The Mothman Mystery

Mothman History

The first sighting came in the early 1960s. A woman was driving along Route 2, near the Ohio River, with her father. As she neared the Chief Cornstalk Hunting Grounds, a large man-shaped figure walked out onto the road. As the woman slowed her car, the figure spread two large wings and took off. Ironically, the witness did not report the incident – “Who would believe us, anyway?”

The first sighting which received publicity, though, was one in 1965. A woman living near the Ohio River related how her son had told her one day of seeing “an angel” outside. She thought nothing more of it until about a year later.

In the summer of 1966, a doctor’s wife in the same general area said that she had seen a six-foot long thing resembling a “giant butterfly”. On November 12, five gravediggers saw something which looked like a “brown human being” fly out of the trees near Clendenin. One of the witnesses, Kenneth Duncan, said that they watched the creature for almost a minute.

On the 14th of the month, Salem resident Newell Partridge saw two red objects hovering above a field. His German Shepherd, Bandit, took off into the field and was never seen by Partridge again.

The next night, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Scarberry and Mr. and Mrs. Steve Mallette were driving near the “TNT Area”, near the town of Point Pleasant. A tall figure stood by the side of the road. “It was shaped like a man, but bigger,” said Mr. Scarberry. “Maybe six and a half or seven feet tall. And it had big wings folded against its back.” His wife commented on its huge red eyes, “like automobile reflectors.”

Mr. Scarberry, who was driving, took off in his car at “better than a hundred miles per hour,” the figure spread its wings and flew after the car. It didn’t seem to flap its wings at all, and its wingspan was over ten feet. Mrs. Mallette said that it made a squeaking sound, “like a big mouse.” The four also noted that a dead dog had been lying by the side of the road, but was gone when they returned.

They went to the offices of the Mason County sheriff and reported their sighting. Deputy Millard Halstead returned to the TNT Area with the four, and said that as he passed the spot where they had initially seen the figure, his police radio made a sound similar to a speeded-up record.

The TNT Area, which seemed to be a sort of home for the “Mothman,” as it was quickly dubbed by the press, is a large tract of land. Small concrete “igloos” dot the landscape, used during World War II to store ammunition. The TNT Area is adjacent to the 2,500 acre McClintic Wildlife Station. The entire area is covered with dense forest, steep hills, and riddled with tunnels.

The area is also sparsely populated. One of the families living in the area is that of Ralph Thomas. On the 16th, at about 9:00 pm, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wamsley, Mrs. Marcella Bennett, and Mrs. Bennett’s daughter, Tina, were visiting the Thomases. On the way there, they watched a red light which circled the TNT Area. When the car pulled up in front of the Thomas’, it disturbed something.

It seemed as if it had been lying down. It rose up slowly from the ground. A big gray thing. Bigger than a man, with terrible glowing red eyes.

The witnesses ran to the Thomas home, where they were let in by the three children. The figure shuffled along behind them, coming onto the porch and looking through the window. Mr. Wamsley called the police, but the thing had, of course, vanished by the time they arrived. Mrs. Bennett, who lives at the edge of Point Pleasant, says she has heard the creature on other occasions. She describes the sound it makes as “like a woman screaming.”

Paul Yoder and Ben Enochs, two firemen, said they had seen Mothman in the TNT Area on the 18th. Richard West, of Charleston, called the police on November 21. A winged figure was sitting on the roof of his neighbor’s house, he said. The six-foot tall figure had a wingspan of six or eight feet and red eyes. It took off straight up, “like a helicopter.”

Tom Ury was driving along Route 62, near the TNT Area, on the morning of November 25. He saw a large, grayish figure standing in a field. Then it spread two large wings, lifted straight into the air, and flew over Ury’s car at an altitude “three telephone poles high”–probably about 50 or 60 feet. The next day, Mrs. Ruth Foster of St. Albans said the creature was standing in her yard near her porch. Her description tallys with West’s. The same day, people in Lowell, Ohio, saw several large birds flying over Cat’s Creek. The three witnesses followed the birds in their car and said that they were “…dark brown with some light flecks. Their breasts were gray and they had five- or six-inch bills, straight, not curved like those of hawks or vultures.” The birds seemed to have reddish heads.

And still more sightings came. On November 27, on the way home from church, Connie Carpenter saw a grayish figure standing on the golf course near Mason. The creature took off and flew straight towards her car. She was one of few who actually saw the creature’s face, although her description–“It was horrible”–doesn’t help much. Another sighting took place that same night in St. Albans, where two girls saw the creature near a junkyard. The creature flew after them.

On December 4, five pilots at the Gallipolis, Ohio, airport saw some sort of giant bird flying at about 70 miles per hour. Its wings weren’t moving, and unlike other witnesses they commented on a long neck.

