West Virginia’s new license plate features nine of the state’s cryptids — Mothman, Bigfoot and friends — and it has sold more than 1,000 plates in just one and a half business days.
The West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles launched the specialty plate on Monday 2 November 2026. The design features nine state cryptids: the Flatwoods Monster, known as Braxie, Mothman, Bigfoot, Sheepquatch, Batboy, Veggie Man, the Webster County Werewolf, Ogua, and the Grafton Monster. The DMV sold 756 plates on day one, and passed 1,000 just after 1 p.m. on Wednesday 4 November — “more than 1,000 plates in just one and a half business days,” the DMV said.
A design ten years in the making
The plate was designed by the late West Virginia artist Jesse Corlis, who died in 2023 before seeing it released. The initial production run was 3,000 plates, and more have been ordered to keep up with demand. The plate costs $10 extra on top of the $51.50 annual registration — $61.50 total for one year, or $113 for two — and is available at DMV offices statewide, with online sales to follow.
One small spelling note: the DMV spells the Flatwoods Monster “Braxie”, while some other coverage spells it “Braxtie”. The plate itself carries the DMV’s version.
Monsters sell
West Virginia has leaned into its cryptid heritage for years — Mothman has a museum and a festival in Point Pleasant, and the Flatwoods Monster has its own following — but a license plate is a different kind of commitment. It puts the monsters on every car that carries one, and more than 1,000 drivers signed up in the first day and a half.
The first 3,000 plates will not last long at this pace. For the DMV, the cryptid plate is already a hit. For the monsters, it is a promotion: from folklore and festival posters to the back of a thousand cars, in under two days.
The plate’s success is also a quiet vindication for Corlis, the artist who designed it and did not live to see it released. His monsters are now on the road in their thousands, carried by drivers who chose them. A design finished before its maker died has become, in under two days, one of the fastest-selling plates the state has ever issued.
