The Moon Man of Kilgore Hills
Jul. 24—Editor's note: Information courtesy of a Facebook post by Jack Elliott. Elliott was a former Historical Archeologist for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Kilgore Hills, Mississippi is unknown to most, even the most deep-rooted Mississippians. However, this small area is known to harbor some of the most spine-chilling, supernatural legends known to the Magnolia State.
Among the stories that have originated from this community near West Point is the story of the Moon Man.
An article divulging the spooky details of the extra-terrestrial tale comes from a March 1883 issue of the Clay County Leader newspaper.
The newspaper article recounts a story that begins when Big Springs saloon owner Gus Goode moseyed into West Point one day to renew his subscription to the paper. With him he brought the tale of a "Moon Man" who had fallen to Earth in Big Springs, a community in the heart of the Kilgore Hills.
According to lore, strange space ships had been sighted throughout Clay County for weeks leading up to the alien event. Goode had too seen the strange flying objects, and he claimed to have even seen one of its passengers.
Along with his neighbor, Gus Goode allegedly witnessed a glow coming from the nearby valley. Upon investigation, they noticed a large metal cylinder-like vehicle parked on the ground.
After approaching the object, the men claimed to see small, inhuman men circling the space ship.
About the series
Legends have a way of making humankind second-guess what we know as truth. In Mississippi, legends weave their way into every corner of the state, infiltrating even the smallest, one-stoplight towns. Legend or Legendary is an ongoing series exploring these tales and the stories behind them. Contact series author Brooke Burleson at brooke.burleson@djournal.com.
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One Gunshot
Goode's neighbor Byron Thompson began firing his rifle, striking at least one of the space men. The alien creature fell to the ground as the others scurried away, loaded their ship and quickly departed into the sky.
Per the first-hand observers, the now dying, small space man was around five feet tall and had gray skin which was textured differently than a human. His eyes were large and cat like.
As they approached the extra terrestrial, his life began slipping away. Minutes after the rifle was fired, he died.
The two men transported the body to Goode's saloon. Per the 1883 newspaper, the corpse was temporarily kept on the porch in a cot.
A Popular Attraction
As word got out, the saloon became a popular attraction for people to view the Moon Man's dead body.
A photographer from Houston, Mississippi came to photograph the alien being. He charged $1 for a copy of the images and $5 for photos of a customer with the corpse.
Goode and Thompson sought to preserve the body as proof of what they had seen. However, decay began to set in rapidly and produced an odor that turned visitors away.
The men decided that the Moon Man needed to be buried in his own cemetery that would be set aside just for moon men in the case that others happened to perish in the neighborhood.
The remains of the Moon Man are purportedly still underground in the grave the two men dug.
A Modern Time, Even For Aliens
For some perspective, 1883 in the United States saw Susan Hayhurst become the first woman to get a pharmacy degree, the Brooklyn Bridge open to traffic and Bernard Kroger establish the first Kroger grocery store.
Railroads were still a primary method of transportation but the American Industrial Revolution was on a tear to innovate nearly every machine known at the time and create a plethora of new ones.
Although the details of the story seem somewhat underdeveloped and primitive, the times in which it was written was just the opposite.
Facts Or Fables
The credibility of the moon man story is questionable considering the only written down "evidence" comes from a local newspaper printed nearly 140 years ago.
There are also a few other details related to the story that just don't mathematically add up.
Another article exploring this story was written in 2017 by Lloyd Goodman, a staff writer for the Daily Times Leader in West Point.
Goodman decided to delve into the story further and came across Miss Judy Goode.
Goode was described to Goodman as "a lot older" than Mrs. May Edwards, one of the first people he came into contact with about the story. Edwards was in her eighties at the time.
Goode showed Goodman what was left of the old saloon where the Moon Man's body was put on display. She described the event as saying, "We displayed the Moon Man there for several days until he began to stink so bad we had to bury him."
This took Goodman by surprise considering Goode described the story as if she was there.
Per Goode, the saloon was her Pa's, making her father Gus Goode. To clarify the muddy details, Goode then said she was born on February 7, 1881, making her 136 years old in 2017 and 141 years old in 2022.
When Goodman asked Goode how she got to live so long, the elderly lady replied that she thought the Moon Man had something to do with it.
She was two when the Moon Man appeared and remembers inching near him and putting her hand on his body.
"Right in the middle of the goo that oozed out of his wound. I felt funny afterwards and turned green all over," Goode said.
The close encounter with the Moon Man apparently lengthened her life, allowing her to assume the responsibility of looking after his grave for the next 139 years.
"If I ever die, I'm going to be buried beside the Moon Man," Goode said.
Photo Evidence
Goodman later discovered supposed photos from the supernatural event at the Bryan Public Library in West Point.
A note was found among the photos stating that the photographic evidence had been recovered in an abandoned home that belonged to the late Ethel Watkins of Big Springs.
Even with the photos, which alone look questionable, the legend of the moon man seems completely implausible.
Along with the written account from the 1883 newspaper and the first-hand account of Judy Goode, the story seems to fall flat in 2022. However, the time in which the moon man fell to earth lacked the technology to record real evidence, so there could very well be some morsels of truth to the story.
Without hard facts, though, we'll never know if the tale is a legend told from the deep crevices of Mississippi or a legendary encounter that could make the skin of its witnesses crawl.
BROOKE BULLOCK BURLESON is a digital producer for the Daily Journal. Contact her at brooke.burleson@djournal.com.
