The Mothman is an old story, now a folk legend and still an interesting unsolved mystery. Reportedly hundreds of people around the city of Point Pleasant, West Virginia between the summer of 1966 and December 15, 1967 saw an extremely human-like creature. After all this time, there’s not much we can verify as true. We cannot confirm that all the different sightings were of the same thing. They may not be, but they are all part of a story now known around the world as an unsolved mystery. This is the case, of the Mothman.
Timeline of Mothman Events
Here is a rough timeline of events that we cobbled together from various searches.
1877: Bat People are mentioned in “The Coming Race (read it free)”, by Rt Hon Lord Lytton ( Edward Bulwer-Lytton) written in 1871. In it, Lytton claims to have met the batmen and he predicted they would come out and begin looking around. According to researcher Jan Lamprecht, these were the earliest mothman sightings. In “The Coming Race,” the author introduces a fictional race known as the “Vril-ya,” who are described as a superior species with bat-like characteristics. The narrative unfolds through the experiences of a narrator who discovers this subterranean civilization, which possesses advanced technology and a mysterious energy source called “Vril.” After reading the Coming Race, the similarity to the mothman are the 7ft height, the large wings and being able to lift off and fly without flapping their wings. The Vril-ya’s wings were optional in the story, an invention. They could wear them or not. There is no mention, however, of the Vril-ya or their devices of lacking heads or having glowing red eyes.
1942-1948: The West Virginia Ordnance Works, commonly referred to as the TNT Area, was established in 1942 during World War II. The facility was dedicated to the production of trinitrotoluene (TNT), a critical explosive used in munitions. At its peak, the plant produced approximately 720,000 pounds of TNT daily, operating around the clock with thousands of workers employed on-site. The TNT was stored in specially designed concrete bunkers, known as igloos, which were strategically placed and covered with soil to minimize the risk of catastrophic explosions in the event of an accident or enemy attack. The West Virginia Ordnance Works (WVOW), also known as the TNT Area, encompassed 8,323 acres and features a network of tunnels and bunkers that were integral to its operations during World War II.
1960 or 1961: (the witness no longer remembers the exact date) A woman prominent in civic affairs from West Virginia who requested anonymity was driving on Roue 2 along the Ohio River on the West Virginia side with her elderly father. She stated that as they passed through a sector of the edge of a park known as the Chief Cornstalk Hunting Grounds, a tall “man-like figure” suddenly appeared on the road in from of them.
“I slowed,” she said years later, “and as we go closer we could see that it was much larger than a man. A big gray figure. It stood in the middle of the road. Then a pair of wings unfolded from its back and they practically filled the whole road. It almost looked like a small airplane. Then it took off straight up…disappearing out of sight in seconds. We were both terrified. I stepped on the gas and raced out of there. We talked it over and decided not to tell anybody about it. Who would believe us anyway?” (Fandom)
1965: American journalist and influential UFOlogist John Keel told of a woman living near the Ohio River who related how her son told her one day of seeing “an angel” outside. She thought nothing more of it until about a year later. (Source)
Summer 1966: A woman saw a “six-foot butterfly thing.”. In the summer of 1966 a woman in the Ohio valley, the wife of a doctor, was in her backyard when a six foot long thing soared past her very rapidly. She thought it resembled a “giant butterfly” and she dared to mention the incident to only a few people. Source: Strange Creatures From Time And Space by John Keel (1970) (Page 213) (Chapter 18)
September 1, 1966: “At about 2:00 PM on the afternoon of Thursday, September 1st 1966, Mrs. James Ikart of Scott Mississippi was astonished to see a man flying around above the Pine Land Plantation. She telephoned the Delta Democrat Times, Greenville, Mississippi and a reporter armed with cameras was rushed to the scene. He found several people staring at the sky, all claiming that they had seen an object shaped like man maneuvering overhead. “It got down pretty low and then would go up,” Mrs. Ikart told him. “I have never seen anything like this before.” Source: Strange Creatures From Time And Space by John Keel (1970) (Page 210) (Chapter 17)
November 1, 1966: “On November 1st 1966, a national guardsman at the armory near Camp Conley road in Point Pleasant, WV saw a large brown humanoid figure perched on the limb of a tree. He only reported it after the Mothman story came to light.” Source: Strange Creatures From Time And Space by John Keel (1970) (Page 232) (Chapter 18)
November 12, 1966: A sighting of Mothman occurred when five grave diggers at a cemetery near Clendenin, West Virginia, saw a “brown human being” lift off from nearby trees and/or a creature flying low above the tree line, depending on who tells the story. ( Wvcommerce.org. 1966-11-12.) Witness Kenneth Duncan said that they watched the creature for almost a full minute. (Source) Another source, David SIbray, says on his page that only Duncan saw the creature. (Source)
Journalist and Historian David Sibray in the Koontz Cemetery at Clendenin, W.Va The possible site of the first Mothman Sighting
On November 12, 1966, Kenneth Duncan, of Blue Creek, was digging a grave for Duncan’s father-in-law, Homer Smith, in a cemetery at Clendenin with four other men when Duncan saw a human-like figure fly out of the surrounding woods and glide over their heads.
