The weird events connected to the Mothman began on November 12, 1966 near Clendenin, West Virginia. While the photos are blurry, you can clearly see what appear to be human legs and a human torso and large wings sailing overhead. The creature had a human, male athletic body. There is now an annual festival in the area which celebrates this odd legend. The moment took place in The Clifton F. McClintic Wildlife Management Area, in West Virginia, US. Three friends in Chicago were walking their usual evening trek on a lakefront trail around 10 pm on June 3, 2021. They didn't think anything about it since many people frequent the park that time of night. As for sightings of the actual Mothman, they've mostly declined since the late 1960s. Brunvand notes that recountings of the 196667 Mothman reports usually state that at least 100 people saw Mothman with many more "afraid to report their sightings" but observed that written sources for such stories consisted of children's books or sensationalized or undocumented accounts that fail to quote identifiable persons. We take a look at 5 mothman sightings caught on camera. They said it had been a large flying man with wings ten-foot wide and it followed their car. The Mothman Festival began after brainstorming creative ways for people to visit Point Pleasant. [2][16][17], According to Georgian newspaper Svobodnaya Gruziya, Russian UFOlogists claim that Mothman sightings in Moscow foreshadowed the 1999 Russian apartment bombings.[18]. "[25], Some pseudoscience adherents (such as ufologists, paranormal authors, and cryptozoologists) claim that Mothman was an alien, a supernatural manifestation, or a previously unknown species of animal. The three hikers eventually jumped into the creek in an attempt to lose the creature, and it eventually disappeared back into the woods. I am writing to report something . [7], An annual festival in Point Pleasant is devoted to the Mothman legend. Mothman In 1975, author John Keel conflated the Mothman sightings and the bridge disaster while creating his book The Mothman Prophecies. The last time Mothman was seen was in 1967, right before a bridge over the Ohio River collapsed, killing 46 people. [ "That Mothman: Would You Believe A Sandhill Crane?" Footage of the wreckage of the Silver Bridge and interviews with witnesses and survivors. Geographies of Mothman - ArcGIS StoryMaps The only possible explanation I can think of is that somebody caught the Mothman and chained him to this spot! Is Mothman really a paranormal creature who terrorizes residents of West Virginia and its surrounding areas? Along the way, though, some odd scenes have cropped up over the years. The small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, along the bank of the Ohio River. Richie Diesterheft/FlickrA sign remembering the Silver Bridge collapse of 1967. I believe they were in a paranormal state until this time of earth's history when all except the 5% of the world's population will be destroyed and earth will become paranormal to what it is today (Revelation 21, my source). Some people hypothesized that this crane was deformed, especially if it resided in the TNT area a name that locals gave to a series of nearby bunkers that were once used for manufacturing munitions during World War II. Mothman is usually described as a large monster standing over six feet tall, with wings that span six to ten feet across, menacing red eyes, and a body covered in feathers or fur. Joe initially thought that he had encountered the boogieman as a child but decided it was more likely to have been the Mothman after noticing similarities between the creature he encountered and the creature described in The Mothman Prophecies. It also appeared as a see-through entity, almost like a spirit, unlike the traditional encounters with a creature possessing a solid corporeal form. Chupacabra & Other American Monsters Map - ZeeMaps Gallery Pleasant Car Occupants See 'Bird-Like Creature'" Newspaper, released November 17th 1966, "Owl? Goose? It was some kind of weird, vaguely humanoid shapebut it definitely wasnt human. Josh Gate's sends Jessica Chobot and Phil Torres around the United States to investigate the sightings of the elusive MothmanSubscribe to Discovery UK for mo. A Timeline of the Lake Michigan Mothman Sightings So Far He assured the paper, If I had seen it while by myself, I wouldnt have said anything, but there were four of us who saw it.. However, this eyewitness offered photos to back up his story. This