Mabel McDaniel (coincidentally, mother of Linda Scarberry, one of the first witnesses) saw Mothman on January 11, 1967. Mrs. McDaniel said that at first the creature looked like “an airplane, then I realized it was flying much too low. It was brown and had a wingspread of at least ten feet.” In March, an Ohio man claimed his car was chased by a flying creature.

The last sighting seems to have come on November 2, shortly after noon. Mrs. Ralph Thomas (from Bennett’s sighting) heard a “squeaky fan belt” outside her home and saw a “tall gray figure” moving among the concrete domes in the TNT Area.

Scattered sightings continued for several years afterwards. In 1968, especially, a number of hairy humanoids with glowing eyes were seen on Jerrico Road. And on September 18, people in the TNT Area supposedly saw Mothman once more–putting in his last appearance, it seems.

In late 1966, when the Mothman reports started to die down, other phenomena started up in the area. Several UFOs were seen near Point Pleasant, animals were mutilated in surrounding areas, and Mothman witnesses reported poltergeist and “men in black” phenomena. This has led many a researcher to speculate on a connection between Mothman and UFOs.

But no discussion of the Mothman phenomenon would be complete without recounting the story of the Silver Bridge. On the evening of December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge, which crossed the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, collapsed in rush-hour traffic. Over forty-six cars fell into the river. It was the biggest disaster ever to hit Point Pleasant.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before people began to connect this disaster with the Mothman sightings. Was Mothman some sort of warning sign of the impending disaster? Was the entire saga somehow connected with the UFOs seen in the area?

As a final postscript, New Haven farmer Ernest Adkins reported something very odd indeed in April of 1969. He found his eleven-week-old beagle lying dead in his front yard. “There was no evidence the dog died in a fight,” Adkins said. What made it strange was the fact that the dog’s chest was chewed open, and its heart was lying outside.

Not surprisingly, most scientists scoffed at this theory. They said it was probably just some normal kind of bird; the favored culprit was a sandhill crane. These large birds have reddish patches on their heads (accounting for Mothman’s “red eyes”) and a large specimen would reach roughly the size attributed to Mothman. But other birds were found in the area that could account for the sightings. In July of 1967, several boys found a large vulture near New Haven. And at Gallipolis Ferry, a farmer shot a rare bird indeed–an Arctic snow owl. The owl was two feet tall and had a five-foot wingspan.

Above was the most common sightings of Mothman… We don’t know much about this creature…I have some questions of my own… Where did it come from? How old is it? How many of these are out there? There is a lot of interesting videos and information about Mothman… I wonder where he will strike next?! Where ever it’s spotted; a major disaster occurs. It was also spotted during 9/11 (Pictures Below). This one of the greatest mysteries of man-kind… Read more interesting info below..

Recent Sightings…

[spoiler intro=”Mothman” title=”Seen in Japan Before Earthquake?”]

I was in Japan on business and had emailed a lifelong friend who was living in Japan and teaching English at a local school. He had insisted on my staying with him for the duration of my stay, saying it would help save me money and make my expense report look better when I turned it in.

My friend (I will call him Tim for the sake of his reputation and career) was a lifelong bachelor and had a fairly large apartment all to himself and his cat.

After several days of day long meetings and group seminars, we had decided to go out to get a bite to eat and take in the town.

After a fairly large meal and hopping from one night spot to another we decided to go toward the ocean and check out the moonlight reflecting off the waves.

My friend stated that he wanted to check on a biology station that some of his graduate students had set up near a large power plant.

As we approached the plant from the west, we walked along some paths and came to a simple metal box bolted into the ground, from this box there were a myriad of weather vanes, and other meteorological devices.

My friend stated the schools science class students had a theory that just like the water being used and discharged by the power plant was warmed by the production of electricity; the air around the plant was also being warmed and thus affecting weather and tidal patterns in the surrounding eco-system.

It all sounded too complex and in my slightly tipsy and tired state was only able to grasp the bare bones of the complex theory he laid out. He finished up and changed the subject to something more jovial when all of a sudden we heard a loud and distinct “WHOOSH” at first my mind thought it might be the sound of the distant waves crashing ashore when we heard it again, followed by an ear pitching screech that shook me down to the bone and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

We looked around for the cause of the noise, when we heard the sound again.

The best way I can describe it is a city buses brakes when they are in need of service,

Loud and ear splitting. We both continued to look around when my friend’s attention was drawn toward the plant by another nearby couple. A younger couple, out for a walk were staring toward the plant, arms outstretched and the obvious fear in their voice showing itself.

I looked toward the plant, and against the lights of the plant I thought I saw a figure silhouetted against the moonlit sky.

The figure was large and black, from the distance I was at it looked to be sitting on top of one of the squared shape buildings.

It sat there for about 5 seconds then it unfurled a large set of what I could only describe as large, black wings. The only reference I can compare them too are from the old John Travolta movie “Michael” where the main character unfurls his wings and spreads them out to their full length. To say that this creature was large was an understatement.