Laboring with him that day were Robert Lovejoy, of Allen, Mich., formerly of Campbells Creek, William Poole, also of Allen, Andrew Godby, of Blue Creek, and Emil Gibson, of Quincy, none of who apparently saw the creature. (Source)
November 14, 1966: Glowing red eyes, dog disappears forever. Salem resident and Contractor Merle “Newell” Partridge, told Mason County Sheriff George Johnson and others that at about 10:30 pm had his TV suddenly blacked out. A “real fine herringbone pattern appeared” and his TV started making a loud whining noise like a generator winding up. His dog, a muscular German Shepherd named Bandit, was sitting on the end of the porch, howling down toward the hay barn. Two red objects were hovering above a field. Bandit takes off into the field and is never seen by Partridge again. Newell said:
“‘I shined the [flash]light in that direction, and it picked up two red circles which looked like bicycle reflectors’. ‘I certainly know what animal eyes look like, these were much larger.’ It’s a good length of a football field to that hay barn, still those eyes showed up huge for that distance. ‘It was an eerie feeling. I have never had this sort of feeling before. It was if you knew something was wrong, but couldn’t place just what it was’.”
Merle Partirdge, mothman witness, 1966 by Fandom
He described the intense fear that swept over him and Bandit snarled and ran toward the eyes. Newell hurried inside and slept with his shotgun all night. The next day, with his six-year-old son, he went searching for the dog. Tracks were went in a circle, as if the dog was chasing his tail, then disappeared. Bandit was never seen again.
November 15, 1966: The most famous Mothman encounter took place outside of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, when two young couples – Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette – spotted a large winged creature with glowing red eyes near an abandoned TNT plant (Source | Source | Source ) Man-like flying thing with red eyes seen by four sober witnesses. The couples saw the “man-sized bird” creature when they drove into the TNT area (McClintic Wildlife Management Area) about 7 miles north of Point Pleasan. They reported it to police. Roger Scarberry, described the creature as having red eyes about two inches in diameter and six inches apart. In one description days afterwards, Linda Scarberry said it “had muscular legs like a man” but she could not see “its head or arms. I don’t even know if the eyes are even in a head.” It spread its wings and rose into the air, and stayed right with them, following Roger Scarberrry’s Black 1957 Chevrolet as they sped away, even when they were traveling 100 to 105 miles per hour on one stretch. “That bird kept right up with us,” said one of the group. They told Deputy Sheriff Millard Halstead that it followed them down Highway 62 and right to the Point Pleasant city limits It was on Route 62, by the C.C. Lewis farm and the National Guard Armory.
Three Different Real Eye Witness Sketches?
Roger Scarberry’s original drawing, 1966. Notes by John A. Keel. from Cryptozoonews
Close up of Gene Duplantier’s circa 1969 drawing of the Roger Scarberry sighting
From “Mothman, the facts behind the legend” by Donnie Sergent, Jr. & Jeff Wasmley.
These three seemingly different
sketches by different eye-
witnesses paint a convincing
picture of something real.
November 16, 1966: The source of the name “Mothman”. At a press conference held in Point Pleasant to discuss the sightings reporters dubbed the creature the “Mothman” after a Batman TV character, Killer Moth first appeared in Batman #63 (February 1951) according to Wikipedia.
