Mothman
Encyclopedia
Mothman is a legendary creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant
area of West Virginia
from 15 November 1966 to 15 December 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register dated 16 November 1966, entitled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something".
Mothman was introduced to a wider audience by Gray Barker
in 1970 , later popularized by John Keel
in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies
, claiming that Mothman was related to a wide array of supernatural
events in the area and the collapse of the Silver Bridge
. The 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies
was based on Keel's book.
munitions plant.
During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron
he termed a "shitepoke". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature. Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University
told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the Sandhill Crane
, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route.
There were no Mothman reports in the immediate aftermath of the December 15, 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge
and the death of 46 people, giving rise to legends that the Mothman sightings and the bridge collapse were connected.
writes that many years after the initial events, members of the Ohio UFO Investigators League re-interviewed several people who claimed to have seen Mothman, all of whom insisted their stories were accurate. Linda Scarberry claimed that she and her husband had seen Mothman "hundreds of times," sometimes at close range, commenting, "It seems like it doesn’t want to hurt you. It just wants to communicate with you."
Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman
claims that sightings of Mothman continue, and told USA Today
he re-interviewed witnesses described in Keel's book who said Mothman was "a huge creature about 7 feet tall with huge wings and red eyes" and that "they could see the creature flapping right behind them" as they fled from it.
, paranormal
authors, and cryptozoologists
believe that Mothman was an alien, a supernatural manifestation, or an unknown cryptid
. In his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, author John Keel claimed that the Point Pleasant residents experienced precognition
s including premonitions of the collapse of the Silver Bridge, unidentified flying object
sightings, visits from mysterious or threatening men in black
, and other bizarre phenomena. However, Keel has been criticized for distorting established data, and for gullibility.
Joe Nickell
says that a number of hoaxes followed the publicity generated by the original reports, such as a group of construction workers who tied red flashlights to helium balloons. Nickell attributes the Mothman reports to pranks, misidentified planes, and sightings of a barn owl
, an albino owl
, or perhaps a large snowy owl
, suggesting that the Mothman's "glowing eyes" were actually red-eye effect
caused from the reflection of light from flashlights or other bright light sources.
Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand
notes that Mothman has been widely covered in the popular press, some claiming sightings connected with UFOs, and others claiming that a military storage site was Mothman's "home". Brunvand notes that recountings of the 1966-67 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. Brunvand found elements in common among many Mothman reports and much older folk tales, suggesting that something real may have triggered the scares and became woven with existing folklore. He also records anecdotal tales of Mothman supposedly attacking the roofs of parked cars inhabited by teenagers in lovers lanes.
Point Pleasant, West Virginia
Point Pleasant is a city in Mason County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers. The population was 4,637 at the 2000 census...
area of West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
from 15 November 1966 to 15 December 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register dated 16 November 1966, entitled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something".
Mothman was introduced to a wider audience by Gray Barker
Gray Barker
Gray Barker was an American writer best known for his books about UFOs and other paranormal phenomena. His 1956 book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers introduced the notion of the Men in Black to UFO folklore. Recent evidence indicates that he was skeptical of most UFO claims, and mainly...
in 1970 , later popularized by John Keel
John Keel
John Alva Keel, born Alva John Kiehle was an American journalist and influential UFOlogist best known as author of The Mothman Prophecies.-Biography:...
in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies
The Mothman Prophecies
The Mothman Prophecies is a 1975 book by author John Keel.The book combines Keel's account of his investigation into alleged sightings of a large, winged creature called Mothman in the vicinity of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, during 1966 and 1967 with his own theories about UFOs and various...
, claiming that Mothman was related to a wide array of supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
events in the area and the collapse of the Silver Bridge
Silver Bridge
The Silver Bridge collapsed in 1967, killing 46 people. The terms Silver Bridge or Silverbridge may also refer to:* Silver Memorial Bridge, the replacement for the above bridge, opened in 1969....
. The 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies
The Mothman Prophecies (film)
The Mothman Prophecies is a 2002 psychological horror film directed by Mark Pellington, based on the 1975 book of the same name by parapsychologist and Fortean author John Keel. The screenplay was written by Richard Hatem...
was based on Keel's book.
History
On Nov. 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette told police they saw a large white creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a "flying man with ten foot wings" following their car while they were driving in an area of town known as 'TNT area', the site of a former World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
munitions plant.
During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron
Heron
The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....
he termed a "shitepoke". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature. Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University
West Virginia University
West Virginia University is a public research university in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. Other campuses include: West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg; West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery; Potomac State College of West Virginia University in Keyser;...
told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the Sandhill Crane
Sandhill Crane
The Sandhill Crane is a large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird references habitat like that at the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills in the American Midwest...
, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route.
