Described as a humanoid creature with red eyes and giant wings, the Mothman first showed
up to haunt locals in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
Since then, Mothman has been tied to UFOs, Men in Black, and a terrible tragedy that
occurred in 1967.
But what was Mothman really?
And what happened to the citizens of Point Pleasant after this winged monster first showed
up?
Here's the untold truth of Mothman.
The sightings begin
According to the West Virginia Department of Commerce, Mothman was first seen on November
12th, 1966, by five gravediggers near the town of Clendenin, West Virginia.
The men described the otherworldly entity as "a brown human being" that flew over their
heads.
But while that's generally regarded as the first "official" Mothman encounter, some folklorists
claim that sightings go back for decades.
According to stories, the being was seen in the early 1900s, then allegedly appeared throughout
West Virginia during World War I and World War II.
Each time, the description was the same: a large, winged creature with red eyes.
The TNT plant
Three days after showing up at the Clendenin cemetery, Mothman made its second official
appearance at an abandoned munitions factory in the woods outside Point Pleasant known
as "the TNT plant."
Two married couples were driving around the plant late at night on November 15th when
the beams from their car headlights hit a mysterious, red-eyed creature beside the road.
According to the story they told to the police, the monster flew after their car and chased
them back to the outskirts of Point Pleasant.
Sightings and dreams
After the November15 incident, more people stepped forward claiming they'd also encountered
the creature.
Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman believes around 100 people bumped into the Mothman over the
course of 13 months, while another researcher, Brian Dunning, states that there were only
six or so reported sightings, all of which occurred in November 1966.
On November 16, Raymond and Cathy Wamsley, along with their friend Marcella Bennett,
saw the monster next to their parked car.
"And then it was standing with its shoulders and its neck down like this."
Without a doubt, there was something strange going on in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
While some of the facts are debatable, the stories kept getting creepier.
According to the podcast Lore, people in Point Pleasant began experiencing creepy dreams
in the months after Mothman's 1966 appearance.
Some supposedly had visions of Christmas presents floating down the nearby Ohio River and nightmares
of people drowning.
The Silver Bridge collapse
The appearances of Mothman in November 1966 were creepy, but they paled in comparison
to what happened on December 15th, 1967.
On that fateful December day, the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River.
In total, 46 lives were lost, and the tragedy sparked all sorts of bizarre theories about
what happened.
However, the most popular involves the Mothman.
Cryptozoologists and paranormal researchers believe the winged beast was either responsible
for the collapse or that it was trying to warn of the impending disaster.
And those who believe in the Mothman connection often point to the terrifying dreams of people
drowning and Christmas presents in the river as proof of the creature's involvement.
After all, the Silver Bridge fell just a few weeks before December 25th, right as people
were doing their Christmas shopping.
Myth-makers
After the Silver Bridge disaster, reporter John Keel investigated the Mothman sightings
and wrote about incidents that sound like they were ripped straight from The X-Files.
Among other incidents, he wrote, "Television sets were burning out at an alarming rate.
Telephones were going crazy, ringing at all hours of the day and night with no one on
the other end."
He covered the story in his book, The Mothman Prophecies, which was turned into the 2002
movie of the same name.
But as for the creepy nightmares, government agents, and connection to the Silver Bridge,
well, a lot of that can be traced back to one man: UFO author Gray Barker.
Unfortunately for Mothman fans, Gray Barker has something of a spotty track record when
it comes to the truth.
According to one of his friends, Barker "pretty much took all of UFOlogy as a joke."
His friend John Sherwood also claimed that Barker hoaxed author John Keel.
Remember how Keel claimed that he'd received multiple calls from mysterious entities?
Well, it's likely that Barker made those calls himself.
And as for Keel himself, skeptic Robert Schaffer once described him as a "trickster" who wrote
"entertaining stories that paid the bills."
In other words, the stories of disturbing dreams, UFOs, and Men in Black surrounding
Mothman lore might be a bit, well, exaggerated.
The Mothman legacy
Whether or not you believe in the Mothman, it's definitely had an impact on Point Pleasant.
In the early 2000s, the town erected a 12-foot-tall statue of the monster, complete with insect
face and red eyes, in the appropriately named Mothman Park.
In addition to the statue, Point Pleasant hosts a yearly Mothman Festival and maintains
a Mothman Museum, where you can see all sorts of paraphernalia related to both the actual
case and the Richard Gere movie.
Mothman returns
On November 20th, 2016, an anonymous man who'd recently moved to Point Pleasant took photos
of a shadowy, man-sized creature flying through the West Virginia sky.
So did the Mothman migrate back to his old hometown?
Is something bad in store for the residents of Point Pleasant?
Or is it all a good, old-fashioned hoax?
Either way, the folks of Point Pleasant should probably keep on watching the skies, just
in case.
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