November 16, 1966: Marcella Bennett saw the Mothman. “I could see leg, and I just started looking up and it looked like a man but with a head like a bird standing like that gray feathers.” This sighting occurred shortly after the more widely known encounter involving two couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, who reported a similar creature the night before. During her encounter, Bennett described the Mothman as a large, gray figure with glowing red eyes that appeared near the TNT area in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Overwhelmed by fear, she accidentally dropped her infant daughter while trying to escape the creature, which left her deeply traumatized for months.
November 17, 1966: “a teenage boy on Route 7 near Cheshire, Ohio reportedly saw a gray man-shaped creature with red eyes and 10ft wingspan. The creature pursued the witnesses automobile” Source: Strange Creatures From Time And Space by John Keel (1970) (Page 232) (Chapter 18)
~ November 17th 1966, Linda Scarberry’s Report: The Scarberry and Mallette’s wrote the following reports just days after their supposed Mothman encounter on November 15th 1966. This is Linda Scarberry’s:
“We were riding through the TNT Area on a side road by the old Power house building around 12:00 on Tuesday night Nov. 15th, 1966 when we came over this small rise in the road. All at once Steve yelled for us to look at that thing in the road.
I looked up and saw it go around the corner at the old Power House. It didn’t run but wobbled like it couldn’t keep it’s balance. It’s wings were spread just a little. We sat there a few second then Roger took off. I kept yelling for him to hurry. We didn’t even stop for the curves. We got out on Route 62 and was coming down the road and that thing was sitting on the second hill when you come into the 1st bad curves.
As soon as our lights hit it, it was gone. It spread its wings a little and went straight up into the air. When we got the armory it was flying over our car. We were going between 100 and 105 mph down that straight stretch and that thing was just gliding back and forth over the back end of the car. As we got there in front of the lights by the Resort it dived at our car and went away.
I could hear the wings flapping as if to get more speed as it went up. We were all terrified and kept yelling for Roger to go faster. As we came into that straight stretch by C. C. Lewis’ [farm] the thing was over our car again. Then it disappeared as we came into the lights by C. C. Lewis’ gates. We went on downtown and stopped at Dairyland and tried to decide what to do. We just sat there and looked at each other.
I wanted to go to the police but Steve and Roger kept saying they’d just laugh at us. We talked about it awhile and Roger and Steve wanted to go back up the road. Mary and I kept trying to talk them out of it and finally when we go to C. C. Lewis’ gate they decided they didn’t want to go back up so we turned around.
As we were turning we saw a big dead dog laying along the road. When we were almost turned around this thing jumped and leaped over our car and went through the field on the other side of the road. We decided to go to the police then and went down and around Tiny’s Drive-In looking for them. Gary was outside the Drive-In getting ready to take a couple boys home so we told him about seeing this thing and asked him to call the police.
After the police came we went back up the road in our car with Gary and the police about 1 / 2 mile behind us. I saw it then in a pasture field with its wings out a little walking towards the car then it went up in the air and came at the car. As Gary’s car lights came over the rise in the road and the lights shined on it, it disappeared. We went up and down the road looking for it but didn’t see anymore. We went back down to the Drive-In and got in Gary’s car and went back up. We finally found Millard Halstead and got with him and went to the powerhouse building.
We sat there with our lights out for about 15 or 20 minutes when I heard that squeaking sound like a mouse only a lot stronger. A shadow went across the building over on the hill across from us. Mary and I saw the red eyes then and told Millard. He shined the lights right on them without being told where they were. We saw dust coming from the ground or somewhere as Millard moved the spotlight around. We finally left and came to the trailer.
[The Mallette’s] were afraid to go to their apartment so we decided to stay together but we didn’t go to bed. We just turned on all the lights and stayed up. Wednesday we went up again to the building and found these off tracks around the building. Steve was around the boilers by himself and suddenly he came running out white as a sheet yelling for someone. He said he saw it in the boiler.
That night it was seen at Thomas’s so we went up there and Mary and I stayed in the house while Steve and Roger and a few others [bystanders] went looking for it. On the way up I saw it from the highway above the trees gliding back and forth. They searched the area around Thomas’s house but didn’t find anything. We started home around 12:30 and I saw it in one of the maintenance buildings. Mary and I started crying and Roger took off. I kept thinking about that thing following us again but it didn’t.
