The "Mothman" Encounters, 1966 - 1967
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Today, the so-called “Mothman” - a humanoid monster with red eyes and big, bird-like wings - is a fixture of paranormal horror, immortalized in film. But though it has since slid into the realm of fiction, the “mothman” was first based on a well-documented wave of sightings in the northeastern United States between November 1966 and December 1967. These sightings coincided with a range of other anomalous phenomena far stranger than anything portrayed in the movie adaptation. The sheer volume of these reports, as well as their coincidence in time and space, make the year of the “mothman” one of the most fascinating and perplexing case studies in anomalous history.
Early Sightings
In November 1966, there began a wave of anomalous activity across the northeastern United States, manifesting primarily in West Virginia and the northern Ohio River valley. The small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, - situated at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers - was a particular hot spot, as was the McClintic Wildlife nature preserve just a few miles north.(1)
The first of the so-called “mothman” sightings was on November 1st, outside the national guard armory on the northern edge of Point Pleasant, facing the nature preserve. A national guardsman was on duty when he saw what he thought was a man in a brown suit perched on a tree limb beyond a high fence. The guard then determined that the figure belonged to an extremely large bird, but when he returned to see it later, the thing was gone.(2)
The next night, on a rainy evening, Woodrow Derenberger was driving home along Interstate 77 when a dark, charcoal-grey metallic-looking vehicle cut in front of him. It was shaped like an “old-fashioned kerosene lamp chimney” and was floating just above the ground. The vehicle slowed to a stop, forcing Derenberger to brake. Then, a door slid open and a heavily-tanned man emerged and approached Derenberger’s truck. The man had a large grin on his face and kept his arms crossed with both hands under his armpits. He was wearing a sparkling green garment under a dark coat. Derenberger claimed that the stranger never spoke aloud or even moved his lips, but somehow communicated with him, as if telepathically. He told Derenberger not to be afraid, then introduced himself as “Cold.” While Cold asked about Derenberger’s work, and the city lights in the distance, the lamp-like UFO raised over 50ft, or 15m, off the ground, allowing other cars to pass beneath. Cold ended the few minutes of discussion by instructing Derenberger to report the event to authorities and mentioning that he would soon return. Silently, the flying vehicle descended to the ground, Cold entered, and it flew rapidly into the air.
Derenberger reported the incident to Parkersburg police, and the media picked up the story in the following days. After this, several other witnesses came forward to corroborate both the presence of the flying craft and the grinning man. Derenberger’s farm and phone-line were quickly flooded with unwanted attention - including threatening calls, and calls with nothing but odd beeps and electronic sounds.(3) Derenberger experienced further telepathic exchanges, as well as physical meetings with Cold, who later revealed that his first name was Indrid, and that he came from another planet. Even Derenberger’s psychiatrist reported having telepathic contact with Cold in December 1966.(4)
On November 12th, Kenneth Duncan was digging a grave with four other men in a cemetery southeast of Point Pleasant when he heard a rustling in the treetops, then saw a brown “flying man” “gliding through the trees” for about a minute.(5) Another unusual sighting took place northeast of Point Pleasant on November 14th. After 10:30 p.m., farmer Merle Partridge and his wife were watching their television when it began to emit a loud noise that Merle likened to a “high-pitched generator winding up.” The couple’s German shepherd began howling from the porch before the TV’s tube exploded and shattered glass on the floor. Grabbing a flashlight and gun, Merle got out to the porch to see the dog run towards the barn. At that point, Merle, his wife, and at least one of their sons saw two silent, circling “red lights” that disappeared after a few minutes. The dog never returned.(6) In an interview decades later, Merle clarified that what he saw was “mechanical” and “electrical” in nature, despite an early reporter calling them “eyes.”(7)
Later Sightings
The first sighting of a cryptid to reach the media occurred on the night of November 15th, 1966. Around 11 p.m., two young married couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, were joyriding on backroads through the wildlife preserve. After stopping close to the retired power plant, Steve noticed two large red eyes lit up by the car’s headlights. Into their view came the outline of a creature with the body of a man and large wings “like an angel” folded around it. It was later estimated to be 6 to 7 feet, or about 2 meters tall. Captured by its “hypnotic” red eyes, the couples just sat there staring until the creature shuffled away, then fear kicked in and Roger started driving home.(8) Upon turning a bend on Route 62, their headlights again lit up the winged creature, which took off straight into the air with just a single beat of its wings, and began to follow the vehicle. Roger quickly approached 100 mph, or 160 km/h, but the gray figure kept pace until they reached the lights of Point Pleasant. Roger stopped the car when the group spotted a large dog dead on the side of the road. Just then, the creature emerged from nearby, jumped over the car, and “staggered” away.
The group returned with police, but the dog’s carcass was gone. Shortly after, however, police found the burnt remains of a dog elsewhere in the preserve.(9) The four witnesses were separated at the Mason County Sheriff’s Department to write depositions, and Roger Scarberry drew a sketch of the creature. Its leg muscles were human-like, though witnesses did not see knees, and they were unsure if the creature had any arms. Witnesses could not distinguish fur, feathers, or whatever else covered its body, but it was a dark grey in color.
The next day, local newspapers picked up the story,(10) and by 9 p.m., the police received a call about another encounter with the creature from three witnesses at a home on the edge of the preserve.(11) The day after that, a reporter with the Huntington Herald-Dispatch called this creature the “mothman,” despite witnesses describing a creature that was more bird-like in appearance. There is no record of any witnesses describing the creature as moth-like; rather, “bird-man” was the most frequently-used descriptor, with “mothman” only rising in popularity years after the events.(12)
As the weeks went by, the story of the bird-man spread beyond Point Pleasant, and more and more witnesses came forward in the surrounding regions.(13) Mary Hyre, the Point Pleasant reporter for The Athens Messenger, began collecting stories. Ufologist Gray Barker, who had previously investigated the “Flatwoods Monster” of 1952, came to town in late November, and New York journalist and anomalist, John Keel, arrived in December. The three investigators quickly developed a working relationship.(14)
While descriptions of the bird-man varied, most witnesses said that it was 6 to 7 ft tall, with a 10 to 12 ft wingspan, or 2 m tall with a 3 - 3.5m wingspan. It’s face was rarely seen, but for the eyes. Those who reported seeing red eyes said that they were especially captivating or “hypnotic.”(15) Some witnesses described the creature leaping straight up from the ground, and though it flew around like a soaring bird, it was very rarely seen to flap its wings, if at all. Most witnesses said that the creature was totally silent, though a few claimed that it made a squeaking sound. Many of the later encounters involved the creature pursuing vehicles at high speeds. Thomas Ury saw a “huge” bird flying alongside his car without ever flapping its wings, while Faye Dewitt-Leport saw a creature running alongside her vehicle.(16) Keel estimated that over 100 witnesses sighted this type of creature over the winter of ‘66 and ‘67.(17)
High Strangeness
The bird-men weren’t the only strange things seen in the sky: Keel found dozens of UFO witnesses around the Ohio River Valley, and after Mary Hyre and other papers began publishing their stories, the region’s newsteams received up to 20 reports each day.(18) Keel also discovered multiple UFO witnesses who had sightings earlier in the year but hadn’t bothered to report them. The witnesses included Hyre herself who had seen a perfectly round object shining in the sky that summer while driving along the Ohio River.(19) The witnesses to the bird-man sighting on November 16th had seen a large red light flying above them on their drive to the house, and several more saw the same thing from other vantage points.(20)
Like the bird-men, UFOs were often seen following cars.(21) For example, on March 5th, 1967, Beau Shertzer and a nurse were driving along the Ohio river in a Red Cross bloodmobile when a bright white UFO appeared and kept pace with their truck. The craft even extended two arms towards them, seemingly to pincer them, before another vehicle approached on the highway and the UFO flew away.(22) In one case, a woman saw a 7-foot, or 2-meter-tall red-eyed, grey, man-like figure fly over her car, and for the following two weeks, her eyes were swollen with conjunctivitis.(23)
A number of witnesses had multiple experiences. During the summer of ‘67, months after their first encounter, Merle Partridge claims that he and his family were relaxing around their swimming pool when the entire sky “blacked out” and an enormous “mechanical” UFO appeared with many portholes and rivets.(24) The Partridge family also received phone calls with odd beeping sounds and experienced poltergeist activity in the house.(25) The Lilly family had many sightings of silent, coloured UFOs over their home that coincided with interference on the TV. Later, they heard cabinet doors slam in the night, and other unexplained sounds.(26)