There were no Mothman reports in the immediate aftermath of the December 15, 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge
Silver Bridge
The Silver Bridge collapsed in 1967, killing 46 people. The terms Silver Bridge or Silverbridge may also refer to:* Silver Memorial Bridge, the replacement for the above bridge, opened in 1969....
and the death of 46 people, giving rise to legends that the Mothman sightings and the bridge collapse were connected.
Claims of later sightings
UFOlogist Jerome ClarkJerome Clark
Jerome Clark is an American researcher and writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other anomalous phenomena; he is also a songwriter of some note....
writes that many years after the initial events, members of the Ohio UFO Investigators League re-interviewed several people who claimed to have seen Mothman, all of whom insisted their stories were accurate. Linda Scarberry claimed that she and her husband had seen Mothman "hundreds of times," sometimes at close range, commenting, "It seems like it doesn’t want to hurt you. It just wants to communicate with you."
Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is an author of books on a number of topics, including cryptozoology, who was born in 1947 in Norfolk, Virginia and grew up in Decatur, Illinois.-Education:...
claims that sightings of Mothman continue, and told USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
he re-interviewed witnesses described in Keel's book who said Mothman was "a huge creature about 7 feet tall with huge wings and red eyes" and that "they could see the creature flapping right behind them" as they fled from it.
Paranormal
Some UFologistsUfology
Ufology is a neologism coined to describe the collective efforts of those who study reports and associated evidence of unidentified flying objects . UFOs have been subject to various investigations over the years by governments, independent groups, and scientists...
, paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
authors, and cryptozoologists
Cryptozoology
Cryptozoology refers to the search for animals whose existence has not been proven...
believe that Mothman was an alien, a supernatural manifestation, or an unknown cryptid
Cryptid
In cryptozoology and sometimes in cryptobotany, a cryptid is a creature or plant whose existence has been suggested but is unrecognized by scientific consensus and often regarded as highly unlikely. Famous examples include the Yeti in the Himalayas and the Loch Ness Monster in...
. In his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, author John Keel claimed that the Point Pleasant residents experienced precognition
Precognition
In parapsychology, precognition , also called future sight, and second sight, is a type of extrasensory perception that would involve the acquisition or effect of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information or laws of physics...
s including premonitions of the collapse of the Silver Bridge, unidentified flying object
Unidentified flying object
A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
sightings, visits from mysterious or threatening men in black
Men in Black
Men in Black , in American popular culture and in UFO conspiracy theories, are men dressed in black suits who claim to be government agents who harass or threaten UFO witnesses to keep them quiet about what they have seen. It is sometimes implied that they may be aliens themselves...
, and other bizarre phenomena. However, Keel has been criticized for distorting established data, and for gullibility.
Skeptical
SkepticSkepticism
Skepticism has many definitions, but generally refers to any questioning attitude towards knowledge, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts, or doubt regarding claims that are taken for granted elsewhere...
Joe Nickell
Joe Nickell
Joe Nickell is a prominent skeptical investigator of the paranormal. He also works as an historical document consultant and has helped expose such famous forgeries as the purported diary of Jack the Ripper. In 2002 he was one of a number of experts asked by scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr...
says that a number of hoaxes followed the publicity generated by the original reports, such as a group of construction workers who tied red flashlights to helium balloons. Nickell attributes the Mothman reports to pranks, misidentified planes, and sightings of a barn owl
Barn Owl
The Barn Owl is the most widely distributed species of owl, and one of the most widespread of all birds. It is also referred to as Common Barn Owl, to distinguish it from other species in the barn-owl family Tytonidae. These form one of two main lineages of living owls, the other being the typical...
, an albino owl
Albinism in birds
Albinism in birds is rare, occurring to any extent in perhaps one in 1800 individuals . A bird that is albino has white feathers in place of coloured ones on some portion of its body...
, or perhaps a large snowy owl
Snowy Owl
The Snowy Owl is a large owl of the typical owl family Strigidae. The Snowy Owl was first classified in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist who developed binomial nomenclature to classify and organize plants and animals. The bird is also known in North America as the Arctic Owl, Great...
, suggesting that the Mothman's "glowing eyes" were actually red-eye effect
Red-eye effect
The red-eye effect in photography is the common appearance of red pupils in color photographs of eyes. It occurs when using a photographic flash very close to the camera lens , in ambient low light. The effect appears in the eyes of humans and animals that have no tapetum lucidum, hence no...
caused from the reflection of light from flashlights or other bright light sources.
Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand
Jan Harold Brunvand
Jan Harold Brunvand is an American folklorist. A professor emeritus of the University of Utah, he best known for spreading the concept of the urban legend, a form of modern folklore...
notes that Mothman has been widely covered in the popular press, some claiming sightings connected with UFOs, and others claiming that a military storage site was Mothman's "home". Brunvand notes that recountings of the 1966-67 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. Brunvand found elements in common among many Mothman reports and much older folk tales, suggesting that something real may have triggered the scares and became woven with existing folklore. He also records anecdotal tales of Mothman supposedly attacking the roofs of parked cars inhabited by teenagers in lovers lanes.