was linked to the Mothman, and the legend was cemented. UFO Clearinghouse reports a USPS employee at the sorting facility located at Chicago O'Hare International Airport came face-to-face with a Mothman creature. I'm 74 years of age and in the past twenty to thirty years we have spotted two new planets circling earth that had not been seen before. Forty-six people died, either by drowning or being crushed by the wreckage. This encounter was very similar to the first and also involved paralysis in his bed for what seemed like at least an hour to him. The creature was said to have a wingspan of 12'-15' and standing height was 6'-7' tall. Newspaper, December 22nd 1966, (Mothman) Loretta Faye Campbell, Point Pleasant WV, 1966, "Mystery Bird Seen Flying Over Avenue" Newspaper, January 1967, Where The Waters Mingle by Mary Hyre January 22nd 1967, Where The Waters Mingle by Mary Hyre January 29th 1967, (Men In Black) Mary Hyre, Newspaper Office WV, January 1967, (Men In Black) Connie Carpenter, Mason County WV, February 22nd 1967, March 1967 Mary Hyre's Letters To John Keel, (UFO) Beau Shertzer and female nurse, Route 2 to Huntington WV, March 5th 1967, Where The Waters Mingle by Mary Hyre March 5th 1967, (Mothman) Adult woman, Letart Falls OH, March 12th 1967, "Point Pleasant Area Sightings Continue" Newspaper, March 20th 1967, April 1967 Mary Hyre's Letters To John Keel, Where The Waters Mingle by Mary Hyre April 2nd 1967, Where The Waters Mingle by Mary Hyre April 9th 1967, Where The Waters Mingle by Mary Hyre April 30th 1967, May 1967 Mary Hyre's Letters To John Keel, (Men In Black) Mary Hyre, Streets of Pt Pleasant WV, May 5th 1967, (Men In Black / Phantom Photographer) Mary Hyre, Her home, May 8th 1967, (Men In Black / Phantom Photographer) John Keel, 42nd and 3rd Avenue NY, Spring 1967, 25 Years At The Messenger Brought Laughs, Tears by Mary Hyre. She glanced up from her cellphone and noticed a tall man standing about 20' from her car. He snapped a few images of the Indian statue on the roof of the local tobacco store. So it didnt take long for some to connect the two. Sightings and events taking place after the release of John Keel's Mothman Prophecies book but before the movie adaptation and more mainstream popularity. Freakishly enough, another sighting of Mothman was noted at the site of a bridge collapse. Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field, its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors". It stared at him for several seconds. First sighted near point pleasant West Virginia in 1966 some say he is a harbinger of doom sent from another dimension, while others believe he is a mutated owl who had the misfortune of making its home in the now-famous " TNT . Elijah A Alexander Jr from Washington DC on April 01, 2019: I really enjoy your reporting on paranormal beings because of my experiences with paranormal voices and believe they are only so because science have not proven them. The creature allegedly stopped about ten feet away from the car, and the witness and his friends could see the outline of the creature. But every so often, a sighting emerges. Five men were in the local cemetery that day, preparing a grave for a burial, when something that looked like a "brown human being" lifted off from some nearby trees and flew over their heads. With our cryptid road map of the U.S.A., you can do just that. Mothman was first sighted in 1966 by residents of Point Pleasant, and over one hundred sightings continued to be reported through 1968 in the town and surrounding areas. He claimed to local reporters that he was unaware of the local legend of the Mothman until he allegedly spotted the beast himself. [The Devil's Tea Tables In West Virginia], [ Grave Creek Mound and Criel Mound, 250 - 150 BC ], [ The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, opened 1864 ], [ The West Virginia State Penitentiary, opened 1876 ], [ The Historic Lowe Hotel In Point Pleasant WV, Built In 1901 ], [ The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort, book released 1919 ], [ New Lands by Charles Fort, book released 1923 ], [ Frank Frazetta, born February 9th 1928 ], [ Lo! In 2016, a man whod just moved to Point Pleasant spotted a mysterious creature jumping from tree to tree. While the villain Killer Moth did not appear in the show, the comic book influence of both him and Batman is believed by some to have influenced the coinage of the name "Mothman" in the local newspapers. Mothman Sightings - Mythical