Mary Hyre, John Keel, and other witnesses received calls “clogged with crazy beeps and buzzes,” or odd voices that one person described as “metallic.”(27) There were also several cases of horses, dogs, and cows disappearing or being discovered dead in unusual circumstances. Keel personally examined carcasses with no trace of blood, and what looked to be “surgical-like incisions in their throats.”(28)
Mothman researcher, Jeff Wamsley, spoke to a Point Pleasant resident by the name of Lawrence Gray who claimed that in August - months before the “first” sightings in November - he saw a dark, winged creature in his bedroom that he believed to be the devil. As they stared at each other, Gray tried to speak but couldn’t, but when he turned his thoughts to Biblical scripture, the creature gradually “evaporated.”(29)
Omens and Disasters
Many witnesses also had unusual interactions with men with tanned skin and Asian or Native American-looking facial features.(30) Some locals reported people with long hair and dark East Asian faces crossing their property late at night: the men were seen wearing bright reflective clothes, while the women wore ankle-length dresses - all before the hippie movement of the late 1960s. Other witnesses saw men that were dressed out-of-place, often in black suits, and that frequently arrived in dark, older-model cars in pristine condition.(31) Mothman witness Marcella Bennett was nearly driven off the road by a man in a red car wearing a bushy wig. Hyre had a similar encounter with three men in a black Cadillac.(32) Connie Carpenter, the witness who developed conjunctivitis, was later almost pulled into a ‘49 Buick by a man in black.(33) Carpenter’s home was also visited by a strange man, and for two weeks after, objects turned up in odd places and pictures fell from the walls.(34)
Police were alerted to three very tall and heavily-tanned men knocking on doors around Point Pleasant late at night, supposedly selling magazine subscriptions; others said that they were “census takers.” Others just asked for a glass of water, which Keel noted was an “old fairy trick” reported in the middle ages. A woman posing as “Keel’s secretary” also interviewed people whom Keel had previously spoken with.(35) Hyre said that two nearly identical men in black overcoats visited her office in December ‘67 and asked her “what [she] would do if someone ordered [her] to stop writing about flying saucers.” Later that same day, another similar man came to ask the same question, claiming to be a UFO researcher. The following day, Linda Scarberry and her family were visited by a man who was interested in Keel’s relationship to Hyre, and who asked her the same unusual question.(36)
Two men in black posing as salesmen questioned people in Woodrow Derenberger’s town about his roadside encounter. Derenberger also had several visits from similar men, his house was ransacked, and his writings and letters disappeared.(37) Keel also experienced mail that went undelivered or had obviously been opened, and plenty of strange phone calls and sounds suggesting that his line was tapped.(38)
As sightings of bird-like men and UFOs declined in 1967, Keel received phone calls from contacts who claimed to be other beings, or to channel some non-human intelligence. Many of these contacts offered predictions for the near future - some of which were accurate, in whole or in part. Contacts warned of impending disaster on the Ohio River, implying that a factory would explode. But the most impactful precognition came from Hyre, who related to Keel a nightmare she’d had of people drowning in the river with Christmas presents floating around them. Other locals also told Keel and Hyre of their feelings of unease.(39)
On December 15th, 1967, one of the traffic lights was out next to the Silver Bridge connecting Point Pleasant to Kanauga, Ohio. The 700-foot suspension bridge was packed with vehicles, and around 5 p.m. a corroded eyebar failed, causing the bridge to collapse in a catastrophic event that took 46 lives and injured 9 others. Some of the deceased were witnesses to UFOs.(40)
Mentions of UFOs and bird-men were immediately dropped from the media in the wake of the disaster, but sightings continued.(41) Years later, reports of bird-men, UFOs, and men-in-black seen around the bridge that night began to emerge again, but these are hard to verify.(42) However, Keel reports that the Lilly family spotted 12 bird-men flying south from the wildlife preserve towards Point Pleasant on the day of the bridge’s collapse. Additionally, Mary Hyre informed Keel that a woman who lived by the bridge witnessed two men dressed in black pants and checkered coats climbing it two days prior to its collapse.(43) In hindsight, many viewed the birdman sightings and other strange phenomena as negative omens, preceding the bridge’s collapse.(44)
Significance
In 1970, Gray Barker published a creative account of events in The Silver Bridge, and five years later, John Keel published his own account in The Mothman Prophecies. Since then, there have been several more books and documentaries on the topic. The iconic, if misnamed, cryptid is now a well-known archetype of paranormal fiction, made popular by the loose adaptation of Keel’s work to film in 2002’s The Mothman Prophecies.(45)
Before this film, the anomalous events weren’t publicly acknowledged in the Point Pleasant area: there were no visible signs, monuments, or tourist shops, for example, though the town has since embraced the mothman legacy.(46) The first annual Mothman Festival took place in 2002, and three years later, mothman researcher and author Jeff Wamsley opened the Point Pleasant Mothman Museum.(47)
Few have attempted to debunk the events of 1966 and 7. Soon after the first sightings, a West Virginia University professor speculated that the locals were seeing a large Sandhill Crane, though witnesses found this suggestion insulting.(48) Debunker Joe Nickell believes that the bird-men were simply owls and other large birds, and later, pranksters.(49)
But the mothman sightings at Point Pleasant are far from the only reports of unusually large flying creatures in the area. Since at least the 18th century, North American Natives such as the Illini and Dakota have recorded encounters with the “Thunderbird,” a flying creature large enough to carry away large animals.(50) There are also several reports of flying humanoids from the 19th and early 20th centuries.(51) For example, History Professor James Gay Jones of Glenville State College claims to have collected information of sightings dating back to the early 1900s of a large bird covered in dark-reddish feathers with the head of a man and a wingspan exceeding 12 feet, or 3.6 m. These sightings persisted into the 1940s, in the same counties that the mothman appeared.(52)
Wamsley has documented bird-men sightings in every decade since the 1960s. As recently as 2017, the Chicago region experienced a wave of reports of winged birds, bats, and owls surpassing 6 ft tall which occasionally sported “bright” red eyes. In one instance, a “bright green” UFO flew by just five minutes after the sighting.(53) Whatever people saw in the late ‘60s seems to have been part of a much older, and more enduring phenomenon.
Summary
The so-called “Mothman” sightings of 1966 and ‘7 were part of a centuries-old tradition of seeing large birds and other flying creatures in the northeastern United States. But they also coincided with a range of other anomalous phenomena, including UFO sightings, poltergeist activity, animal mutilations, and encounters with men in black. We may never know why such an abundance of activity manifested in the Point Pleasant area in the late 1960s, but clearly, they were all related at a level beyond mere geography.
Today, the so-called “Mothman” - a humanoid monster with red eyes and big, bird-like wings - is a fixture of paranormal horror, immortalized in film. But though it has since slid into the realm of fiction, the “mothman” was first based on a well-documented wave of sightings in the northeastern United States between November 1966 and December 1967. These sightings coincided with a range of other anomalous phenomena far stranger than anything portrayed in the movie adaptation. The sheer volume of these reports, as well as their coincidence in time and space, make the year of the “mothman” one of the most fascinating and perplexing case studies in anomalous history.
Early Sightings
In November 1966, there began a wave of anomalous activity across the northeastern United States, manifesting primarily in West Virginia and the northern Ohio River valley. The small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, - situated at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers - was a particular hot spot, as was the McClintic Wildlife nature preserve just a few miles north.(1)
The first of the so-called “mothman” sightings was on November 1st, outside the national guard armory on the northern edge of Point Pleasant, facing the nature preserve. A national guardsman was on duty when he saw what he thought was a man in a brown suit perched on a tree limb beyond a high fence. The guard then determined that the figure belonged to an extremely large bird, but when he returned to see it later, the thing was gone.(2)
The next night, on a rainy evening, Woodrow Derenberger was driving home along Interstate 77 when a dark, charcoal-grey metallic-looking vehicle cut in front of him. It was shaped like an “old-fashioned kerosene lamp chimney” and was floating just above the ground. The vehicle slowed to a stop, forcing Derenberger to brake. Then, a door slid open and a heavily-tanned man emerged and approached Derenberger’s truck. The man had a large grin on his face and kept his arms crossed with both hands under his armpits. He was wearing a sparkling green garment under a dark coat. Derenberger claimed that the stranger never spoke aloud or even moved his lips, but somehow communicated with him, as if telepathically. He told Derenberger not to be afraid, then introduced himself as “Cold.” While Cold asked about Derenberger’s work, and the city lights in the distance, the lamp-like UFO raised over 50ft, or 15m, off the ground, allowing other cars to pass beneath. Cold ended the few minutes of discussion by instructing Derenberger to report the event to authorities and mentioning that he would soon return. Silently, the flying vehicle descended to the ground, Cold entered, and it flew rapidly into the air.
