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The Mothman is one of the most prominent North American folkloric figures of the past several decades. Often considered one of the Cryptozoological Big 5 (along with sasquatch, yeti, the Loch Ness monster, and chupacabra), the mothman is certainly the most well known folkloric figure to come out of West Virginia. For the span of a year from 1966 to 1967, over one hundred people reported seeing a flying, headless, red-eye entity that many of them connected to various other similar manias, such as the Men in Black, the grinning man, and even UFOs. Although the creature hasn't been seen steadily since 1967, it has still left an undeniable impact on popular culture, almost growing to the status of a celebrity or cult figure among cryptozoology enthusiasts, paranormal enthusiasts, and even regular residents of the small town of Point Pleasant.
Overview[]
Although physical descriptions vary somewhat in certain details, many physical features are constant. The mothman is always described as a tall humanoid or semi-humanoid figure with no head, no facial features, and no visible arms. Embedded in the middle of its chest is a pair of bioluminescent red eyes with no pupils, often likened to car headlights or bicycle reflectors. Emerging from the creature's upper back is a large pair of wings with a span of at least ten feet. Skin texture varies from smooth human-like skin to fur and sometimes even feathers, and the entity's color is either gray or brown. Some reports, particularly the earlier accounts, depict it as defying the laws of physics, often soaring for miles at high speeds with its wings held stiffly at its sides and ascending vertically with little to no effort, as though being pulled upwards by strings.
The year-long string of sightings ended in late 1967 when the Silver Bridge, a suspension bridge spanning the Ohio River and connecting Point Pleasant to Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed on December 15, plunging rush hour traffic into the waters below and killing 46 people. While the town mourned the tragedy, some began to speculate that the mothman may have been an omen or premonition of disaster, having appeared for the past year either to cause the collapse or to warn the townspeople before it was too late. This interpretation as an 'omen' has spread to other similar entities, such as the Black Bird of Chernobyl and the Man Dragon of China. In the decades since, the mothman has become Point Pleasant's claim to fame. The town honors the creature yearly with a festival, and the town contains a mothman museum, a gift shop selling mothman merchandise, and even a statue of the creature.
Due to the many oddities present in the mothman legends as well as the lack of supporting evidence, skeptics and the scientific community have largely dismissed the sightings as mass hysteria. Many have suggested that alleged sightings were actually cases of mistaken identity with the most common suspects being the barn owl (due to its large reflective eyes and 'neckless' appearance) and the sandhill crane (due to its red forehead, large size, and expansive wingspan).