We went to my mothers’ and I went all to pieces. Roger and my dad took me down to the hospital. I finally got back home and we all stayed together that night again but didn’t go to bed till 3 or 4 o’clock. We were still afraid to go to sleep. The next day Thursday we went back up with reporters and we all heard a clanging noise from inside the building. Roger and Steve and the reporters went back in and found the boiler door open that Steve had shut when he left a few minutes before that. That night we went back up and Mary Hyre and I saw the eyes inside the fenced off place beside the Power house building.
On the way home I saw its eyes back in some trees from the road as the car went past and looked back and could see its form. That is the last time I have seen it. To me it just looks like a man with wings. (It was a dirty grey color.) It has a body shape form with wings on its back that come around it. It has muscular legs like a man and fiery-red eyes that glow when the lights hit it. There was no glowing about it until the lights hit it. I couldn’t see its head or arms. I don’t know if the eyes are even in a head. When we came down the straight stretch by the armory it didn’t even seem like it had any trouble keeping up with us. It must have had very powerful wings.
At no time did this thing fly at us from the front of the car. It stayed over the back end of the car while it was chasing us. It seemed to be afraid of lights but I read in the paper today that it has been seen in the day time in town. That I don’t understand. The prints we found at C. C. Lewis’ gate and at both Powerhouses and at Thomas’s. They looked like 2 horse shes put together but they’re smooth.
I know people are laughing at us but it’s no laughing matter. We’ll never forget this thing. It has affected our lives in many ways. I am keeping going on nerve and sleeping pills. When it gets dark I feel the fear creeping over me. When I go anyplace I automatically look up and out the windows. I am afraid to sleep at night so I lay awake sometimes crying with fear. When I do sleep or go to bed the lights burn all night. Even in the daylight I’m afraid to be by myself. I walk around in my own house expecting to see that thing. I close my eyes day or night and I can see those red fiery eyes staring at me. Every little noise scares me to death.
I can stand in a crowd and hear people talking about us and laughing. People have said we were probably “liquored up” but we were NOT. They go up there expecting to see it but then they say they don’t believe us. We HAVE seen it so we know what to look for and we are constantly looking- not because we want to see it- but because we’re afraid we’ll see it again.
Out of all the phone calls we’ve gotten not one minister has called to help us or try to explain what it is. We all agree we’d like to talk to a minister about it but no one takes us that serious. One minister even laughed and said they’d finally run the devil out of their church and that’s what we saw. We’ve been harassed and laughed at and called crazy. We just can’t go up there and hand it to people on a silver platter like they seem to want us to do. We are never really going to get over our fear until we find out for sure what this thing is. I know I’ll never forget it. I don’t think anyone can who has seen it.”
~ November 17th 1966, Mary Mallette’s Report: The Scarberry and Mallette’s wrote the following reports just days after their supposed Mothman encounter on November 15th 1966. This is Mary Mallette’s Report:
“The four of us were riding around between 11:30 and 12:00 o’clock Tuesday, November 15th, 1966, when we came in from behind the old powerhouse and as soon as we came up in seeing distance of the power house Steve first seen this thing along the side of the road and it ran to the power house, that is when I first saw this thing which appeared to be a man about 6 feet tall with wings on its back and red eyes 2 inches in diameter and about 6 inches apart.
[The Scarberry’s] also saw this thing at the corner of the power house and we all seemed to be stunned and he took off out the road at a fast speed and as we drove back toward town on RT. 62 we saw this man with wings standing on a bank but I could not see his head and as soon as our lights hit the bank you could see its eyes plainly and it seemed to take off upward very fast, well we all saw that, and Roger the driver speeded down the road and as we speeded down the road on the straight stretch at a speed of 100 or 105 mph the thing glided over top of our car back and forth until we drove into the lights by the armory the thing never once flew in front of our car. It seemed to be afraid of the lights.
We drove down through town and stopped in the lights at about Dairyland to talk and we all discussed it and Linda said, “I think we should go to the police,” but we didn’t. Then we decided to go back. We got as far as [C.C.] Lewis’ gate because we were not really for going back. As Roger turned the car around the lights moved over a large dead dog along the side of the road. As we turned something ran from behind a tree and jumped over top the back of our car and ran out through the field. Then was when we decided we should tell someone.