Derenberger reported the incident to Parkersburg police, and the media picked up the story in the following days. After this, several other witnesses came forward to corroborate both the presence of the flying craft and the grinning man. Derenberger’s farm and phone-line were quickly flooded with unwanted attention - including threatening calls, and calls with nothing but odd beeps and electronic sounds.(3) Derenberger experienced further telepathic exchanges, as well as physical meetings with Cold, who later revealed that his first name was Indrid, and that he came from another planet. Even Derenberger’s psychiatrist reported having telepathic contact with Cold in December 1966.(4)
On November 12th, Kenneth Duncan was digging a grave with four other men in a cemetery southeast of Point Pleasant when he heard a rustling in the treetops, then saw a brown “flying man” “gliding through the trees” for about a minute.(5) Another unusual sighting took place northeast of Point Pleasant on November 14th. After 10:30 p.m., farmer Merle Partridge and his wife were watching their television when it began to emit a loud noise that Merle likened to a “high-pitched generator winding up.” The couple’s German shepherd began howling from the porch before the TV’s tube exploded and shattered glass on the floor. Grabbing a flashlight and gun, Merle got out to the porch to see the dog run towards the barn. At that point, Merle, his wife, and at least one of their sons saw two silent, circling “red lights” that disappeared after a few minutes. The dog never returned.(6) In an interview decades later, Merle clarified that what he saw was “mechanical” and “electrical” in nature, despite an early reporter calling them “eyes.”(7)
Later Sightings
The first sighting of a cryptid to reach the media occurred on the night of November 15th, 1966. Around 11 p.m., two young married couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, were joyriding on backroads through the wildlife preserve. After stopping close to the retired power plant, Steve noticed two large red eyes lit up by the car’s headlights. Into their view came the outline of a creature with the body of a man and large wings “like an angel” folded around it. It was later estimated to be 6 to 7 feet, or about 2 meters tall. Captured by its “hypnotic” red eyes, the couples just sat there staring until the creature shuffled away, then fear kicked in and Roger started driving home.(8) Upon turning a bend on Route 62, their headlights again lit up the winged creature, which took off straight into the air with just a single beat of its wings, and began to follow the vehicle. Roger quickly approached 100 mph, or 160 km/h, but the gray figure kept pace until they reached the lights of Point Pleasant. Roger stopped the car when the group spotted a large dog dead on the side of the road. Just then, the creature emerged from nearby, jumped over the car, and “staggered” away.
The group returned with police, but the dog’s carcass was gone. Shortly after, however, police found the burnt remains of a dog elsewhere in the preserve.(9) The four witnesses were separated at the Mason County Sheriff’s Department to write depositions, and Roger Scarberry drew a sketch of the creature. Its leg muscles were human-like, though witnesses did not see knees, and they were unsure if the creature had any arms. Witnesses could not distinguish fur, feathers, or whatever else covered its body, but it was a dark grey in color.
The next day, local newspapers picked up the story,(10) and by 9 p.m., the police received a call about another encounter with the creature from three witnesses at a home on the edge of the preserve.(11) The day after that, a reporter with the Huntington Herald-Dispatch called this creature the “mothman,” despite witnesses describing a creature that was more bird-like in appearance. There is no record of any witnesses describing the creature as moth-like; rather, “bird-man” was the most frequently-used descriptor, with “mothman” only rising in popularity years after the events.(12)
As the weeks went by, the story of the bird-man spread beyond Point Pleasant, and more and more witnesses came forward in the surrounding regions.(13) Mary Hyre, the Point Pleasant reporter for The Athens Messenger, began collecting stories. Ufologist Gray Barker, who had previously investigated the “Flatwoods Monster” of 1952, came to town in late November, and New York journalist and anomalist, John Keel, arrived in December. The three investigators quickly developed a working relationship.(14)
While descriptions of the bird-man varied, most witnesses said that it was 6 to 7 ft tall, with a 10 to 12 ft wingspan, or 2 m tall with a 3 - 3.5m wingspan. It’s face was rarely seen, but for the eyes. Those who reported seeing red eyes said that they were especially captivating or “hypnotic.”(15) Some witnesses described the creature leaping straight up from the ground, and though it flew around like a soaring bird, it was very rarely seen to flap its wings, if at all. Most witnesses said that the creature was totally silent, though a few claimed that it made a squeaking sound. Many of the later encounters involved the creature pursuing vehicles at high speeds. Thomas Ury saw a “huge” bird flying alongside his car without ever flapping its wings, while Faye Dewitt-Leport saw a creature running alongside her vehicle.(16) Keel estimated that over 100 witnesses sighted this type of creature over the winter of ‘66 and ‘67.(17)
High Strangeness
The bird-men weren’t the only strange things seen in the sky: Keel found dozens of UFO witnesses around the Ohio River Valley, and after Mary Hyre and other papers began publishing their stories, the region’s newsteams received up to 20 reports each day.(18) Keel also discovered multiple UFO witnesses who had sightings earlier in the year but hadn’t bothered to report them. The witnesses included Hyre herself who had seen a perfectly round object shining in the sky that summer while driving along the Ohio River.(19) The witnesses to the bird-man sighting on November 16th had seen a large red light flying above them on their drive to the house, and several more saw the same thing from other vantage points.(20)
Like the bird-men, UFOs were often seen following cars.(21) For example, on March 5th, 1967, Beau Shertzer and a nurse were driving along the Ohio river in a Red Cross bloodmobile when a bright white UFO appeared and kept pace with their truck. The craft even extended two arms towards them, seemingly to pincer them, before another vehicle approached on the highway and the UFO flew away.(22) In one case, a woman saw a 7-foot, or 2-meter-tall red-eyed, grey, man-like figure fly over her car, and for the following two weeks, her eyes were swollen with conjunctivitis.(23)
A number of witnesses had multiple experiences. During the summer of ‘67, months after their first encounter, Merle Partridge claims that he and his family were relaxing around their swimming pool when the entire sky “blacked out” and an enormous “mechanical” UFO appeared with many portholes and rivets.(24) The Partridge family also received phone calls with odd beeping sounds and experienced poltergeist activity in the house.(25) The Lilly family had many sightings of silent, coloured UFOs over their home that coincided with interference on the TV. Later, they heard cabinet doors slam in the night, and other unexplained sounds.(26)
Mary Hyre, John Keel, and other witnesses received calls “clogged with crazy beeps and buzzes,” or odd voices that one person described as “metallic.”(27) There were also several cases of horses, dogs, and cows disappearing or being discovered dead in unusual circumstances. Keel personally examined carcasses with no trace of blood, and what looked to be “surgical-like incisions in their throats.”(28)
Mothman researcher, Jeff Wamsley, spoke to a Point Pleasant resident by the name of Lawrence Gray who claimed that in August - months before the “first” sightings in November - he saw a dark, winged creature in his bedroom that he believed to be the devil. As they stared at each other, Gray tried to speak but couldn’t, but when he turned his thoughts to Biblical scripture, the creature gradually “evaporated.”(29)
Omens and Disasters
Many witnesses also had unusual interactions with men with tanned skin and Asian or Native American-looking facial features.(30) Some locals reported people with long hair and dark East Asian faces crossing their property late at night: the men were seen wearing bright reflective clothes, while the women wore ankle-length dresses - all before the hippie movement of the late 1960s. Other witnesses saw men that were dressed out-of-place, often in black suits, and that frequently arrived in dark, older-model cars in pristine condition.(31) Mothman witness Marcella Bennett was nearly driven off the road by a man in a red car wearing a bushy wig. Hyre had a similar encounter with three men in a black Cadillac.(32) Connie Carpenter, the witness who developed conjunctivitis, was later almost pulled into a ‘49 Buick by a man in black.(33) Carpenter’s home was also visited by a strange man, and for two weeks after, objects turned up in odd places and pictures fell from the walls.(34)
Police were alerted to three very tall and heavily-tanned men knocking on doors around Point Pleasant late at night, supposedly selling magazine subscriptions; others said that they were “census takers.” Others just asked for a glass of water, which Keel noted was an “old fairy trick” reported in the middle ages. A woman posing as “Keel’s secretary” also interviewed people whom Keel had previously spoken with.(35) Hyre said that two nearly identical men in black overcoats visited her office in December ‘67 and asked her “what [she] would do if someone ordered [her] to stop writing about flying saucers.” Later that same day, another similar man came to ask the same question, claiming to be a UFO researcher. The following day, Linda Scarberry and her family were visited by a man who was interested in Keel’s relationship to Hyre, and who asked her the same unusual question.(36)
Two men in black posing as salesmen questioned people in Woodrow Derenberger’s town about his roadside encounter. Derenberger also had several visits from similar men, his house was ransacked, and his writings and letters disappeared.(37) Keel also experienced mail that went undelivered or had obviously been opened, and plenty of strange phone calls and sounds suggesting that his line was tapped.(38)
As sightings of bird-like men and UFOs declined in 1967, Keel received phone calls from contacts who claimed to be other beings, or to channel some non-human intelligence. Many of these contacts offered predictions for the near future - some of which were accurate, in whole or in part. Contacts warned of impending disaster on the Ohio River, implying that a factory would explode. But the most impactful precognition came from Hyre, who related to Keel a nightmare she’d had of people drowning in the river with Christmas presents floating around them. Other locals also told Keel and Hyre of their feelings of unease.(39)
On December 15th, 1967, one of the traffic lights was out next to the Silver Bridge connecting Point Pleasant to Kanauga, Ohio. The 700-foot suspension bridge was packed with vehicles, and around 5 p.m. a corroded eyebar failed, causing the bridge to collapse in a catastrophic event that took 46 lives and injured 9 others. Some of the deceased were witnesses to UFOs.(40)
Mentions of UFOs and bird-men were immediately dropped from the media in the wake of the disaster, but sightings continued.(41) Years later, reports of bird-men, UFOs, and men-in-black seen around the bridge that night began to emerge again, but these are hard to verify.(42) However, Keel reports that the Lilly family spotted 12 bird-men flying south from the wildlife preserve towards Point Pleasant on the day of the bridge’s collapse. Additionally, Mary Hyre informed Keel that a woman who lived by the bridge witnessed two men dressed in black pants and checkered coats climbing it two days prior to its collapse.(43) In hindsight, many viewed the birdman sightings and other strange phenomena as negative omens, preceding the bridge’s collapse.(44)
Significance
In 1970, Gray Barker published a creative account of events in The Silver Bridge, and five years later, John Keel published his own account in The Mothman Prophecies. Since then, there have been several more books and documentaries on the topic. The iconic, if misnamed, cryptid is now a well-known archetype of paranormal fiction, made popular by the loose adaptation of Keel’s work to film in 2002’s The Mothman Prophecies.(45)
Before this film, the anomalous events weren’t publicly acknowledged in the Point Pleasant area: there were no visible signs, monuments, or tourist shops, for example, though the town has since embraced the mothman legacy.(46) The first annual Mothman Festival took place in 2002, and three years later, mothman researcher and author Jeff Wamsley opened the Point Pleasant Mothman Museum.(47)
Few have attempted to debunk the events of 1966 and 7. Soon after the first sightings, a West Virginia University professor speculated that the locals were seeing a large Sandhill Crane, though witnesses found this suggestion insulting.(48) Debunker Joe Nickell believes that the bird-men were simply owls and other large birds, and later, pranksters.(49)
But the mothman sightings at Point Pleasant are far from the only reports of unusually large flying creatures in the area. Since at least the 18th century, North American Natives such as the Illini and Dakota have recorded encounters with the “Thunderbird,” a flying creature large enough to carry away large animals.(50) There are also several reports of flying humanoids from the 19th and early 20th centuries.(51) For example, History Professor James Gay Jones of Glenville State College claims to have collected information of sightings dating back to the early 1900s of a large bird covered in dark-reddish feathers with the head of a man and a wingspan exceeding 12 feet, or 3.6 m. These sightings persisted into the 1940s, in the same counties that the mothman appeared.(52)
Wamsley has documented bird-men sightings in every decade since the 1960s. As recently as 2017, the Chicago region experienced a wave of reports of winged birds, bats, and owls surpassing 6 ft tall which occasionally sported “bright” red eyes. In one instance, a “bright green” UFO flew by just five minutes after the sighting.(53) Whatever people saw in the late ‘60s seems to have been part of a much older, and more enduring phenomenon.
