How an obscure, mysterious writer in West Virginia invented UFO lore as we know it

RIFFLE, W.Va.— The blockbuster Men in Black film franchise might seem a world away from the hills of West Virginia, but the legend starts here in a quiet corner of the Mountain State where an obscure and mysterious writer sat pecking away on his typewriter.

Gray Barker, born 100 years ago in Riffle, in Braxton County, was a bit of an oddity himself. Whenever the tale of a monster or alien reached his ears, he was quick to investigate and promulgate.

He was living in Riffle when news of the Flatwoods Monster case broke nearby at Flatwoods in 1952, and his article detailing the sighting, published in Fate Magazine, catapulted him into the world of ufology and the paranormal.

In 1956, in his book “They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers,” he alleged that tall men in black suits had appeared in the wake of UFO sightings and proposed that they might be government officials seeking to convince witnesses to keep their stories to themselves.

In 1970, he authored the first book about the legendary "Mothman," said to haunt the Ohio Valley, titled “The Silver Bridge,” in which he tied the legend of the unearthly winged beast to the catastrophic collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River at Point Pleasant and documented the arrival of men in black.

Michael Strayer, a children’s book author and co-host of the Mothboys podcast, says so much of what people know and believe about aliens worldwide has Barker's fingerprints all over it.

“Whether people know it or not, I think a lot of the stuff we love these days and like to read about is all thanks to him,” Strayer says.

“He wrote about Mothman, the Men in Black, the Flatwoods monster, the Grafton monster, the Vegetable Man—all of it.”

Andrew Smith, executive director of the Flatwoods Monster Museum at Sutton, says Barker is as much of a mystery as the subjects he tackled.

“He was an interesting and complex guy. By some accounts, he almost lived a double life, and he didn’t seem to mind having a little fun with the topics he wrote about. He also dabbled a lot in pranking like his fellow investigators—maybe people who took themselves a little too seriously.”

Importantly, Barker was a connector of people, and as popular as his writing might have been, Smith says his ability to introduce a network of witnesses and researchers was vital.

“He was pretty instrumental in making connections between the witnesses and other prominent ufologists, zoologists, and cryptozoologists at the time,” Smith says.

Soon after his first article was released in Fate Magazine, Barker delved deeper into the field and, in 1953, began self-publishing his own magazines, titled The Saucerian.

“He’s a fairly prolific writer, and as he got older, he continued to self-publish,” Smith says.

Gray Barker, the hoaxer

Barker made strides in the world of ufology, Smith says, and made ripples when business was slow. Throughout his career, he was involved in several hoaxes, the most notable being the Lost Creek UFO phenomenon.

In the 1960s, he created two small-scale flying saucers out of a wooden plate, and he and his friends attached them to a wire, held them out of a car window, and recorded footage as they drove through Lost Creek, West Virginia.

Strayer says the footage still exists online, and it helped Barker survive during lean times.

“They toured on that footage, selling it as real, but it was totally fabricated,” Strayer says.

“When he noticed people were starting to lose interest, he’d come out with a hoax. I think he was a prankster. He liked to do it to have fun.”

Smith recalled another ruse of Barkers—a fake letter from R.E. Straith, composed on state department letterhead and addressed to UFO truther George Adamski.

“I know that he admitted to at least a couple of hoaxes,” Smith says. “The way that I understand it is that, if he thought ufology was kind of dropping out of the public sphere, he would do these hoaxes just to drum back up interest in the topic in general, which may turn into book sales.”

Gray Barker, the skeptic

Barker may have been skeptical at heart, possibly motivating his hoaxes, to prove how easy they were to fake, according to Sarah Blosser, manager of the Gray Baker Collection at the Waldomore annex of the Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library.

“I don’t think that he personally believed in UFOs, Mothman, or the Braxton County Monster, but I think he wanted to believe,” Blosser says.

“One of the things he does really well is educating people on how to be skeptical and how to think critically, showing people how easy it is to fake something like that, and asking people to be a little bit more critical.”

The Barker collection at Waldomore comprises approximately 30 drawers of file folders, 300 books, 75 groups of magazines, research materials, correspondence, props, and photographs that were in Barker’s possession when he passed away in 1984. His family donated the materials to the library in 1991.

“Gray Barker had worked here, and his family thought this would be a great place to hold onto it and allow people to still use the collection and study and research it,” Blosser says.

She says her favorite pieces in the collection are the two flying saucers used in the Lost Creek UFO hoax.

“This was kind of their way of showing that it’s really easy to fabricate these UFO sightings; they wanted to show how easy it was to make it look like maybe something’s flying over,” she says. “We have the little saucers, and I think they’re so fascinating and funny.”

The extensive Barker collection attracts visitors from all over, but Blosser especially encourages West Virginians to visit and learn more about their history. Barker, she says, carried on an Appalachian tradition of using folklore to explain the world and helped West Virginians explain the things they couldn’t.

“Mothman has been huge for West Virginia, especially in the last few years, and whether or not people believe that a mothlike creature was terrorizing the town of Point Pleasant, we can’t deny the impact that it had on our state,” Blosser said.

“That is part of our folklore and the history of our state, and Gray Barker took those strange things or those things that people were afraid to talk about and brought them into the light. He was just trying to, in my opinion, show the world what people saw it to be. This is a part of our history, and we should still talk about it.”

The collection is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and Blosser says she is able to make appointments for those who can’t make those hours.

Barker's grave is now a point of interest

When Gray Barker died in 1984, he was buried in an unassuming family cemetery located in a wooded area outside of Sutton. Together, Smith and Strayer helped locate Barker’s modest grave a few years ago and erected markers commemorating his life, as his family had struggled to maintain the site as they grew older.

“That’s one of the proudest moments in my life,” Strayer says. “This guy’s done a lot for the community that we love. What can we do to make it a bigger deal?

“We had signs printed up about his life. We also got a sign for the gate at the cemetery, so if anybody ever falls upon it, they know where they are. It still feels good and makes me happy that we were able to help out and give more recognition to this guy. He was definitely the go-to guy for West Virginia weirdness.”

The Flatwoods Monster Museum features a display showcasing Barker’s books and rare publications, including the first edition of Saucerian. Details about the Barker cemetery can be found on the Braxton County Convention and Visitors Bureau website.

“The cemetery where he’s buried is, I think, a really interesting trek for anybody interested in the history of ufology and that sort of thing because it’s pretty off the beaten path,” Smith says.