History
On November 15, 1966, two young, married
couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda
Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette, were
traveling late at night in the Scarberrys' car.
They were passing the
West Virginia Ordnance Works, an abandoned
World War II
TNT factory, about seven miles north of
Point Pleasant, in the 2,500 acre (10 km²)
McClintic Wildlife Management Area, when
they noticed two red lights in the shadows by an
old generator plant near the factory gate. They
stopped the car, and reportedly discovered that
the lights were the glowing red eyes of a large
animal, "shaped like a man, but bigger, maybe
six and a half or seven feet tall, with big
wings folded against its back," according to
Roger Scarberry. Terrified, they drove toward
Route 62, where the creature supposedly
chased them at speeds exceeding 100 miles per
hour.
A plaque on the Mothman statue provides a
version of the original legend: On a chilly,
fall night in November 1966, two young couples
drove into the TNT area north of Point Pleasant,
West Virginia, when they realized they were not
alone. Driving down the exit road, they saw the
supposed creature standing on a nearby ridge. It
spread its wings and flew alongside the vehicle
up to the city limits. They drove to the
Mason County courthouse to alert Deputy
Millard Halstead, who later said, "I've known
these kids all their lives. They'd never been in
any trouble and they were really scared that
night. I took them seriously." He then followed
Roger Scarberry's car back to the secret ex-U.S.
Federal bomb and missile factory, but found no
trace of the strange creature. According to the
book Alien Animals, by Janet and Colin
Bord, a
poltergeist attack on the Scarberry home
occurred later that night, during which the
creature was seen several times.
The plaque on the Mothman statue
- November 16, 1966
The following night, on November 16, several
armed townspeople combed the area around the TNT
plant for signs of Mothman. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond
Wamsley, and Mrs. Marcella Bennett, with her
infant daughter Teena, were in a car en-route to
visit their friends, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Thomas,
who lived in a small house near the
igloos (concrete dome-shaped dynamite
storage structures erected during WW-II) near
the TNT plant. The igloos were now empty, some
owned by the county, others by companies
intending to use them for storage. They were
heading back to their car when a figure appeared
behind their parked vehicle. Mrs. Bennett said
that it seemed like it had been lying down,
slowly rising up from the ground, large and
gray, with glowing red eyes. While Wamsley
phoned the police, the creature walked onto the
porch and peered in at them through the window.[2]
- November 24, 1966
On November 24, four people allegedly saw the
creature flying over the TNT area.
- November 25, 1966
On the morning of November 25, Thomas Ury,
who was driving along Route 62 just north of the
TNT, claimed to have seen the creature standing
in a field, and then it spread its wings and
flew away, and Thomas sped toward the Point
Pleasant sheriff's office.[3]
- 1967
A Mothman sighting was again reported on
January 11, 1967 hovering over the town's
bridge, and several other times that same year.
Fewer sightings of the Mothman were reported
after the collapse of the town's bridge, the
Silver Bridge, when 46 people died. The
Silver Bridge, so named for its
aluminium paint, was an
eyebar
chain
suspension bridge that connected the cities
of
Point Pleasant, West Virginia and
Gallipolis,
Ohio over the
Ohio River. The bridge was built in 1928,
and it collapsed on December 15, 1967.
Investigation of the bridge wreckage pointed to
the failure of a single eye-bar in a suspension
chain due to a small manufacturing flaw. There
are rumors that the Mothman appears before
upcoming disasters, and seems to try to warn
people of them. After that, mothman was never
again seen in Point Pleasant.[4]
After the event
The word "Mothman" was an invention by an
Ohio newspaper copyeditor, after the first
news stories of the "Big Bird" sightings
appeared.
A large collection of first-hand material
about the Mothman is found in
John Keel's 1975 book
The Mothman Prophecies,[5]
in which Keel lays out the chronology of the
Mothman and what he claims to be related
parapsychological events in the area,
including
precognitions by witnesses, and the December
15 1967 collapse of the
Silver Bridge spanning the
Ohio River.
Keel's first book was the basis of a 2002
film,
The Mothman Prophecies, starring
Richard Gere,
Laura Linney,
Debra Messing, and
Will Patton, directed by
Mark Pellington. A companion book called
The Eighth Tower, also released in 1975, was
derived from material edited from The Mothman
Prophecies by the publishers.
In the May-June 2002 issue of the
Skeptical Inquirer, journalist John C.
Sherwood, a former business associate of UFO
hoaxer
Gray Barker, published an analysis of
private letters between Keel and Barker during
the period of Keel's investigation. In the
article, "Gray Barker's Book of Bunk", Sherwood
documented significant differences between what
Keel wrote at the time of his investigation and
what Keel wrote in his first book about the
Mothman reports, raising questions about the
book's accuracy, although Sherwood was later
revealed to be a hoaxer himself, since he posed
as "Richard Pratt" for some of Barker's hoaxes.[6]
Cryptozoologist
Loren Coleman, in conjunction with
Sony/Screen Gems studio and as noted in the
documentary film by David Grabias, "In Search of
the Mothman", served as one of the fictional
movie's two publicity spokespersons (Keel being
the other, although Keel's involvement was
limited by health concerns).[7]
Andy Colvin, a photographer and documentary
filmmaker who claims to have seen the Mothman,
has produced two books and a reality series on
Mothman called The Mothman's Photographer,
featuring John Keel and almost 50 witnesses.
Colvin's sister took a snapshot of him in 1973
that allegedly shows a
Garuda in the background.[8]
Analysis
There are several theories concerning the
Mothman phenomenon.
- Supernatural theories
John Keel claimed that Mothman was related
to
parapsychological events in the area,
including
precognitions by witnesses, and the December
15, 1967 collapse of the
Silver Bridge spanning the
Ohio River.
- Misidentified bird
One of the early theories is that the Mothman
was a misidentified
Sandhill Crane, which, in the late 1960s had
been a problem in surrounding regions. Sandhill
cranes have an average wingspan of 5.3 feet (up
to 7 feet), average overall length of 39 inches
and have the general appearance described, glide
for long distances without flapping, and have an
unusual shriek. Other theories suggest the
possibility of the Mothman being a
Barn Owl, an
albino owl, or perhaps a large
Snowy Owl (based on artists' impressions).
Skeptics suggest that the Mothman's glowing
eyes are actually
red-eye caused from the reflection of
light, from flashlights, or other light sources
that witnesses may have had with them.[9]
Hoaxes
In Episode 2 of the short-lived TV series
X-Testers, the researchers on the show attempted
various ways to duplicate various photographs of
what is said to be Mothman on bridges. The
researchers concluded that a recent photo of an
unidentified object on the bridge is possibly
just a black garbage bag, and earlier photos are
possibly just camera tricks.
[10]
Folklore
Folklorist
Jan Harold Brunvand cited elements in common
between many Mothman reports and much older folk
tales, and noted: "Something real may have
triggered the Mothman scares, but the
stories-whatever their sources-also incorporated
existing folklore."[11]
Mothman Festival
- The Mothman Festival is a weekend
long event held in
Point Pleasant, West Virginia occurring
on the 3rd weekend every September. There is
a variety of events that go on during the
festival such as guest speakers, vendor
exhibits, and hayride tours focusing on the
notable areas of
Point Pleasant, West Virginia.[12