Summary
The so-called “Mothman” sightings of 1966 and ‘7 were part of a centuries-old tradition of seeing large birds and other flying creatures in the northeastern United States. But they also coincided with a range of other anomalous phenomena, including UFO sightings, poltergeist activity, animal mutilations, and encounters with men in black. We may never know why such an abundance of activity manifested in the Point Pleasant area in the late 1960s, but clearly, they were all related at a level beyond mere geography.
Notes:
1) Full name Clifton F. McClintic Wildlife Management Area, known locally as the "TNT area," Pellowski, Eyes of the Mothman, at 26:10, 30:20; Breedlove, The Mothman, at 13:00; “McClintic Wildlife Management Area,” West Virginia Explorer Magazine, https://wvexplorer.com/attractions/wildlife-management-areas/mcclintic-wildlife-management-area.
2) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies: A True Story (New York, USA: Tom Doherty Associates, (1975) 1991), 70; Breedlove, The Mothman, 9:45, no known source with witness name or time of sighting.
3) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 64 - 69, corroborating witness of Mrs. Frank Huggins is named; Breedlove, The Mothman, 17:15; Pellowski, Eyes of the Mothman, 1:48:12, includes brief parts of an audio recording of Woodrow Derenberger, November 3, 1966, WTAP TV & Radio; Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 2 of 3),” ForteanResearch, YouTube video, 15:28, September 19, 2011, https://youtu.be/WDqd5MTU75Q, at 14:05; Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 3 of 3),” ForteanResearch, YouTube video, 16:33, September 19, 2011, https://youtu.be/K8GOF5R36M4, at 0:05; Winkle in Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate (New York, NY, USA: Cosimo Books, 2017), 75; United Press International, “Parkersberg Salesman Speaks with Spaceman,” Raleigh Register, November 4, 1966; Derenberger, Visitors, partially reproduced here: https://ufoexperiences.blogspot.com/2005/06/i-met-man-from-another-world.html; Derenberger interview November 3, 1966, reproduced at https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Woodrow_Derenberger_Interview.
4) Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 1:56:15; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 71, 80 - 81, 94 - 95, 103 - 04, 131 - 32, 218, 219 - 23; Gray Barker, The Silver Bridge: The Classic Mothman Tale, 2nd Edition, ebook edition (Clarksburg, WV, USA: Saucerian Books, (1970) 2015), 67 - 69; In 1971, Derenberger published a book on his allegedly out-of-this-world experiences with Cold: Woodrow W. Derenberger and Andrew Colvin, Visitors from Lanulos: My Contact With Indrid Cold (New York: Vintage Press, (1971) 2014); Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 3 of 3),” at 11:25, according to Derenberger’s wife, Woodrow embellished the story when he was seeking to sell his book.
5) Likely a mistake, some sources give differing date of event or claim all men saw it, Charleston Gazette, "'Flying Man' Seen Here, Man Claims," November 18, 1966; United Press International, “Eight People Say They Saw 'Creature,’” November 18, 1966; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 38:40; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 10:05; Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 91, 95.
6) Likely a mistake, some sources give differing date or claim alternative elements of the event, Merle Partridge in a recording by Jeff Wamsley in Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 11:11; interview in Jeff Wamsley, Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes, 47 - 54; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 39:05; Susan Sheppard, “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 1 of 3),” ForteanResearch, YouTube video, 14:58, September 19, 2011, https://youtu.be/m3_vqnYSCRE, at 1:55, 7:15; This incident was originally recorded by Gray Barker in The Silver Bridge, 14, 18 - 27, and repeated in Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 71 - 73; One original news article: United Press International, “Eight People Say They Saw 'Creature,’” November 18, 1966, but in the interview by Wamsley, Partridge confirms the early reports (where he’s referred to as “Newell”) and Barker were inaccurate.
7) Partridge in interview in Jeff Wamsley, Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes, 47 - 54; a recording by Jeff Wamsley in Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 11:11; Merle Partridge read about the Scaberry-Mallette sighting and decided to report his experience to the media when he saw the reference to a dog carcass. In early articles he’s quoted as calling the circling lights "red reflectors," but reporters called them eyes.
8) Linda Scarberry interview in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, reproduced in part in “The True Story of Mothman” by Robert A. Goerman https://robertgoerman.wixsite.com/mothman; Linda Scarberry in interview in Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 3:38; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 32 - 37, 41 - 45; Jeff Wamsley in “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley,” at 8:47; Mary Hyre, "Winged, Red-Eyed 'Thing' Chases Point Couples Across Countryside," Athens Messenger, November 16, 1966; "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something," Point Pleasant Register, November 16, 1966; United Press International, “Eight People Say They Saw 'Creature,’” November 18, 1966; Pat Siler, "Bird, Plane Or Batman? Mason Countians Hunt 'Moth Man,'" Huntington Herald-Dispatch, November 17, 1966; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 76 - 78; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 42:05; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 14:18.
9) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 137.
10) Mary Hyre, "Winged, Red-Eyed 'Thing' Chases Point Couples Across Countryside," Athens Messenger, November 16, 1966; "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something," Point Pleasant Register, November 16, 1966; Pat Siler, "Bird, Plane Or Batman? Mason Countians Hunt 'Moth Man,'" Huntington Herald-Dispatch, November 17, 1966; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 16:45; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 47:15.
11) Bennett-Wamsley-Thomas mothman sighting, Marcella Bennett interview in Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 8:20; Wamsley, “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley @ Creature Weekend 2017 Cryptozoology,” Spectral Wolfpack Paranormal, YouTube video, 49:20, January 3, 2018, https://youtu.be/2nAYzYxz4uA, at 14:20; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 79 - 80.
12) Unconfirmed who was first, but the earliest use of the “moth” name found is from Pat Siler, "Bird, Plane Or Batman? Mason Countians Hunt 'Moth Man,'" Huntington Herald-Dispatch, November 17, 1966; Andrew Jay Harvey, “How and why did the Mothman come into being?” puts Siler as first-known; this source collecting many of the original articles also puts Siler’s article as the first-known coining of the name: https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Name:_Mothman.
13) Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 46:50, 1:02:55; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 30:30, 37:50; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 79 - 80.
14) Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 26:10; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 1:33:15; Mary Hyre, “Where the Waters Mingle,” The Athens Messenger, January 22, 1967, http://johnkeel.com/?p=916; more by Hyre: http://johnkeel.com/?s=Where+the+Waters+Mingle; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 176; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 18; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 96; Wamsley in “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley,” 18:50; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 64 - 75.
15) General description gathered from all sources; face description from Faye Dewitt-Leport in Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 47:00; “F.I. Mothman Witness Faye Dewitt at Mothman Fest 2007,” Fortean Investigations, YouTube video, 14:35, January 17, 2011, https://youtu.be/bpUGPucgEPY; Winkle in Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 82, Tom Ury sighting, wings didn’t flap; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 33 - 34; Linda Scarberry interview in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts Behind, reproduced in part in “The True Story of Mothman” by Robert A. Goerman, https://robertgoerman.wixsite.com/mothman; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 47:30; squeak sound mentioned in Roger Bennett, “Monster No Joke For Those Who Saw It,” Athens Messenger, November 18, 1966, and on Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 77, 273, hypnotic eyes on 30, 77.