We went down by Tiny’s Drive-in and Gary and a couple others were just coming out the door so we told him what we had seen. We were all frightened and the first thing he asked us was, “Have you kids been drinking?” and our answer was, “No, we had not been drinking.” So we asked Gary to call the police and he did. We waited on the police and when they arrived we decided that the four of us would go up the road ahead of everyone. So we all did. As we were driving up the road we saw it again in a field and it came up behind us and when Gary ‘s lights could be seen behind us the thing left again and we turned at the traffic circle and went back.
Millard Halstead searched the tree tops with his search lights and we all went back to Tiny’s and the four of us got in the car with Gary and went back and in the dark area on the left side of the road I seen two large red eyes and all I could do was point and burst into tears as fright came into me. But none of the other four saw anything there so we turned at the traffic circle again and went back into town and Gary told Millard of our frightening experience and we got into the car with Millard and went back to the power house and sat there with our doors locked and our lights off. We could all see shadows coming over the building and I said I can see those eyes and Millard put the spotlight right on them without asking any direction in which we were looking. Millard turned the lights on and we all seen something looking like dust or smoke.
We seen that twice then we cam back and got Roger’s car and we all went to the trailer. We decided to stay with them that night. We were all so frightened we locked the doors and turned on all the lights and stayed up all night. We went back to the old power house the next day and them and [..?] went with us. The men took their guns and went through the old power house. Roger was on top of the building and Steve was inside looking around and Roger came down to the outside when we heard Steve yell come back here.
Roger came down before anyone else went into the place and he said he opened one of the boiler doors and saw something move upward. Then [..?] came and looked through the old building. We all were looking around the place and found some funny prints like a double hoof print of a horse. Then we all returned home. We stayed together most of the time. About 9:30 that evening we heard that it was seen at Thomas’s so we went directly up there and the men took their guns that night. We saw tracks up there and we went home about 12:30 and we all stayed together that night.
The next day was Thursday and we went back with the T.V. reporters and all the men looked in the building and came back to talk with us when they heard a clang in the building and went back to investigate the noise and one of the doors of the boilers had been opened. That evening we all went back. The reporters from the messenger went up. While they were all looking at the building Linda saw the eyes in a field and Mrs. Hyre also saw the eyes. On the way home right before we got to the Point Pleasant resort I saw it better than I had ever saw it before. I could see the complete outline of it and the eyes but I could not any head.
That time was the most frightening time I had ever saw this. When you see something like this you know you will never forget it. At night you wonder where this man-like creature is and if it will harm you and it is all I seem to think about. And when we go somewhere I can fell someone laughing at me. And I can be in a crowd and hear people say, “Well they were all liquored up,” and God only knows we were not. But all I have heard and seen is news reporters and telephones. I do think I would feel better if a minister would come to talk to us and try to help us get over this fear. There has not been a minister to call us out of all our phone calls or even try to get in touch with us.”
~ November 17th 1966, Roger Scarberry’s Report: The Scarberry and Mallette’s wrote the following reports just days after their supposed Mothman encounter on November 15th 1966. This is Roger Scarberry’s:
“Tuesday night about 12 o’clock while riding in the TNT Area we came upon this thing. It was in the shape of a man with wings. This thing stood about 6 feet tall with wings on its back. It was light grey in color, with red eyes about 2 inches in diameter 6 to 8 inches apart. When we came up over a rise in the road in front of the power house Steve saw these large red eyes. He pointed the eyes out to me and when we all looked it was going around the corner of the building. This thing runs awkward with its wings out to its side.
After we stopped and looked at each other I took off out the road toward the highway. When we came to the traffic circle and turned south on 62 we saw it again. It was on the bank on the left side of the road. This is where you could see it the best. But when the car lights shown on it, it moved its wings out to its side and went straight up in the air. We didn’t see it again till we were on the straight road in front of the experiment farm where it came over the car again. I speeded up to 100 mph and it glided over the car till we came to the curve at the armory. Then it was gone. We came on in to town.
This thing must have been afraid of lights because it wouldn’t come in to town. We went downtown and stopped. We wanted to tell the police but we were going to go back up to see for sure that it was still up the road. But when we going up through town we decided we didn’t want to go back up. So I turned around at the gate at the C. C. Lewis farm. When I turned around a dead dog was lying along the road. As I turned and started back down the road this thing came out from behind where the dog was and went over the back of the car and out through the field on the other side of the road.
