen again.

The creature, in this case, is very bizarre for several reasons when comparing it to other flying humanoid accounts. There are many similarities to other creatures such as coloration, wing description, and even the shape of the head is something we see a lot, especially in Pennsylvania cases like the Butler County Gargoyle case and recently in the Lake Michigan Mothman cases; however, there are a lot of things about it that are just so different than many of the other cases seen. For one thing, flying humanoids are usually very aggressive or curious, and this creature was not at all. In fact, it seemed almost absent-minded to every aspect of its environment. It took no notice to weather or vehicle. Infamous cases like the Mothman of Point Pleasant, Linda Scarberry, who was the first witness to really draw Mothman to the public eye, had a later encounter where she saw the creature on her roof huddling for warmth with its wings wrapped around it and shaking during a snowstorm. The aggressive behavior towards humans or curious aspect is also seen in the Mothman case as it would chase cars like what also occurred to Linda Scarberry or fly or run next to vehicles. Several winged humanoid reports collected by Tobias Wayland, Ken Gerhard, and Lon Strickler especially also describe this kind of behavior, and even a light dig into the research surrounding Flying Humanoids shows this behavior off in spades.

Flying Humanoids have a history of vehicular interaction yet while the creature seen in Wayne Township was seen in a car it did not chase or interact with the witness or even try to escape the view of the car as seen in other cases.

This creature also has no other discernable facial features aside from large eyes even when the witness is a mere 15ft away from it, which is something that Mothman witnesses describe with some frequency, but the big difference is the fact that these eyes are shaped like teardrops and are not the infamous bright glowing red eyes that are reported in almost every Mothman case. This creature does appearance-wise have some features similar to the Lake Michigan Mothman. However, a lot of the accounts of this particular kind of flying humanoid, as in the Lake Michigan case, multiple types of flying humanoids are reported describe fused, or feathered wings, something that is not seen in this case, and again the red eyes are not reported which are another feature reported in the Lake Michigan cases.

Fused wing style reported in many Lake Michigan Mothman sightings.

There's no denying that the witness got a good look at this creature, especially since, at one point, he was a mere 15ft away from the creature, so assuming that this creature is a misidentified bird is impossible. This creature is something that truly defies explanation biologically speaking, for we currently have no evidence in the fossil record of any attempts for any primate, which assumedly is what this creature would most likely be of ever flirting with the ideas of flight. The possibility that bats descended these creatures is also unlikely, seeing as they lack many features that connect them with bats, like large ears in many cases. Also, there are the arms to contend with, seeing as with every species that can fly, we see that the bones that make up the hand, wrist, and arms are formed to create wings allowing for flight. For the most part, these creatures go against this method, which is in every species we know that has attempted or succeeded in flight. It could be possible that these creatures could have evolved and that they have not managed to be as well preserved in the fossil record or have areas where they live like caves or even underground nesting sites that would stop proper fossilization from occurring, but all of this is speculation.

Eyewitness Sketch of the Butler County Gargoyle. It does bear some resemblance to the Greene County Winged Humanoid but also has some differences.

Now there is a camp of thought that needs to be brought up regarding these creatures, which is that they may be supernatural in origin. As seen even in this case, there is a sense of fear that is almost always universally ascribed to these creatures as though they instill it or perpetrate it, and many times these creatures seem to phase in and out of reality or disappear. This has led many to infer that they are either of an interdimensional, ultraterrestrial or demonic origin.

Between the three possible supernatural elements ascribed to this phenomenon, I feel if any are correct, it would most likely be that these are interdimensional beings. Even in this case, there is an air of something that is either trapped between worlds or not fully in one world or another. The creature, when the witness sees this beast, is simply standing on a fence post. It does not react to the car. It does not react to the weather. It simply does not react. This to me, if this creature is something supernatural and not just something that gives not a care about anything, it seems to be something that the driver can see and is not on our plane of existence or something that is stuck being unable to shift dimensions or some other as of yet unexplained reason. There have been cases connected with Ufology, such as the Bosak Humanoid case of creatures that seem frozen in one place, but usually, they are in some sort of vehicle or contraption and not standing on a fence post. It’s possible that even this lack of motion could be the creature conserving energy as it hunkers down from the storm since animals do, do such behavior, but it would seem an odd choice to be bunkering down on a fence post near the road and not in a cave or tree.

This case is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. It is bizarre for many reasons, even when looking at the already insane world of flying humanoids. It has many hallmarks of other cases, but the behavior and even some of the physical features do not match any of the classic flying humanoid cases, either new or ancient. Pennsylvania does have reports of similar creatures like the Butler County Gargoyle and the Conewago Phantom, and even the small green, white peach fuzzed Butler County Faerie. Yet, this creature is different from all of them in some regard or another and raises the question of whether there is a multitude of flying humanoid species out there in our natural world or from another one.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal?

Location: Wayne Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: July 2009

Works Cited:

Haunted Hills and Hollows: What Lurks in Greene County, Pennsylvania by Rosemary Ellen Guiley and Kevin Paul