16) November 25, Ury sighting: in interview in Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 31:50; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 23:35; “Mothman Witness Tom Ury speaks at Mothman Fest 2011. Part 1 (of 4),” Fortean Investigations, YouTube video, 14:39, September 19, 2011, https://youtu.be/ETV-3RuaB48; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 1:05:25; Wamsley in “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley,” 15:50; Ury in Wamsley, Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes, 97 - 98; Faye Dewitt-Leport (“F.I. Mothman Witness Faye Dewitt at Mothman Fest 2007,” Fortean Investigations, YouTube video, 14:35, January 17, 2011, https://youtu.be/bpUGPucgEPY; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 52:20; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 27:10.
17) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 29 - 30; likely repeating Keel, author Loren Coleman also estimates over 100 mothman witnesses across the 13 month period in Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 3:00.
18) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 96 - 104, 141, Keel mentions that upon arrival first spoke to Deputy Halstead about the reported mothman sightings and when asked about UFOs, the Deputy said they hadn’t had any reports, on 102 Keel also states “police and press had not received any reports” as of his arrival; More UFO encountered described in Barker, The Silver Bridge, 83 - 87; The 20 sightings a day number comes from Dave Peyton with The Herald-Dispatch who himself saw a silent metallic craft that disappeared in place in Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 1:25:00, 1:27:50.
19) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 54 - 56, 63 - 65.
20) November 16th sighting by Bennett-Wamsley-Thomas, Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 79 - 80; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 8:20; Wamsley, “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley,” at 14:30.
21) Athens Messenger, “Girls say red object chased them on road,” date of event unknown, appears in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 117, and in Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 1:25:30.
22) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 138 - 39, nurse witness unnamed; Keel, “Special Report on Incidents in Ohio and West Virginia (2),” http://johnkeel.com/?p=2808; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 24:30, the film mistakenly reframed the event as a mothman chasing them.
23) Witness Connie Carpenter, Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, 13:40; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 29 - 30, 97, Keele claims UFO witnesses regularly have “eyeburn” documented in “thousands” of cases, temporary eye damage/blindness, medically known as klieg conjunctivitis; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 38:45.
24) Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 41:26; Partridge interview in Wamsley, Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes, 47 - 54; Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 2 of 3),” 7:40.
25) The Partridges aren’t alone since other cases of UFO witnesses experiencing poltergeist activity are also documented. Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 2 of 3),” 5:10, according to Mary Partridge, poltergeist activity followed the events; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 23; Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 2 of 3),” at 0:44; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 150, also mentions Keel interviewing a witnesses of UFOs and a poltergeist case south of Point Pleasant.
26) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 145 - 46.
27) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 93 - 94, 143, 151 - 52, 176, 279.
28) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 135, 138; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 25:20.
29) Jeff Wamsley’s interview with Gray in Mothman: Behind The Red Eyes (2005), 129 - 133, partly reproduced here: http://keelian.org/mothman-archive and https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Lawrence_Gray%27s_Mothman_Sighting; Gray in interview in Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 34:20.
30) Additional witnesses visited by strangers on Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 65, 108 - 12.
31) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 176, 200 - 02.
32) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 106, 259.
33) Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, 21:20; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 119 - 20. Connie’s husband, Keith, says he was told the man was dressed in black, though Keel’s description claims he was wearing no jacket despite cold weather, “colourful mod shirt,” combed thick black hair and suntanned skin.
34) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 157.
35) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 105 - 06, 141.
36) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 24 - 27, 34 - 36.
37) Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 1:56:15; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 71, 80 - 81, 94 - 95, 103 - 04, 131 - 32, 218, 219 - 23; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 67 - 69; In 1971, Derenberger published a book on his allegedly out-of-this-world experiences with Cold: Woodrow W. Derenberger and Andrew Colvin, Visitors from Lanulos: My Contact With Indrid Cold (New York: Vintage Press, (1971) 2014); Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 3 of 3),” at 11:25, according to Derenberger’s wife, Woodrow embellished the story when he was seeking to sell his book.
38) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 249 - 50, 260 - 63.
39) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 240 - 41, 249 - 54, 265, 274, 293; Keel, “Special File – Volume Three (3): A Letter to Mary Hyre (November 3, 1967),” http://johnkeel.com/?p=3658; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 28:10.
40) Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 2:03:30; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 50:30; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 28:50; Witcher, “From Disaster to Prevention: The Silver Bridge,” Civil Engineering, December 2017, https://web.archive.org/web/20210624003118/https://www.asce.org/uploadedFiles/CE_Magazine/Home_Page/Content_Pieces/2017-12-history-lesson--original.pdf; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 286 - 94; John Raby, “Survivor recalls 1967 collapse of Silver Bridge” https://timeswv.com/news/survivor-recalls-1967-collapse-of-silver-bridge/article_1b1546ce-e177-11e7-8610-c350db940ad7.html, Times West Virginian, December 15, 2017; Chris LeRose, “The Collapse of the Silver Bridge,” Volume XV, No. 4, October 2001, https://web.archive.org/web/20210706232717/http://wvculture.org/history/wvhs/wvhs1504.html.
41) Wamsley in “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley,” at 26:40; Athens Messenger, “UFO Makes Return Visits Over Mason; Probe Asked,” September 18, 1968, found in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 121; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 283 - 84.
42) Winkle in Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 101, two more potential witnesses to mothmen near bridge at time of collapse but based in an email and second-hand testimony; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 2:23:00; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 57:00; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, 33:15.
43) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 291 - 93.
44) Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, has a distinct lack of any evidence connecting mothman sightings to subsequent “evil” with the exception of one parental death of a witness on 8 - 9, and eventual deaths of those involved, 30, 106 - 30; one mothman sighting is recorded in Athens Messenger, “UFO Makes Return Visits Over Mason; Probe Asked,” September 18, 1968, found in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 121, demonstrating mothman sightings persisted.
45) Keel wrote about the case in smaller treatments prior to 1975 but the book was a landmark for the case; see list of sources or search online for more examples of mothman media; Directed by Mark Pellington, The Mothman Prophecies (United States: Lakeshore Entertainment, 2002), https://imdb.com/title/tt0265349.
46) Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 33 - 37.
47) Breedlove, The Mothman, 1:00:20; Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 33, 36; Mothman museum website: https://mothmanmuseum.com; Mothman festival website: https://mothmanfestival.com; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 2:26:00.
48) Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 36:50; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 57:00, 58:00; “F.I. Mothman Witness Faye Dewitt,” at 8:00; Partridge and Faye Dewitt-Leport dismiss crane explanation; Ury dismisses crane explanation in “Mothman Witness Tom Ury speaks at Mothman Fest. Part 1 (of 4),” Fortean Investigations, YouTube video, 14:39, September 19, 2011, https://youtu.be/ETV-3RuaB48, 3:05; Professor Robert Smith mentioned on Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 88, 91.
49) Joe Nickell, “Mothman Revisited: Investigating on Site,” Skeptical Briefs, Volume 12.4, December 2, 2002, https://skepticalinquirer.org/newsletter/mothman-revisitedinvestigating-on-site.
50) Mark A. Hall, Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds (Cosimo Classics, 2004), 36; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 1:14:15; Breedlove dir.,Terror in the Skies, at 12:20, 25:50; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 43.
51) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 40, 43, gives a New York account and a Kentucky sighting from 1877-80, 40 - 53, chapter 3 contains many brief examples of other sightings mostly from the U.S. prior to 1966; Breedlove, dir., Terror in the Skies, at 17:30 mentions cases as far back as 1860s; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 8:10, references early cases from the region done by James Gay Jones, Haunted Valley And More Folk Tales of Appalachia (McClain Printing Co., 1979).
52) Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 8:10, documented in James Gay Jones’s book Haunted Valley And More Folk Tales of Appalachia (McClain Printing Co., 1979), 31- 33, note that Jones doesn’t provide any sources for the information he provides; Jones’s information is partially reproduced at https://cryptidchronicles.tumblr.com/post/21706665227/does-the-mothman-exist.
53) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 299; UFO sightings and mothman encounter from 1968 in Athens Messenger, “UFO Makes Return Visits Over Mason; Probe Asked,” September 18, 1968, found in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 121; Winkle in Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 110; Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 8 - 13; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 1:18:10; At least 13 witnesses in one night, but only three on record at the time of report in Jon Austin, “MOTHMAN PROPHECIES: 'dread' as legendary 'man-sized bird' seen by three separate witnesses,” Express, May 2, 2017; winged-cryptid phenomenon explored Breedlove dir., Terror in the Skies (USA: Small Town Monsters, 2019); mothman sightings post-1967 in Breedlove dir. The Mothman Legacy (USA: Small Town Monsters, 2020); the Chicago/Lake Michigan sightings are explored in Lon Strickler’s Mothman Dynasty: Chicago's Winged Humanoids (Independent, 2017, 2020) and Tobias Wayland’s The Lake Michigan Mothman: High Strangeness in the Midwest (Independent, 2019).
