Now improvise search parties are attempting to find it
Just what it is no one is sure
and then when it came up over the trees,
I could see it was a bird, a huge bird
We couldn't believe what we really saw
this thing was standing there, but it had bodies like a man same muscles in its legs
We sit there for a minute, looked at each other and we took off
It's been almost 50 years since the first sighting of the so-called mothman, but what was it?
Just an urban legend or is there really some truth in the bizarre encounters with this bird-like creature?
The first recorded sighting of it was on November 12 1966
when five grave diggers working the appointed pleasant
West Virginia, a small town with a very tight-knit community
claimed to have seen a man like figure with huge bat wings fly down from nearby trees straight over their heads
Then just a few days later on November the 15th
Roger Scarberry, his wife and three other people ran terrified into the Mason County courthouse and
reported that they had witnessed a seven-foot creature with glowing red eyes and huge wings
At first they thought the red eyes were car lights
But when they realized it was in fact a creature they sped off very quickly with everyone in the car later
reporting that the creature followed them closely but flew off into the night sky as they approached the courthouse
Deputy Millard Halstead, who had been on duty the night of the incident, said he was convinced that people were not lying
Everyone knew everyone in the community and he knew the people had never been in any trouble before
All five of them gave exactly the same account of what they had seen
Even though they were interviewed in separate rooms and the deputy said the terror in their eyes was very real
and that he was convinced they were not lying and did see something that followed them
The incident was taken so seriously
that the deputy went with Scarberry back to the site near the McCLintic Wildlife management area
where the creature had first been spotted and
And although nothing was found, it wasn't long before this sighting and the gravediggers sighting got around and frightened the locals
In fear that this creature was roaming nearby, the town's people took up arms and started combing the area
to try and track down and kill it but their efforts were futile and nothing was found
Not long after Marcella Bennett, who was completely unaware of the sightings, was visiting a friend who lived close to the wildlife area
As she left the house to walk to a car
She was confronted by a large, gray human-like creature that had giant wings and glowing red eyes
Marcella was so terrified she said she dropped her infant daughter
And then fell on top of her to protect her from whatever this thing was
Marcella stayed like this for several minutes and was paralyzed with fear
she said she then stared into the glowing red eyes of the mothman
and was eventually able to get up and run back to the
house with her daughter where the police were quickly called
Her friends also witnessed this creature, as it reportedly walked up to the porch of the house trying to peer in
But disappeared as police approached
Throughout the year many more locals came forward with similar sightings
Some saying that they had kept quiet by their encounter for fear they would not be believed
To the locals and everyone else it was becoming clear that the Mothman was not a figment of imagination
but could in fact be real
All the witnesses described the exact same creature, with its dark human-like face, glowing red eyes a huge wingspan
and also, the strange way it took off
There was no flapping of wings, just a vertical takeoff from the ground as if it was jumping into the sky
They have of course been many theories on what the creature could have been ranging from an alien to a mutant Sandhill Crane
John Keel who was a famous journalist, ufologist and author of the Mothman prophecies
even said that he thought a few reports could have just been flying owls
The Mutant Sandhill Crane idea came from the fact that near the location at which Roger Scarberry and the passengers in his car
claimed to have spotted the Mothman was called the TNT area, which during world war two was used as a devoted area for ammunition manufacturing
while on that site are bunkers that were discovered to be leaking toxic waste into the nearby wildlife preserve
Now many people think the Mothman could have been a mutated sandhill crane or other similar animal
But probably the most believed theory is that the Mothman was some kind of prophetic creature
Who had come to warn the people of Point pleasant of an impending tragedy
This theory was brought about on December the 15th 1967
just over a year since the first sighting
The silver bridge, a steel bridge connecting the states of Ohio and West Virginia
and the Main Route into the town of Point pleasant mysteriously collapsed
The accident took the lives of 46 people, two of which were never found
and on the day of the disaster people witnessed something stood on top of the bridge
Many think that this is the Mothman and it showed itself to warn the townspeople of the imminent disaster
Or that it was responsible for the collapse of the bridge
After the bridge collapsed, the Mothman sightings completely stopped and has never been seen again
Despite the tragedy the town of Point pleasant have kept this legend alive now more so than ever and a town attracts hundreds of tourists
and the town attracts hundreds of tourists every year who have an interest in the Mothman
It's even held its first Mothman festival in 2002
that continues on the third weekend of every september, has unveiled a 12-foot metallic statue of the creature
And in 2002 opened a Mothman Museum and research Center
Along with the films, books, stories and documentaries, the Mothman legend will continue to live on and leave us wondering
What exactly did the people of point pleasant witnessed during the 1960's?
So that's it for this short documentary
I hope you've enjoyed and let me know what you think the Mothman could have been
Was it a real one-off creature, a mutation or just the people's imagination?
Thanks for watching and I will see you again in the next video
you