The creature then took flight and circled the plant at least 4-5 times, some circuits he took at a fast pace, some he seemed to slow down, all the while he kept his attention on the row of square shaped buildings that I later found out housed the reactors.

The creature then came toward us, flying at least 25-30 feet off the ground. The younger couple who had noticed the creature first were now screaming and cowering, the man shielding the woman while shielding his head with a jacket.

My friend and I looked in awe as this creature flew over us.

That’s when I noticed the two large red eyes; they seemed to glow from within and with a blood red hue. They were unblinking in the 3-4 seconds we saw them, we knew they were looking straight at us, we knew this creature knew we could see it and it made no attempt to disguise itself.

The sick, intense and overwhelming feeling of dread came over us. A feeling that we shouldn’t be there was to say the least, overwhelming.

As quickly as it came, it flew away, back toward the town, eventually melting into the black night sky and as it flew away from us a loud whoosh was heard again and then…silence.

This lasted a second or two before I heard the sound of a shutter and turned to see my friend trying to take pictures with his cell phone, but all he got was dark, night time sky. We went straight home and my friend bolted the door and drew all the blinds, he was shaking and saying that he could not believe what he saw, could it have been a large, unknown species of bird? He kept mumbling to himself until I was able to calm him down and get him to relax and talk about what we had seen.

Eventually we both agreed that it must have been some sort of large bird, or maybe an optical illusion caused by the lights given off by the plant on a regular, known species of bird.

We talked about it late into the night, till we both fell asleep on the couches and awoke the next morning to stiff necks and backs. My friend and I spent the last two days out and about and enjoying each other’s company, till he drove me to the airport and we bid each other farewell and I came home.

We spoke about it only once more in an email about a week before he was due to come to the U.S. for his sister’s wedding.

When I brought it up at the wedding rehearsal dinner, he was convinced that it had been an optical illusion. That was until the day before the wedding when he woke me out of a deep sleep with a frantic phone call telling me to turn on the TV.

There came the images of the devastation of the Japanese earthquake and the near total destruction of the city of the town of Okuma, where my friend was living and working.

The day of the wedding the news came of the explosions at the local nuclear power plant and as CNN broadcast the report, we were both a gasp as the same power plant where we had seen the strange bird-like object was not being shown on the television set.

The Fukushima Daiich was the exact same plant we had seen the strange bird like creature circling. Was it pure coincidence or was it the mythical Moth-Man doing his strange work of predicting disasters? I may never know and may go to the grave wondering that, but one thing is certain for sure, I don’t think that neither of us is going to forget this event, no matter how long we live.

Source
[/spoiler]

[spoiler intro=”Mothman” title=”Seen in Mexico Before the Swine Flu Outbreak ?”]According to Ing. Francisco Prieto Torres, residents of La Junta, Guerrero (Chihuahua) had reported the sighting of a “Mothman” on April 10, 2009

They added : He was a very tall entity, standing some 2 meters tall, with two pairs of wings (one pair larger than the other). His face was covered in fur and had red, bloodshot eyes.

The main witness is a young student at Universidad Regional del Norte, whose name is being kept confidential, and who claims that the strange humanoid chased him for 15 minutes on the evening of March 6.

The witness was driving a Liberty back to his home after his studies, when he saw a bulk on the roadway asphalt resembling a hunched-over man who seemed to be covered in a blanket. The figure suddenly stood up, taking two leaps forward and displaying a set of wings similar to those of a bat. The young man floored the accelerator in an attempt to flee, but the strange creature flew with great power, keeping abreast of the vehicle and looking in through the passenger window.

Ing. Francisco Prieto has already located the place where the young man’s father works and he wishes to interview him himself. If this is achieved, he will be forwarding the materials to me to make the entire ordeal known. It should be added that the family is known for being respectable and are held in high esteem in the community. Local radio has reported that that a photo of the “Mothman” exists, although no further details have been provided.

Other Witnesses

Angela Mendez and Viviana Ledezma are two women who claim to have heard the humanoid squealing amid the screns of an apple grove near the Miñaca Cemetery.

The Authorities

A joint mission was undertaken by members of the Police and Civil Defense of the Municipality of Guerrero in the State of Chihuahua. Socorro Rodriguez Erives reported that after researching several locations it was not possible to find the whereabouts of this strange entity. According to initial reports, the flying entity had its lair in the caves of the mountainous area of the Miñaca region. Despite their best efforts, no trace of the creature was found. Many think that it was just a myth, while others associate it with “Mothman”

Source
[/spoiler]

Links & Videos

Great Database of Mothman Information (Great Website)

Mothman Sightings

The Mothman Story

The Silver Bridge & Mothman

Mothman Guide

Mothman Accounts

Point Pleasant Today

Big list of Mothman Sightings

The Mothman Death List

Mothman Wikipedia