Creatures Guide Looking for Bigfoot? New Map Shows Where to Search Prank: Or Take Your Choice" Newspaper, released November 17th 1966 ], [ "Mason Countians Hunt 'Moth Man'" Newspaper, released November 17th 1966 ], [ "City Getting 'The Bird,' Want It Or Not" Newspaper, released November 17th 1966 ], [ "Monster No Joke For Those Who Saw It" Newspaper, released November 18th 1966 ], [ "Couples Say They Saw 6-Ft. 100-mph Bird'" Newspaper, released November 18th 1966 ], [ "Mason County has 'Flying' Mystery" Newspaper, released November 18th 1966 ], [ "Monster Returns To Mason" Newspaper, released November 1966 ], [ "'Flying Man' Seen Here, Man Claims" Newspaper, released November 18th 1966 ], [ "Eight People Say They Saw 'Creature'" Newspaper, released November 18th 1966 ], [ "'Birdman' Could Be FHS Balloon" Newspaper, released November 18th 1966 ], [ "Could the 'Moth Man' Be Balloon?" This included two volunteer firefighters, who said they saw a very large bird with large red eyes.. And then there are the paranormal explanations, a morass of complicated theories that weave together aliens, UFOs, and precognition. Newell Partridge, a resident of Salem, West Virginia, claimed that he saw strange patterns appearing on his television screen one night, followed by a mysterious sound just outside of his home. Sightings are bullet pointed, events are in brackets and Mothman sightings are in bold. In August 2019, a commercial airline pilot who is a former U.S. Air Force pilot reported seeing a large human with wings perched on a rail. It was then brought back to public attention after the 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies starring Richard Gere. It does this by using special 3D cameras, usually strapped to the top of cars or carried by Google workers on foot. This account of encountering the Mothman is interesting for a number of reasons. The Laboratory and Supervisors Office Acid Area, part of what locals now refer to as the TNT area, in 1942. asking if they saw the Mothman - he's just counting the number of people that voluntarily came forward to report a sighting." According to Gallo, "people more likely to visit a paranormal . Investigators traced the pandemic's origins to the month of April, just a month after more than 30 sightings of Mothman were reported in and around Chihuahua. [8], On November 15, 1966, two young couples from Point PleasantRoger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallettetold police they had seen a large white creature whose eyes "glowed red", standing at the side of the road near "the TNT area", the site of a former World WarII munitions plant. This content is accurate and true to the best of the authors knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional. The creature was described as a humanoid with bat wings or a massive batlike flying creature. In the witnesss words, he saw a body outline of a weird person. People Keep Seeing the Mothman in Chicago - Vice [2] Wildlife biologist Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the sandhill crane, a large American crane almost as tall as a man with a seven-foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes. That was the moment the woman panicked, realizing what she was seeing wasn't a person. The woman was adamant she'd seen the creature staring at her as though she were prey. The Mothman locked gazes with the pilot and turned its head to maintain eye contact as the shuttle passed it. [23] Daniel A. Reed examined the migration patterns and historically reported sightings of Sand Hill Cranes in the area of Point Pleasant and proposed that, in cases where eyeshine was not noted, it was statistically more likely that witnesses were seeing and misidentifying a Great Blue Heron instead. Another theory suggests that the creation of the Mothman was the work of one very committed prankster who went so far as to hide in the abandoned World War II munitions plant, where some of the sightings occurred. NeedpixA sandhill crane, a popular explanation for the Mothman legend. They knew this only because it allegedly chased their vehicle to the outskirts of town in the air, then scuttled into a nearby field and disappeared. What is the wild cat of Warwickshire and how many other big cat sightings have there been? The figure stands about as tall as a human - but that's where similarities end. Soon it became apparently connected to supernatural events after sightings, and was linked to the collapse of a bridge which killed 46 people.