Hey all. I am back again after Christmas and New Year’s festivities, hope you all had a good time and welcome back to my blog in the fresh new year of 2019.
Today I thought I would go for another classic in the world of the unexplained and mysterious by taking a look at the notorious and legendary mothman, another one of the oldies alongside Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, the Mothman has been around as an urban legend and unexplained mystery for decades and I am here today to go over it.
What is the Mothman?
The Mothman is said to be a creature that stands just like a human, a bipedal creature, but is said to have large moth-like wings, as large as 10 feet in width and red glowing eyes and he is able to terrifyingly fly and also at very fast speeds according to numerous sightings and stories.
The Mothman was first sighted in the 1960s in Point Pleasant, West Virginia in the USA and has ever since then played a huge part in the areas folklore and tourism attraction, with the area even holding an annual Mothman festival.
In many accounts the Mothman is described as aggressive and unpredictable and has also been associated with future tragedies, being sighted before something very bad ends up happening, this was first popularized by author John Keel in his 1975 book called The Mothman Prophecies where it suggested Mothman sightings proceeded and were connected to the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge, resulting in the deaths of 46 people.
It is not exactly known what or who the Mothman is as in how it came about if it actually exists, many theories have it that it could have been a mutated human due to an environment where one of the most notorious Mothman sightings took place, being in a place known as “the TNT area” which was an old World War 2 Era munitions factory, many believe that chemicals that had seeped into the area and made the place very polluted could have mutated something or someone into the creature.
The Mothman Sightings
The most popular Mothman sightings begun from November 12th 1966 and continued on in intensity up until the Silver Bridge collapse on December 15th 1967 where reports of Mothman sightings dropped down to almost zero thereafter, with hardly any sightings since, which is why many have connected Mothman to tragedy.
One of the most infamous stories and sightings of the Mothman was on November 16th 1966 where Mothman was witnessed by two couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette. They described it as large and grey and that its eyes glowed red when it was picked up on their car headlights, this happened near to the “TNT area” and upon leaving back towards home they were apparently chased by the creature where they described it as a large flying man with 10 feet long wings.
After losing it they decided to head back to the TNT area one last time, believing what they had seen must have just been a large erratic bird, but upon getting close to the TNT area again they claimed to encounter the creature for the last time where they witnessed it shoot up into the air at amazing speeds, describing it as no bird, they quickly returned then and reported the incident to authorities before going home, the incident later found its way to the local newspaper and spread then there on to other outlets.
After this encounter, which was the 2nd recorded encounter after the first encounter by a group of five men working at a cemetary in Clendenin, West Virginia on November 12th 1966, there was a sudden explosion of Mothman sightinings across Point Pleasant leading up to the Silver Bridge disaster where sightinings of the Mothman thereafter dramatically declined.
In 1999, Russian UFOlogists also claimed that a Mothman had been sighted there in Moscow right before the Russian Apartment Bombings, yet again connecting the creature to tragedy, but also putting it outside of West Virginia for the first time.
The Round Off
All in all, for the short period of time that the Mothman had a number of frequent sightnings, it quickly became a very popular, classic and notorious case to enter into the world of the unexplained and paranormal.
There are numerous theories and explanations by both skeptics and believers on what the Mothman was or could have came from, many believers claim that pollutants in the TNT area lead to the mutating of a human or something else into the creature while others claim the Mothman was some kind of alien being or something of the divine, possibly sent to try and warn of tragedy while skeptics claim that the Mothman could simply have been a large bird, such as a non-native bird that happened to move off its migratory route and the apparent original Mothman sighting of the bird was then followed by hoaxes and pranks for fun or possibly even for commercial reasons, such as making money from such an urban legend.
I personally can’t bring myself to believe that something such as a Mothman exists, I don’t think anyone could unless they saw such a thing with their own eyes. But at the end of the day it has led to good for Point Pleasant, such as commercial tourism gain, folklore culture creation and a fun annual Mothman festivel as well as keeping the world of the unexplained alive and well.
Thank you for reading my blog post, sharing it far and wide is the best thing you could do for me! So thank you again! Also, if you have any suggestions for what I should do for future mystery/unexplained blog posts, please contact me either by email or by joining my Facebook group for the readers of my blog.