The Mothman is a mythical creature that was widely reported near Point Pleasant, West Virginia, between November 12, 1966, and December 15, 1967. The latter date corresponded to the collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River, a traumatic event resulting in the death of 46 people.
The first reported sighting was by five men digging a grave in Clendenin, West Virginia, who reported a man-sized creature flying low over their heads. The next report, three days later, was the one that was widely publicized and responsible for the subsequent interest in this creature. Two couples from Point Pleasant, Steve and Mary Mallette and Roger and Linda Scarberry, reported seeing a large, flying creature following their car as they drove through the McClintic Wildlife Area, a plot of woodlands and former farmlands that had been set aside for protection following World War II. The two couples reported a white figure with “glowing red eyes” and a wingspan of ten feet. The morning after this sighting, the Point Pleasant Register ran an article titled “Couples See Man-Sized Bird … Creature … Something.”
A Mothman doll hangs from the ceiling at the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, 2007. Associated in the popular imagination with the 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River, the Mothman has been the subject of a great deal of media attention, including a notable 1975 book and a 2002 feature film. (AP Photo)
More sightings continued in the days that followed, the details of which generally supported the first two reports. Some accounts detailed a man with wings; still others described it as an enormous bird. Two witnesses described a big, red-eyed bird, while other observers added that the beast was seven feet in height. George Johnson, sheriff of Mason County, expressed the opinion that the bird might be a large heron he called a shitepoke. The black-crowned night heron is nocturnal and has large, bright red eyes that, due to the species’ nocturnal nature, reflect light brightly at night. However, the night heron is fairly small and unlikely to account for the sightings involving a man-sized creature. Although their eyes might appear red when reflecting light at night, misidentified barred owls, barn owls, and snowy owls are also unlikely, given their even smaller size. Another bird associated with the sightings is the sandhill crane. With a wingspan of up to seven-and-a-half feet, this species is closer in size to that suggested by the majority of the reports. However, unlike the night heron, the crane is not native to that region of the country. Furthermore, it lacks reflective red eyes, although a red cap extending up to the eye could make it appear as if the bird had a massive red eye. In terms of nonbiological explanations, red lights on passing airplanes could explain the sightings that occurred at great distance, but not the close-up views that many observers described.
Sightings continued for more than a year after the initial report, and the Mothman, as it had become known, began to be blamed for problems both personal and public in nature. Newell Partridge blamed the creature for the disappearance of his German shepherd, as well as for high-pitched buzzing noises emanating from his television. Jan Harold Brunvand notes anecdotal stories of the Mothman landing on the roofs of parked cars inhabited by teenagers, following a common cinematic theme in monster films of the period where the creatures seek to punish teenagers for engaging in premarital sexuality. And the fact that the final reported sighting, on December 15, 1967, coincided with the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant led many to imbue the creature with malevolent intent.
Several years after the sightings, Gray Barker, an author noted for his work on paranormal phenomena, published The Silver Bridge, which connected the bridge collapse to sightings of the Mothman. His book helped to spark interest in the creature, inspiring John Keel to write The Mothman Prophecies (1975), an account of his investigations into the creature. Although charting some of the same territory as Barker’s book, Keel’s was much more widely received. Despite the brevity of the sightings as compared to other cryptid and paranormal creatures, Keel’s book helped to popularize the Mothman, and in 2002, a film adaptation of the same name was made. Starring Richard Gere and directed by Mark Pellington, the film also implied that the sightings were somehow connected to terrible disasters, culminating in the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The film even claimed immediately before the end credits that no reason for the collapse was ever determined, when in reality it was discovered that the failure of an eyebar in one of the suspension chains resulted in the collapse.
Aside from the explanation that the sightings pertained to a sandhill crane that was out of range, unfamiliar to viewers, and uncharacteristically nocturnal, accounts of the creature’s origin tended to be quite fanciful. All told, there were more than 100 sightings, none of which were supported by any evidence other than eyewitness testimony. Perhaps the most common explanation was that the Mothman was actually an alien, not too surprising given the ascendancy of UFO culture in the decades following World War II. Others believed the creature to be a ghost or other type of supernatural manifestation. Perhaps bolstering this claim was the fact that some residents of Point Pleasant told Keel that they had premonitions about the bridge collapse and other events surrounding the year-long period of time comprising the bulk of the sightings. Still others suggested that the Mothman was a cryptid, a naturally occurring but scientifically unknown creature, such as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster.