Then we went down to Tiny’s Drive-in and told Gary what we saw and told him to call the police. When the police got there Gary and the police followed us back up the road where we saw it again. The dog was gone. But when his car came over the hill behind us it was gone. From there we went back to this field but didn’t see it again. So we went down to town. Then we went with the deputy Sheriff back to the power plant and stopped. We sat in the car and saw dust or smoke coming up from the coal yard beside the plant. From there we went back and got in the car and went home.
Next day / Wednesday-The next day we went back to the power plant and looked around where Steve saw it again in a boiler inside the plant. Then Wednesday night it was seen at Thomas’s home in the TNT Area. We went up to Thomas’s home the same night and found a footprint this thing had made.
Thursday-Thursday we went up to the plant with reporters and went through it. While we were inside Steve shuts the boiler door. When we were outside we hear a loud noise. We went back inside and the door was open.
What this thing looked like-it is about 6 feet tall with large wings on its back. It has a shape of a man. It has two red eyes about 2 inches in diameter 6 to 8 inches apart. A wing spread of 10 feet. This thing whatever it is is definitely not a crane or goose or balloon or any of the things it has been called. I have seen it and know what it looks like.”
Mid November 1966: Then we have some red glowing eyes and a sheriff’s radio acting strangely. “In mid-November, 1966, at night, outside this building, a pair of “parkers” reported seeing the creature, noting especially its glowing red eyes. The creature then reportedly gave chase to the pair as they sped into Point Pleasant to describe their contact to authorities. A sheriff’s deputy dispatched to the scene reported an uneasy feeling coming on when he noticed his two-way radio failing to work properly and making a static-filled noise.”
November 18, 1966: A huge bird, with huge red eyes, say two. Volunteer firemen Captain Paul Yoder and Benjamin Enochs reported seeing a large bird in the TNT area. It was huge and had large red eyes. Rather than winged humanoids that others claimed to see, the pair unequivocally stated that what they saw was a bird—however, a bird unlike any they had ever seen before. “It was definitely a bird,” they stated flatly, “with big red eyes. But It was huge. We’d never seen anything like it”.
November 25, 1966: “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.” (Source)
November 26, 1966: “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” (Source)
November 27, 1966: “…on the way home from church, Connie Carpenter saw a grayish figure standing on the golf course near Mason. The creature saw her, 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.”
– That night, “in St. Albans, where two girls saw the creature near a junkyard. The creature flew after them.” (Source)
November 30, 1966: Specifically, a Sandhill Crane. Newspaper article in the McCOMB, Mississippi Enterprise-Journal states that a professor of wildlife biology who did not see the mothman said all descriptions fitted a sandhill crane, the second largest American crane which stands almost as high as a man and has a wingspan of more than seven feet. He said the “red eyes” could be large circles of bare reddish flesh around the crane’s eyes.
McCOMB, Mississippi Enterprise-Journal article Nov 30, 1966
A sandhill crane fooled people in West Virginia in 1966? We think not.
A few observations: The sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) does not seem to us to have legs like a man. They have rather thin spindly little legs. They also have obvious heads. Furthermore, they may be big, but they look like birds. There is no evidence we could find that a sandhill crane could follow a car at 100 miles per hour. They also do not seem to rise into the air without flapping their wings. When in flight, sandhill cranes still look like birds not like flying humans.
December 4, 1966: Super fast bird with a long neck flying without flapping wings. Five pilots at the Gallipolis, Ohio, airport see a giant bird flying at about 70 miles per hour without moving its wings. Unlike other witnesses they reported it having a long neck.
May 24, 1967: According to the National Cryptid Society, Mary Hyre, a respected reporter for the Athens Messenger and friend of John Keel, wrote in her personal notes on this date that she was seeing UFOs on a nightly basis.
November 2, 1967: Strange squeaky sound, tall gray figure. Mrs. Ralph Thomas claimed to hear a sound like a “squeaky fan belt” outside of her house, after which she spotted a “tall gray figure” moving around near the concrete domes in the TNT Area. ( Source )
December 13, 1967 (roughly): Just days before the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge, witnesses reported seeing the Mothman flying near the bridge
December 15, 1967: Bridge collapse. The Silver Bridge, which connected the city with Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed during rush hour killing 46 people and the Mothman and bridge disaster became linked in folklore. Some believe the Mothman was an omen of this impending disaster ( Source )
1975: John Keel’s book “The Mothman Prophecies” was published, propelling the Mothman legend into mainstream consciousness and drawing comparisons to other paranormal phenomena like UFO sightings and Men in Black encounters ( Source | Source )
1983: Environmental assessments revealed significant contamination from explosive byproducts, leading to the designation of the TNT Area as a Superfund site in 1983.
