Shhh..Do you hear that? The red eyes that stare back, the air that follows, the mysterious wings’ deafening flaps… The Mothman, as it is known in mythology, is a terrible flying creature that terrorized countless Point Pleasant locals in the 1960s. The thing was said to have killed 46 people when a nearby bridge inexplicably collapsed.
Where did the mythology begin, and is there any basis for the story in reality?
Grave diggers in Clendenin, West Virginia, spotted something unusual on November 12th, 1966. When they looked up from their trenches, something enormous was swooping overhead and flitting from tree to tree. Later, the gravediggers characterized this figure as a large, brown-winged human.
Given their profession, the fact that the gravediggers were terrified tells a lot. They didn’t know what to think of this winged creature.
That is the first confirmed sighting of the Mothman, an enigmatic creature still as frightful and enigmatic as it was when the first few witnesses saw it.
Mothman: The Legend is Born
Within three days following their initial report, witnesses in the adjacent town of Point Pleasant spotted a winged monster that was 6-7 feet tall standing in front of a car they were in. The creature had a 10-foot wingspan, red eyes, and a desire to avoid the vehicle’s headlights, according to eyewitnesses Steve Mallett and Roger Scarberry, who were reporting their sightings to the local newspaper The Point Pleasant Register at the time.
According to witnesses, the creature could fly at absurdly high rates, up to 100 miles per hour. When the witnesses reached the outside of town, the beast pursued them there before vanishing into a field.
They knew it was ludicrous — a flying, enormous moth terrifying cars with red eyes? Scarberry informed the newspaper that he wouldn’t have said anything if he had seen it alone. There were four witnesses to the Mothman that day; therefore, it couldn’t have been his imagination alone.
Mothman: Man With Wings
Naturally, reporters were dubious. People thought the Mothman was only an owl or an eagle that had grown too big. The journalists published the creature’s description from Mallett.
‘It was like a man with wings.’
The Mothman tale began to take shape as there were more and more reports of sightings. After the initial incident, three days later, The Gettysburg Times reported eight more sightings. According to two volunteer firefighters, a large bird with bright red eyes was among them.
One person in Salem, West Virginia, reported hearing weird noises outside his home after seeing unusual patterns on his television. He pointed a flashlight in the direction of the sound and saw two crimson eyes staring back at him like reflectors.
Many people think that the Mothman is to blame for the disappearance of this resident’s dog; they think that this terrifying being took the owner’s beloved pet.
The Silver Bridge Collapse
Just over a year after the Mothman’s first sighting, on December 15th, 1967, the Silver Bridge was jam-packed with vehicles. The bridge was put through a lot of stress. Model Ts weighed 1,500 pounds, whereas more recent models weigh over 4,000 pounds, hence the bridge was initially designed to accommodate lighter vehicles.
The bridge’s engineers could have been more careful and creative when building it, and when one section of the bridge fell, the others soon followed.
Unexpectedly, a single eyebar near the bridge’s top on the Ohio side cracked. People and vehicles were thrown into the chilly Ohio River below when the chain broke, and the bridge collapsed. 46 individuals died due to drowning, hypothermia, or being trampled by the wreckage.
Following the Mothman sightings, the bridge’s fall was the second peculiar event that made Point Pleasant famous. The two cases were soon linked, and the Mothman was held accountable for the bridge’s collapse.
Mothman’s Legacy
The reputation of Point Pleasant as the “Home of the Mothman” endures to this day. The Mothman has been kept very much alive over the years through films and books about the subject.
There is even the theory that the Mothman foretells catastrophes. Just before tragedies like Fukushima, Japan, the nuclear accident in 2011, the Mexican Swine Flu pandemic in 2009, and even other disasters, he is pictured standing atop the just-built bridge.
Since the late 1960s, there have been fewer Mothman sightings, but sometimes one is reported. A man who had recently moved to the area in 2016 observed a monster identical to the one described in the initial complaint, hopping from tree to tree. He asserted that he was unaware of the legend before personally encountering the beast.
On A Wrap
The Mothman mythology is still alive today thanks to museums, a 12-foot-tall chrome statue of the monster, and plush versions of the monster that kids hold in their arms while they explore the town’s numerous gift shops.
There is even a Mothman Festival, which honours one of the strongest local legends in America. Locals and tourists are drawn to this celebration like moths to a flame.
So, what are your thoughts? Has a divining demon taken to the skies over West Virginia? Or may this be a case of mistaken identity?
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