Sources:
Barker, Gray. The Silver Bridge: The Classic Mothman Tale, 2nd Edition, ebook edition. Clarksburg, WV, USA: Saucerian Books, (1970) 2015.
Breedlove, Seth, director. The Mothman of Point Pleasant. USA: Cyfuno Ventures, Small Town Monsters, 2017. 1 hr., 7 min. https://imdb.com/title/tt6417144.
Breedlove, Seth, director. Terror in the Skies. USA: Small Town Monsters, 2019. 1 hr., 7 min. https://imdb.com/title/tt10007978.
Coleman, Loren. Mothman: Evil Incarnate. New York, NY, USA: Cosimo Books, 2017.
Derenberger, Woodrow interview. WTAP-TV. November 3rd 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Woodrow_Derenberger_Interview.
Dewitt, Faye in “F.I. Mothman Witness Faye Dewitt at Mothman Fest 2007,” Fortean Investigations, YouTube video, 14:35, January 17, 2011, https://youtu.be/bpUGPucgEPY.
Goerman, Robert A. “The True Story of Mothman.” https://robertgoerman.wixsite.com/mothman.
Grabias, David, director. Search for the Mothman. Screen Gems Sinema Productions, 2002. 44 min. https://imdb.com/title/tt0310127, https://youtu.be/pT_znfUQYRc.
Harvey, Andrew Jay. “How and why did the Mothman come into being?”
https://academia.edu/542721/How_and_why_did_the_Mothman_come_into_being.
Jones, James Gay. Haunted Valley And More Folk Tales of Appalachia. McClain Printing Co., 1979. http://worldcat.org/oclc/5678503.
Keel, John A. The Mothman Prophecies: A True Story, paperback edition. New York, USA: Tom Doherty Associates, (1975) 1991. http://worldcat.org/oclc/797334671.
Borrow 2002 edition: https://archive.org/details/mothmanprophecie00keelrich.
Nickell, Joe. “Mothman Revisited: Investigating on Site.” Skeptical Briefs, Volume 12.4. December 2, 2002.
https://skepticalinquirer.org/newsletter/mothman-revisitedinvestigating-on-site.
Pellington, Mark, director. The Mothman Prophecies. Lakeshore Entertainment, 2002. https://imdb.com/title/tt0265349.
Pellowski, Matthew J., director. Eyes of the Mothman. New York, NY, USA: Virgil Films, 2011. 2 hr., 30 min. https://imdb.com/title/tt0810856, http://worldcat.org/oclc/698271500.
Sergent Jr., Donnie, and Jeff Wamsley. Mothman: The Facts Behind The Legend, expanded edition. Mark S. Phillips Publishing, (2002) 2020. http://worldcat.org/oclc/191732753.
Sheppard, Susan in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 1 of 3).” ForteanResearch. YouTube video, 14:58. September 19, 2011. https://youtu.be/m3_vqnYSCRE, Pt2 https://youtu.be/WDqd5MTU75Q, Pt3 https://youtu.be/K8GOF5R36M4.
Ury, Thomas in “Mothman Witness Tom Ury speaks at Mothman Fest 2011. Part 1 (of 4).” Fortean Investigations. YouTube video, 14:39. September 19, 2011. https://youtu.be/ETV-3RuaB48.
Wamsley, Jeff in “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley @ Creature Weekend 2017 Cryptozoology.” Spectral Wolfpack Paranormal. YouTube video, 49:20. January 3, 2018. https://youtu.be/2nAYzYxz4uA.
Wamsley, Jeff. Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes. Point Pleasant, WV, USA: Mothman Press, 2005.
News Articles:
Austin, Jon. “MOTHMAN PROPHECIES: 'dread' as legendary 'man-sized bird' seen by three separate witnesses.” Express. May 2, 2017. https://express.co.uk/news/weird/799087/MOTHMAN-PROPHECIES-man-sized-bird-seen-Chicago-three-separate-witnesses.
Bennett, Roger. “Monster No Joke For Those Who Saw It.” Athens Messenger. November 18, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Monster_No_Joke_For_Those_Who_Saw_It.
Charleston Gazette. "'Flying Man' Seen Here, Man Claims." November 18, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/%27Flying_Man%27_Seen_Here,_Man_Claims.
Hyre, Mary. "Winged, Red-Eyed 'Thing' Chases Point Couples Across Countryside." Athens Messenger. November 16, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Winged,_Red-Eyed_%27Thing%27_Chases_Point_Couples_Across_Countryside.
Point Pleasant Register. "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something." November 16, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Couples_See_Man-Sized_Bird...Creature...Something.
Siler, Pat. "Bird, Plane Or Batman? Mason Countians Hunt 'Moth Man.'" Huntington Herald-Dispatch. November 17, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Mason_Countians_Hunt_%27Moth_Man%27.
United Press International. “Eight People Say They Saw 'Creature.’” November 18, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Eight_People_Say_They_Saw_%27Creature%27.
United Press International. “Parkersberg Salesman Speaks with Spaceman.” Raleigh Register, November 4, 1966.
Part 1 - https://newspapers.com/clip/8137876/parkersburg-salesman-speaks-with,
Part 2 - https://newspapers.com/clip/55978272/parkersburg-salesman-speaks-with.
This video uses sound effects downloaded from stockmusic.com.
Support new videos on Patreon: https://patreon.com/user?u=3375417
Thank you to Jeff Wamsley, mothman researcher (MothmanMuseum.com), and Ebony Martin, Graduate Research Assistant at West Virginia University Libraries.
Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau. Research by Clark Murphy. Illustrations by V. R. Laurence. Music by Josh Chamberland. Animation by Brendan Barr. Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland.
1) Full name Clifton F. McClintic Wildlife Management Area, known locally as the "TNT area," Pellowski, Eyes of the Mothman, at 26:10, 30:20; Breedlove, The Mothman, at 13:00; “McClintic Wildlife Management Area,” West Virginia Explorer Magazine, https://wvexplorer.com/attractions/wildlife-management-areas/mcclintic-wildlife-management-area.
2) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies: A True Story (New York, USA: Tom Doherty Associates, (1975) 1991), 70; Breedlove, The Mothman, 9:45, no known source with witness name or time of sighting.
3) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 64 - 69, corroborating witness of Mrs. Frank Huggins is named; Breedlove, The Mothman, 17:15; Pellowski, Eyes of the Mothman, 1:48:12, includes brief parts of an audio recording of Woodrow Derenberger, November 3, 1966, WTAP TV & Radio; Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 2 of 3),” ForteanResearch, YouTube video, 15:28, September 19, 2011, https://youtu.be/WDqd5MTU75Q, at 14:05; Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 3 of 3),” ForteanResearch, YouTube video, 16:33, September 19, 2011, https://youtu.be/K8GOF5R36M4, at 0:05; Winkle in Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate (New York, NY, USA: Cosimo Books, 2017), 75; United Press International, “Parkersberg Salesman Speaks with Spaceman,” Raleigh Register, November 4, 1966; Derenberger, Visitors, partially reproduced here: https://ufoexperiences.blogspot.com/2005/06/i-met-man-from-another-world.html; Derenberger interview November 3, 1966, reproduced at https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Woodrow_Derenberger_Interview.
4) Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 1:56:15; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 71, 80 - 81, 94 - 95, 103 - 04, 131 - 32, 218, 219 - 23; Gray Barker, The Silver Bridge: The Classic Mothman Tale, 2nd Edition, ebook edition (Clarksburg, WV, USA: Saucerian Books, (1970) 2015), 67 - 69; In 1971, Derenberger published a book on his allegedly out-of-this-world experiences with Cold: Woodrow W. Derenberger and Andrew Colvin, Visitors from Lanulos: My Contact With Indrid Cold (New York: Vintage Press, (1971) 2014); Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 3 of 3),” at 11:25, according to Derenberger’s wife, Woodrow embellished the story when he was seeking to sell his book.
5) Likely a mistake, some sources give differing date of event or claim all men saw it, Charleston Gazette, "'Flying Man' Seen Here, Man Claims," November 18, 1966; United Press International, “Eight People Say They Saw 'Creature,’” November 18, 1966; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 38:40; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 10:05; Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 91, 95.
6) Likely a mistake, some sources give differing date or claim alternative elements of the event, Merle Partridge in a recording by Jeff Wamsley in Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 11:11; interview in Jeff Wamsley, Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes, 47 - 54; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 39:05; Susan Sheppard, “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 1 of 3),” ForteanResearch, YouTube video, 14:58, September 19, 2011, https://youtu.be/m3_vqnYSCRE, at 1:55, 7:15; This incident was originally recorded by Gray Barker in The Silver Bridge, 14, 18 - 27, and repeated in Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 71 - 73; One original news article: United Press International, “Eight People Say They Saw 'Creature,’” November 18, 1966, but in the interview by Wamsley, Partridge confirms the early reports (where he’s referred to as “Newell”) and Barker were inaccurate.
