The Mothman Mystery

Mothman Mystery - Point Pleasant West Virginia November 1966 - December 1967 Ever since November 1966 there have been numerous sightings of a strange creature known as The Mothman. Even today reports still come in of alleged sightings of this half human half moth phenomenon.

 

The first ever sighting happened in a place called Clendenin West Virginia on 12thNovember 1966. Five grave diggers who were digging a grave at a cemetery spotted what they described as a man like figure flying low from trees towards them. It flew over their heads and then out of site. Three days later two couples were driving their car just outside Point Pleasant when they spotted a large white creature with wings that spanned 10 feet across. As their headlights on the car illuminated the creature they noticed it's eyes reflected a red glow from them. The creature followed them as they drove along an area known as the TNT area (it used to be a world war 2 munitions plant), before dispersing.

 

More sightings followed included one from two firemen who described it as a large bird with red eyes but this was dismissed by Mason County Sheriff George Johnson as being an unusually large Heron. A local contractor named Newell Partridge told the Sheriff that he seen the creature standing in a field and he also noticed its reflecting eyes when he aimed his flashlight at it. Wildlife expert Dr. Robert Smith believed that all the reported sightings seemed to fit the description of the Sandhill Crane which is a rather large American bird which is as high as a man and has a large wingspan of around 7 feet. It also has very red eyes. He believed that it may have wandered of it's migration path.

 

On December 1967, 46 people died when a bridge known as silver bridge collapsed. This seemed to bring an immediate stop to reported sightings which brought speculation that the bridge disaster and the Mothman sightings were connected in some way.

 

Mothman sightings did begin to happen again and continue to this day with photos and first hand accounts still being documented.

 

Today in Point Pleasant the Mothmans legacy lives on in the same way that Roswell in New Mexico will always be known for it's crashed UFO incident.

 

Since the story of the Mothman was made into a Hollywood movie in 2001, interest in the phenomenon has rocketed and Point Pleasant now proudly displays its very own statue of the creature (pictured left). There's also a museum and shops selling merchandise of the Mothman.