Additional theories involved government conspiracies, including a number of individuals interviewed by Keel who spoke of being harassed by men in black theoretically working on behalf of the United States government. Another reason for suspicions of governmental involvement is that the Mallette/Scarberry sighting, the first to be widely reported, as well as a few later sightings, took place near an old World War II munitions facility known locally as the “TNT Area.” Although they do not offer an explanation as to the initial few reports, skeptics note that some people played pranks following these initial sightings, including a group of construction workers who attempted to create their own monster by tying flashlights with red beams to helium balloons and releasing them into the night sky.
Although it is commonly held that the Mothman was never again seen following the collapse of the Silver Bridge, some sightings continued. Linda Scarberry claimed that she had seen the Mothman hundreds of times in the years that followed, describing the creature as having anthropomorphic qualities, and suggesting that it was trying to communicate. In an interview with USA Today, cryptozoologist Loren Coleman claimed that he had spoken to people who had seen the Mothman following the bridge collapse.
The Mothman has had a fairly significant impact upon local and even national folklore and popular culture. In addition to the two books and film noted above, the creature has been referenced in numerous songs, television episodes, and other forms of media. There have been books written about the Mothman, including journalistic exposés, as well as fictional accounts. Pete Johnson’s Lair of the Mothman (Spook School) is a book for kids. The play Mothman Is Coming was produced at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the creature appears as a villain in two of the Castlevania videogames for Nintendo. The two video games, as well as the appearance of multiple Mothmen in the animé television series Occult Academy, demonstrate the international reach of the Mothman, at least concerning Japan. In more well-known avenues of popular culture, The X-Files episode “Detour” references the creature when Special FBI Agent Fox Mulder hypothesizes that some strange events can be attributed to the presence of the Mothman. Two documentaries, both released in 2011, look at, respectively, the 1966–1967 sightings, and the current relationship between the town of Point Pleasant and the legendary creature. Finally, in addition to the well-known 2002 film, the Syfy channel released the much more sensationalistic film Mothman in 2010.
Unlike most highly localized paranormal creatures, the Mothman is widely known, largely due to its association with the collapse of the Silver Bridge and the appearance of the high-profile book and film adaption, The Mothman Prophecies. Folklore historian Jan Harold Brunvand notes the similarities between the Mothman and creatures from European folklore, but the creature in turn has been linked to or even inspired subsequent sightings in other cultures. For instance, a similar creature was reported around Pripyat in Ukraine, leading up to the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown of 1986. Like the Mothman, the “Blackbird of Chernobyl” could fly and was attended by premonitions in some of those who witnessed it. Although it enjoyed only a brief run of sightings nearly fifty years ago, the Mothman continues to exist in the hearts of the residents of Point Pleasant, and it remains one of the more popular and intriguing paranormal creatures in North American mythology.
Andrew Howe
See also Bigfoot or Sasquatch; Chupacabra; Dwayyo; Jersey Devil; Mogollon Monster; Pope Lick Monster; Rougarou; Wendigo; Yehasuri; Yokai
Further Reading
Barker, Gray. 2008. The Silver Bridge: The Classic Mothman Tale. Seattle: BookSurge.
Budd, Deena West. 2010. The Weiser Field Guide to Cryptozoology: Werewolves, Dragons, Skyfish, Lizard Men, and Other Fascinating Creatures Real and Mysterious. San Francisco: Red Wheel/Weiser.
Coleman, Loren L. 2002. Mothman and Other Curious Encounters. New York: Cosimo.
Colvin, Andrew. 2006. The Mothman’s Photographer: The Work of an Artist Touched by the Prophecies of the Infamous Mothman. Seattle: BookSurge.
Sergent, Donnie, Jr. 2001. Mothman: The Facts Behind the Legend. Point Pleasant, WV: Mothman Lives.