7) Partridge in interview in Jeff Wamsley, Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes, 47 - 54; a recording by Jeff Wamsley in Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 11:11; Merle Partridge read about the Scaberry-Mallette sighting and decided to report his experience to the media when he saw the reference to a dog carcass. In early articles he’s quoted as calling the circling lights "red reflectors," but reporters called them eyes.
8) Linda Scarberry interview in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, reproduced in part in “The True Story of Mothman” by Robert A. Goerman https://robertgoerman.wixsite.com/mothman; Linda Scarberry in interview in Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 3:38; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 32 - 37, 41 - 45; Jeff Wamsley in “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley,” at 8:47; Mary Hyre, "Winged, Red-Eyed 'Thing' Chases Point Couples Across Countryside," Athens Messenger, November 16, 1966; "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something," Point Pleasant Register, November 16, 1966; United Press International, “Eight People Say They Saw 'Creature,’” November 18, 1966; Pat Siler, "Bird, Plane Or Batman? Mason Countians Hunt 'Moth Man,'" Huntington Herald-Dispatch, November 17, 1966; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 76 - 78; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 42:05; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 14:18.
9) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 137.
10) Mary Hyre, "Winged, Red-Eyed 'Thing' Chases Point Couples Across Countryside," Athens Messenger, November 16, 1966; "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something," Point Pleasant Register, November 16, 1966; Pat Siler, "Bird, Plane Or Batman? Mason Countians Hunt 'Moth Man,'" Huntington Herald-Dispatch, November 17, 1966; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 16:45; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 47:15.
11) Bennett-Wamsley-Thomas mothman sighting, Marcella Bennett interview in Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 8:20; Wamsley, “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley @ Creature Weekend 2017 Cryptozoology,” Spectral Wolfpack Paranormal, YouTube video, 49:20, January 3, 2018, https://youtu.be/2nAYzYxz4uA, at 14:20; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 79 - 80.
12) Unconfirmed who was first, but the earliest use of the “moth” name found is from Pat Siler, "Bird, Plane Or Batman? Mason Countians Hunt 'Moth Man,'" Huntington Herald-Dispatch, November 17, 1966; Andrew Jay Harvey, “How and why did the Mothman come into being?” puts Siler as first-known; this source collecting many of the original articles also puts Siler’s article as the first-known coining of the name: https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Name:_Mothman.
13) Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 46:50, 1:02:55; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 30:30, 37:50; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 79 - 80.
14) Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 26:10; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 1:33:15; Mary Hyre, “Where the Waters Mingle,” The Athens Messenger, January 22, 1967, http://johnkeel.com/?p=916; more by Hyre: http://johnkeel.com/?s=Where+the+Waters+Mingle; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 176; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 18; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 96; Wamsley in “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley,” 18:50; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 64 - 75.
15) General description gathered from all sources; face description from Faye Dewitt-Leport in Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 47:00; “F.I. Mothman Witness Faye Dewitt at Mothman Fest 2007,” Fortean Investigations, YouTube video, 14:35, January 17, 2011, https://youtu.be/bpUGPucgEPY; Winkle in Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 82, Tom Ury sighting, wings didn’t flap; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 33 - 34; Linda Scarberry interview in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts Behind, reproduced in part in “The True Story of Mothman” by Robert A. Goerman, https://robertgoerman.wixsite.com/mothman; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 47:30; squeak sound mentioned in Roger Bennett, “Monster No Joke For Those Who Saw It,” Athens Messenger, November 18, 1966, and on Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 77, 273, hypnotic eyes on 30, 77.
16) November 25, Ury sighting: in interview in Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 31:50; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 23:35; “Mothman Witness Tom Ury speaks at Mothman Fest 2011. Part 1 (of 4),” Fortean Investigations, YouTube video, 14:39, September 19, 2011, https://youtu.be/ETV-3RuaB48; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 1:05:25; Wamsley in “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley,” 15:50; Ury in Wamsley, Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes, 97 - 98; Faye Dewitt-Leport (“F.I. Mothman Witness Faye Dewitt at Mothman Fest 2007,” Fortean Investigations, YouTube video, 14:35, January 17, 2011, https://youtu.be/bpUGPucgEPY; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 52:20; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 27:10.
17) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 29 - 30; likely repeating Keel, author Loren Coleman also estimates over 100 mothman witnesses across the 13 month period in Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 3:00.
18) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 96 - 104, 141, Keel mentions that upon arrival first spoke to Deputy Halstead about the reported mothman sightings and when asked about UFOs, the Deputy said they hadn’t had any reports, on 102 Keel also states “police and press had not received any reports” as of his arrival; More UFO encountered described in Barker, The Silver Bridge, 83 - 87; The 20 sightings a day number comes from Dave Peyton with The Herald-Dispatch who himself saw a silent metallic craft that disappeared in place in Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 1:25:00, 1:27:50.
19) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 54 - 56, 63 - 65.
20) November 16th sighting by Bennett-Wamsley-Thomas, Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 79 - 80; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 8:20; Wamsley, “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley,” at 14:30.
21) Athens Messenger, “Girls say red object chased them on road,” date of event unknown, appears in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 117, and in Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 1:25:30.
22) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 138 - 39, nurse witness unnamed; Keel, “Special Report on Incidents in Ohio and West Virginia (2),” http://johnkeel.com/?p=2808; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 24:30, the film mistakenly reframed the event as a mothman chasing them.
23) Witness Connie Carpenter, Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, 13:40; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 29 - 30, 97, Keele claims UFO witnesses regularly have “eyeburn” documented in “thousands” of cases, temporary eye damage/blindness, medically known as klieg conjunctivitis; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 38:45.
24) Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 41:26; Partridge interview in Wamsley, Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes, 47 - 54; Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 2 of 3),” 7:40.
25) The Partridges aren’t alone since other cases of UFO witnesses experiencing poltergeist activity are also documented. Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 2 of 3),” 5:10, according to Mary Partridge, poltergeist activity followed the events; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 23; Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 2 of 3),” at 0:44; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 150, also mentions Keel interviewing a witnesses of UFOs and a poltergeist case south of Point Pleasant.
26) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 145 - 46.
27) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 93 - 94, 143, 151 - 52, 176, 279.
28) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 135, 138; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 25:20.
29) Jeff Wamsley’s interview with Gray in Mothman: Behind The Red Eyes (2005), 129 - 133, partly reproduced here: http://keelian.org/mothman-archive and https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Lawrence_Gray%27s_Mothman_Sighting; Gray in interview in Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 34:20.
30) Additional witnesses visited by strangers on Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 65, 108 - 12.
31) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 176, 200 - 02.
32) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 106, 259.
33) Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, 21:20; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 119 - 20. Connie’s husband, Keith, says he was told the man was dressed in black, though Keel’s description claims he was wearing no jacket despite cold weather, “colourful mod shirt,” combed thick black hair and suntanned skin.
34) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 157.
35) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 105 - 06, 141.
36) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 24 - 27, 34 - 36.
37) Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 1:56:15; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 71, 80 - 81, 94 - 95, 103 - 04, 131 - 32, 218, 219 - 23; Barker, The Silver Bridge, 67 - 69; In 1971, Derenberger published a book on his allegedly out-of-this-world experiences with Cold: Woodrow W. Derenberger and Andrew Colvin, Visitors from Lanulos: My Contact With Indrid Cold (New York: Vintage Press, (1971) 2014); Susan Sheppard in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 3 of 3),” at 11:25, according to Derenberger’s wife, Woodrow embellished the story when he was seeking to sell his book.
38) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 249 - 50, 260 - 63.
39) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 240 - 41, 249 - 54, 265, 274, 293; Keel, “Special File – Volume Three (3): A Letter to Mary Hyre (November 3, 1967),” http://johnkeel.com/?p=3658; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 28:10.
40) Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 2:03:30; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 50:30; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, at 28:50; Witcher, “From Disaster to Prevention: The Silver Bridge,” Civil Engineering, December 2017, https://web.archive.org/web/20210624003118/https://www.asce.org/uploadedFiles/CE_Magazine/Home_Page/Content_Pieces/2017-12-history-lesson--original.pdf; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 286 - 94; John Raby, “Survivor recalls 1967 collapse of Silver Bridge” https://timeswv.com/news/survivor-recalls-1967-collapse-of-silver-bridge/article_1b1546ce-e177-11e7-8610-c350db940ad7.html, Times West Virginian, December 15, 2017; Chris LeRose, “The Collapse of the Silver Bridge,” Volume XV, No. 4, October 2001, https://web.archive.org/web/20210706232717/http://wvculture.org/history/wvhs/wvhs1504.html.
41) Wamsley in “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley,” at 26:40; Athens Messenger, “UFO Makes Return Visits Over Mason; Probe Asked,” September 18, 1968, found in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 121; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 283 - 84.
42) Winkle in Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 101, two more potential witnesses to mothmen near bridge at time of collapse but based in an email and second-hand testimony; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 2:23:00; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 57:00; Grabias dir., Search for the Mothman, 33:15.
43) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 291 - 93.
44) Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, has a distinct lack of any evidence connecting mothman sightings to subsequent “evil” with the exception of one parental death of a witness on 8 - 9, and eventual deaths of those involved, 30, 106 - 30; one mothman sighting is recorded in Athens Messenger, “UFO Makes Return Visits Over Mason; Probe Asked,” September 18, 1968, found in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 121, demonstrating mothman sightings persisted.