Festivals and statue
Point Pleasant held its first Annual Mothman Festival in 2002 and a 12-foot-tall metallic statue of the creature, created by artist and sculptor Bob Roach, was unveiled in 2003. The Mothman Museum and Research Center opened in 2005 run by Jeff Wamsley. The Festival is a weekend long event held on the 3rd weekend of every September. There are a variety of events that go on during the festival such as guest speakers, vendor exhibits, and hayride tours focusing on the notable areas of Point Pleasant.Popular culture
- In Episode 2 of the short-lived TV series X-Testers, the researchers attempted to duplicate alleged photographs of Mothman.
- In X-Files Season 5 episode DetourDetour (The X-Files)"Detour" is the fourth episode aired in the fifth season of The X-Files. While traveling to a conference with Scully and two other FBI agents, Mulder stops at a roadblock to join a nearby inspection of attacks by an unidentified predator.-Plot:...
, Mulder and Scully encounter creatures related to Mothman. - In the video game Castlevania: Dawn of SorrowCastlevania: Dawn of SorrowCastlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, known in Japan as , is an action-adventure game developed and published by Konami. It is part of Konami's Castlevania video game series and the first Castlevania game to be released on the Nintendo DS. The game is the sequel to Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and...
, Mothman is one of three Cryptozoology-based monsters along with the YetiYetiThe Yeti or Abominable Snowman is an ape-like cryptid said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, and Tibet. The names Yeti and Meh-Teh are commonly used by the people indigenous to the region, and are part of their history and mythology...
and the Flying Humanoid. It also appears again as an enemy in Castlevania: Portrait of RuinCastlevania: Portrait of RuinCastlevania: Portrait of Ruin, known in Japan as , is an action video game developed and published by Konami. The game was released on November 16, 2006 in Japan, and in the US on December 5, 2006 for the Nintendo DS handheld game console...
. - In the Shin Megami TenseiShin Megami Tenseiis a console role-playing video game from Atlus that was originally released on October 30, 1992 and later on several platforms, although no installment was released outside of Japan. It was originally released on the Super Famicom and was later ported to the PC Engine Super CD-Rom and Mega-CD...
series of video games, Mothman often appears as a demon that the main characters can use as an ally. - Mothman appears in an episode of Lost TapesLost TapesLost Tapes is an American horror/thriller docudrama television series that airs on Animal Planet. Produced by Go Go Luckey Entertainment, the program presents fictional found footage depicting traumatic encounters with cryptozoological creatures , including the Chupacabra and Bigfoot, and even...
.
Film
- The Mothman PropheciesThe Mothman Prophecies (film)The Mothman Prophecies is a 2002 psychological horror film directed by Mark Pellington, based on the 1975 book of the same name by parapsychologist and Fortean author John Keel. The screenplay was written by Richard Hatem...
(2002) - Mothman (film)Mothman (film)Mothman is a 2010 telefilm by Syfy....
(2010), a SyfySyfySyfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
Channel original movie - Eyes of the Mothman (2011), a documentary about the Mothman sightings
- "Mothman Country" (2011), a documentary about Pt. Pleasant's contemporary relationship with the Mothman
Books
- Barker, Gray The Silver Bridge (Saucerian Books, 1970). Reprinted in 2008 entitled The Silver Bridge: The Classic Mothman Tale (BookSurge Publishing). ISBN 1439204276
- Coleman, L. Mothman and Other Curious Encounters. (2002). ISBN 978-1931044349 (or ISBN 1-931044-34-1)
- Colvin, Andrew The Mothman's Photographer: The Work of an Artist Touched by the Prophecies of the Infamous Mothman (2007). ISBN 978-1419652653
- Colvin, Andrew The Mothman's Photographer II: Meetings With Remarkable Witnesses Touched by Paranormal Phenomena, UFOs, and the Prophecies of West Virginia's Infamous Mothman (2007). ISBN 978-1419652664
- Sergent, Jr., Donnie Mothman: The Facts Behind the Legend (2001) ISBN 978-0966724677
- Fear, Brad A Macabre Myth of a Moth-Man (2008) ISBN 978-1438902630
- Keel, John A. The Mothman Prophecies (2007). ISBN 0-7653-4197-2 (Originally published in 1975 by Saturday Review Press)
- Keel, John A. The Eighth Tower (1977). ISBN 978-0451074607
- Myers, Bill. Angel of Wrath: A Novel (2009). ISBN 978-0446698009
- Ressel, Steve. Perverted Communion (2010). ISBN 978-0978748357
- Rust, John J. Dark Wings (2011) ISBN 978-1-4658-4541-2