Submitted by Mr. Jones on
A man leaves his house in the early morning and sees an unexplainable sight. A white stick figure runs in front of his vehicle leaving him bewildered. The figure is as thin as a stop sign post, pure white with no hands, feet or facial features.
Before I take a deep dive into this bizarre whirlpool of high strangeness let me just make something clear. I will provide no definite answers here. There is no amount of scientific evidence that could lead one to the conclusion that there is a population of “stick people” that roam the shadows of the United States or elsewhere.
As far as I am aware, there is no creature in documented science that fits the profile of what the witness described, or others that have claimed to witness these unusual “stick people.” So for the remainder of these NCS notes I’m going to present you nothing but stone-hard opinion and speculation, with a smattering of additional alleged similar sightings.
Most of these “Stickman” reports are of black or dark creatures and have a tendency to describe them in terms of being of a supernatural origin. Although it is EXTREMELY unusual, the description by the witness makes no reference to something that would not defy the laws of physics.
Biologically on the other hand, this or any of the “stick figure” humanoids do not share physical characteristics of any known animal with the exception of perhaps a stick insect (or walking stick if you will). These creatures for the most part are absent of some very critical physical attributes common to… well… let’s say creatures that are bipedal in nature. Just looking at some of the most important features, many of these Stickmen lack hips, shoulders, hands, feet and even faces.
The humanoid described above had no observable hands to grasp and no feet to balance themselves when running. What strikes me as odd about this thing is that it had no observable facial features; no eyes, nose, mouth or ears.
Aside from terrestrial organisms requiring at least a combination of the above to make their way around in the world, the total absence of a mouth or nose would mean there is no normal way for this creature to consume nutrients in the way of food, and respiration without an observable way to breathe in air is possible, but usually on a small and slow scale (many amphibians can respire through the skin). However, running takes an awful lot of metabolic energy, even in small bursts.
If this thing did have lungs, they would have to fit in the incredibly slender torso that was described to be the width of a stop sign post. Then again, just because the witness did not observe facial features, hands or feet does not mean that this thing may not have had them. The encounter was only a few seconds at the most and it is entirely possible that the focus was on the most observable portion of the subject darting out in front of the vehicle.
The way I am dealing with this sighting is as if it is a biological creature of some sort, although it in no way resembles any earthly animal, and I’ll explain why. As I stated before, in the case of the Clark County Stickman there is no reason to think that there is any supernatural, ghostly, extra-dimensional or magical qualities associated with this creature.
The behavior of this thing resembles what an animal would do when it runs out in front of a car, then finds cover and glances back at the vehicle it for whatever reason decided to run in front of. If the thing would have stayed still, there is a good chance the witness would have never had their attention drawn to it.
So, when I think of this encounter, I assume that the “Stickman” had some sort of survival instinct that kicked in after it ridiculously stepped out onto the road into oncoming traffic. And that is what interests me about this sighting vs other “Stickman” encounters, as there was no stalking of a witness, no evil, foreboding feelings, and no hint of supernatural speculations.
The thing ran out in front of the witness’s car. It ran across the road and hid. The witness lost sight of it. It left some kind of imprints on the grass. That’s it. If this story is fictional or embellished, there’s very little creativity to it… which IS NOT A BAD THING.
And as mundane and boring of a sighting you think that might be, in my humble opinion the blandness of the encounter (although it was bewildering to the witness) does lend some credibility to the account. Sometimes a sighting does not have to be elaborate to be straight-up unsettling.
It was difficult to find a sighting that described a subject similar to the Stickman of Clark County Ohio. As I said before many “Stickman” sightings are of dark, black shadowy figures in which many of the themes lean toward a supernatural vibe.
However there were two somewhat similar encounters I was able to look at, both being witness accounts and neither verified. The first comes from a commenter on a Reddit thread I posted seeking similar encounters like the Clark County Stickman. Here is their comment:
“In 2017 I was at Ohio University and around 1-2 AM I decided to go to “The Ridges” with some friends (haunted asylum on campus).
We walked… which was about a 45 minute to an hour walk and once we got there we got a really bad feeling, I’ve been there before and never felt the way I did so we turned back.
We noticed on the way back we were being followed by a car so we had to try and figure out how we were going to lose the creepy guys that were following us.
We got turned around and we’re in a courtyard and all the university help phones were all out so we couldn’t call for help and our phones were dead.
So we peeked around to see if the guys were still following us and all we saw was something that was taller than a stop sign, [two-dimensional] and didn’t really have a face and it was running across the field as fast as a car could drive.
I’ve never been able to find any paranormal thing to compare it to but this is the closest yet.
Every time I talk about it I tear up.”
Encounters with Stick Men can be extremely unsettling for those who experience them, and can really cause people to reassess what they thought they knew. However, many of the stories from sources are elaborate and the “entities” are evil and intend to do harm to individuals.
Passages from and read more: https://nationalcryptidsociety.org/2019/11/05/the-stickman-of-clark-county-ohio/
Posted for educational and informational purposes only.