45) Keel wrote about the case in smaller treatments prior to 1975 but the book was a landmark for the case; see list of sources or search online for more examples of mothman media; Directed by Mark Pellington, The Mothman Prophecies (United States: Lakeshore Entertainment, 2002), https://imdb.com/title/tt0265349.
46) Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 33 - 37.
47) Breedlove, The Mothman, 1:00:20; Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 33, 36; Mothman museum website: https://mothmanmuseum.com; Mothman festival website: https://mothmanfestival.com; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 2:26:00.
48) Breedlove dir., The Mothman, 36:50; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, 57:00, 58:00; “F.I. Mothman Witness Faye Dewitt,” at 8:00; Partridge and Faye Dewitt-Leport dismiss crane explanation; Ury dismisses crane explanation in “Mothman Witness Tom Ury speaks at Mothman Fest. Part 1 (of 4),” Fortean Investigations, YouTube video, 14:39, September 19, 2011, https://youtu.be/ETV-3RuaB48, 3:05; Professor Robert Smith mentioned on Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 88, 91.
49) Joe Nickell, “Mothman Revisited: Investigating on Site,” Skeptical Briefs, Volume 12.4, December 2, 2002, https://skepticalinquirer.org/newsletter/mothman-revisitedinvestigating-on-site.
50) Mark A. Hall, Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds (Cosimo Classics, 2004), 36; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 1:14:15; Breedlove dir.,Terror in the Skies, at 12:20, 25:50; Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 43.
51) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 40, 43, gives a New York account and a Kentucky sighting from 1877-80, 40 - 53, chapter 3 contains many brief examples of other sightings mostly from the U.S. prior to 1966; Breedlove, dir., Terror in the Skies, at 17:30 mentions cases as far back as 1860s; Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 8:10, references early cases from the region done by James Gay Jones, Haunted Valley And More Folk Tales of Appalachia (McClain Printing Co., 1979).
52) Breedlove dir., The Mothman, at 8:10, documented in James Gay Jones’s book Haunted Valley And More Folk Tales of Appalachia (McClain Printing Co., 1979), 31- 33, note that Jones doesn’t provide any sources for the information he provides; Jones’s information is partially reproduced at https://cryptidchronicles.tumblr.com/post/21706665227/does-the-mothman-exist.
53) Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 299; UFO sightings and mothman encounter from 1968 in Athens Messenger, “UFO Makes Return Visits Over Mason; Probe Asked,” September 18, 1968, found in Sergent and Wamsley, Mothman: The Facts, 121; Winkle in Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 110; Coleman, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, 8 - 13; Pellowski dir., Eyes of the Mothman, at 1:18:10; At least 13 witnesses in one night, but only three on record at the time of report in Jon Austin, “MOTHMAN PROPHECIES: 'dread' as legendary 'man-sized bird' seen by three separate witnesses,” Express, May 2, 2017; winged-cryptid phenomenon explored Breedlove dir., Terror in the Skies (USA: Small Town Monsters, 2019); mothman sightings post-1967 in Breedlove dir. The Mothman Legacy (USA: Small Town Monsters, 2020); the Chicago/Lake Michigan sightings are explored in Lon Strickler’s Mothman Dynasty: Chicago's Winged Humanoids (Independent, 2017, 2020) and Tobias Wayland’s The Lake Michigan Mothman: High Strangeness in the Midwest (Independent, 2019).
Sources:
Barker, Gray. The Silver Bridge: The Classic Mothman Tale, 2nd Edition, ebook edition. Clarksburg, WV, USA: Saucerian Books, (1970) 2015.
Breedlove, Seth, director. The Mothman of Point Pleasant. USA: Cyfuno Ventures, Small Town Monsters, 2017. 1 hr., 7 min. https://imdb.com/title/tt6417144.
Breedlove, Seth, director. Terror in the Skies. USA: Small Town Monsters, 2019. 1 hr., 7 min. https://imdb.com/title/tt10007978.
Coleman, Loren. Mothman: Evil Incarnate. New York, NY, USA: Cosimo Books, 2017.
Derenberger, Woodrow interview. WTAP-TV. November 3rd 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Woodrow_Derenberger_Interview.
Dewitt, Faye in “F.I. Mothman Witness Faye Dewitt at Mothman Fest 2007,” Fortean Investigations, YouTube video, 14:35, January 17, 2011, https://youtu.be/bpUGPucgEPY.
Goerman, Robert A. “The True Story of Mothman.” https://robertgoerman.wixsite.com/mothman.
Grabias, David, director. Search for the Mothman. Screen Gems Sinema Productions, 2002. 44 min. https://imdb.com/title/tt0310127, https://youtu.be/pT_znfUQYRc.
Harvey, Andrew Jay. “How and why did the Mothman come into being?”
https://academia.edu/542721/How_and_why_did_the_Mothman_come_into_being.
Jones, James Gay. Haunted Valley And More Folk Tales of Appalachia. McClain Printing Co., 1979. http://worldcat.org/oclc/5678503.
Keel, John A. The Mothman Prophecies: A True Story, paperback edition. New York, USA: Tom Doherty Associates, (1975) 1991. http://worldcat.org/oclc/797334671.
Borrow 2002 edition: https://archive.org/details/mothmanprophecie00keelrich.
Nickell, Joe. “Mothman Revisited: Investigating on Site.” Skeptical Briefs, Volume 12.4. December 2, 2002.
https://skepticalinquirer.org/newsletter/mothman-revisitedinvestigating-on-site.
Pellington, Mark, director. The Mothman Prophecies. Lakeshore Entertainment, 2002. https://imdb.com/title/tt0265349.
Pellowski, Matthew J., director. Eyes of the Mothman. New York, NY, USA: Virgil Films, 2011. 2 hr., 30 min. https://imdb.com/title/tt0810856, http://worldcat.org/oclc/698271500.
Sergent Jr., Donnie, and Jeff Wamsley. Mothman: The Facts Behind The Legend, expanded edition. Mark S. Phillips Publishing, (2002) 2020. http://worldcat.org/oclc/191732753.
Sheppard, Susan in “Susan Sheppard at Mothman Fest 2011 (part 1 of 3).” ForteanResearch. YouTube video, 14:58. September 19, 2011. https://youtu.be/m3_vqnYSCRE, Pt2 https://youtu.be/WDqd5MTU75Q, Pt3 https://youtu.be/K8GOF5R36M4.
Ury, Thomas in “Mothman Witness Tom Ury speaks at Mothman Fest 2011. Part 1 (of 4).” Fortean Investigations. YouTube video, 14:39. September 19, 2011. https://youtu.be/ETV-3RuaB48.
Wamsley, Jeff in “MOTHMAN of Point Pleasant Lecture by Jeff Wamsley @ Creature Weekend 2017 Cryptozoology.” Spectral Wolfpack Paranormal. YouTube video, 49:20. January 3, 2018. https://youtu.be/2nAYzYxz4uA.
Wamsley, Jeff. Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes. Point Pleasant, WV, USA: Mothman Press, 2005.
News Articles:
Austin, Jon. “MOTHMAN PROPHECIES: 'dread' as legendary 'man-sized bird' seen by three separate witnesses.” Express. May 2, 2017. https://express.co.uk/news/weird/799087/MOTHMAN-PROPHECIES-man-sized-bird-seen-Chicago-three-separate-witnesses.
Bennett, Roger. “Monster No Joke For Those Who Saw It.” Athens Messenger. November 18, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Monster_No_Joke_For_Those_Who_Saw_It.
Charleston Gazette. "'Flying Man' Seen Here, Man Claims." November 18, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/%27Flying_Man%27_Seen_Here,_Man_Claims.
Hyre, Mary. "Winged, Red-Eyed 'Thing' Chases Point Couples Across Countryside." Athens Messenger. November 16, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Winged,_Red-Eyed_%27Thing%27_Chases_Point_Couples_Across_Countryside.
Point Pleasant Register. "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something." November 16, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Couples_See_Man-Sized_Bird...Creature...Something.
Siler, Pat. "Bird, Plane Or Batman? Mason Countians Hunt 'Moth Man.'" Huntington Herald-Dispatch. November 17, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Mason_Countians_Hunt_%27Moth_Man%27.
United Press International. “Eight People Say They Saw 'Creature.’” November 18, 1966. https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/Eight_People_Say_They_Saw_%27Creature%27.
United Press International. “Parkersberg Salesman Speaks with Spaceman.” Raleigh Register, November 4, 1966.
Part 1 - https://newspapers.com/clip/8137876/parkersburg-salesman-speaks-with,
Part 2 - https://newspapers.com/clip/55978272/parkersburg-salesman-speaks-with.
This video uses sound effects downloaded from stockmusic.com.
Support new videos on Patreon: https://patreon.com/user?u=3375417
Thank you to Jeff Wamsley, mothman researcher (MothmanMuseum.com), and Ebony Martin, Graduate Research Assistant at West Virginia University Libraries.
Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau. Research by Clark Murphy. Illustrations by V. R. Laurence. Music by Josh Chamberland. Animation by Brendan Barr. Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland.
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