November 25, 1995: Ronnie Hammonds (a nurse), her sister Regina, her little brother Adam, and her best frends Zina and Mickle were traveling home from Bogarts in Cincinatti Ohio after a Boy George concert. Ronnie says she didn’t know the roads very well and the group got lost on a road called Old 52. Everyone got out of the car at a rest stop on this very cold night and saw a sign that said Pleasant Point. Driving in and out of thick fog banks after the rest stop, suddenly, “in the midle of the road was this thing. i slamed on the brakes to try and stop the car so we wouldn’t hit it. this thing was huge it had to stand over 6 feet tall. it did not move it stayed there for a few seconds then flew strate up in the air like a bullet. me and zina were histerical. we were going crazy. everyone in the car was screaming. the car slid sidewayes because the road had black ice on it. .we were terrified we did not know of the ledgend of the moth man. ….. ronnie hammonds”
January 25, 2002: The Mothman Prophecies move was released. The movie, based on real events that took place in the late 1960’s, has come and gone. (trailer HERE.) Read the chat board contributions on the Mothman Lives web site. According to newspaper articles from the real event, what really happened was even more interesting than the movie.
January 24, 2003: John Keel interviewed on the Art Bell radio show gives detail from his research including his UFO sightings which were in the same area as the Mothman. Listen: “The Mothman Prophecies – John Keel – Coast to Coast AM [1-24-02] (Show runs several hours.) He says something about government people being around there, the TNT area, and Art Bell asks if they knew something was going on and were there to try to find out. Keels says, “there were suddenly a lot of strangers, and as you know, in the 60’s the FBI dressed almost in a uniform. They had very short hair. They always wore a hat. They dressed with neckties and things that you didn’t see in Point Pleasant very often.”
September 29, 2013: In Santiago, Chile, a young man and his friends reported seeing a two-meter tall creature with long wings flying over a park. This sighting was part of a series of Mothman-like encounters in the area, which coincided with an increase in UFO activity, suggesting a possible connection between the two phenomena ( Source | Source )
May 2, 2017: In Chicago, several independent witnesses reported seeing a large, winged figure resembling the Mothman. Descriptions included glowing eyes and a massive wingspan, similar to earlier sightings in Point Pleasant. This resurgence of sightings in urban areas reignited interest in the Mothman legend and led to increased media coverage ( Source | Source )
February 17, 2008: Video of part of a John Alva Keel presentation is posted to YouTube. Born Alva John Kiehle (March 25, 1930 – July 3, 2009):
Mothman Museum Live/24 hour mothcam
People from all over the world travel to Point Pleasant to spend a little “selfie time” with the famous Mothman Statue. Now, you can watch Mothman’s biggest fans on the Mothman Museum‘s 24 hour MOTHCAM:
Many Gaps in the Story
From the most famous sighting on November 15, 1966, Steve Mallette’s Statement is missing. Did he write one? It seems not. His handwritten report does not appear along with those of other witnesses who created their shortly after the sightings on November 15, 1966. The three depositions were not publicly accessible until they were included in the book Mothman: The Facts Behind the Legend by Donnie Sergeant, Jr. and Jeff Wamsley in 2002. Is Steve Mallette’s handwritten deposition is not available at the Mothman Museum because he never wrote one. What has Steve Mallette said about the appearance of the Mothman? He was alone when he saw it in the Boiler room. Did he get a good look?
Conclusion
Over 50 years ago, multiple sober eyewitnesses in Point Pleasant, West Virginia reported seeing an unusual flying creature with glowing red eyes and a 10-foot wingspan, which came to be known as the Mothman. The Mothman was allegedly spotted in the “TNT area”, an abandoned WWII munitions facility north of Point Pleasant, from November 15 to December 15, 1966. Despite numerous reported sightings and the creature’s enduring fame, the true nature of the Mothman remains a mystery.
