Supernatural creature on bridge7/1/2023 ![]() He also records anecdotal tales of Mothman supposedly attacking the roofs of parked cars occupied by teenagers. Brunvand found elements in common among many Mothman reports and much older folk tales, suggesting that something real may have triggered the scares and became woven with existing folklore. Brunvand notes that recountings of the 1966–67 Mothman reports usually state that at least 100 people saw Mothman with many more "afraid to report their sightings" but observed that written sources for such stories consisted of children's books or sensationalized or undocumented accounts that fail to quote identifiable persons. There are too many far more reasonable explanations." Analysis įolklorist Jan Harold Brunvand notes that Mothman has been widely covered in the popular press, some claiming sightings connected with UFOs, and others claiming that a military storage site was Mothman's "home". Hill proposed that the photo showed "a bird, perhaps an owl, carrying a frog or snake away" and wrote that "there is zero reason to suspect it is the Mothman as described in legend. In 2016, WCHS-TV published a photo purported to be of Mothman taken by an anonymous man while driving on Route 2 in Mason County. The Mothman Prophecies (2002) is a major motion picture, loosely based on the 1975 book of the same name by John Keel. Īccording to Georgian newspaper Svobodnaya Gruziya, Russian UFOlogists claim that Mothman sightings in Moscow foreshadowed the 1999 Russian apartment bombings. įollowing the Decemcollapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people, the incident gave rise to the legend and connected the Mothman sightings to the bridge collapse. While the villain Killer Moth did not appear in the show, the comic book influence of both him and Batman is believed by some to have influenced the coinage of the name "Mothman" in the local newspapers. īatman and his antagonist Killer Moth are varyingly cited as influences for the term "Mothman"ĭue to the popularity of the Batman TV series at the time, the fictional superhero Batman and his rogues gallery were prominently featured in the public eye. The bird may have wandered out of its migration route, and therefore was unrecognized at first because it was not native to this region. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the sandhill crane, a large American crane almost as tall as a man with a seven-foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes. Additionally, he blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature. Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field, its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron he termed a "shitepoke". Two volunteer firemen who saw it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". ![]() ĭuring the next few days, other people reported similar sightings, after local newspapers reported it. It pursued them as far as Point Pleasant city limits. Distressed, the witnesses drove away at speed, and said that the creature flew after their car, making a screeching sound. ![]() Linda Scarberry described it as a "slender, muscular man" about seven feet tall with white wings, and said that she was unable to discern its face due to the hypnotic effect of its eyes. On November 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant-Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette-told police they had seen a large white creature whose eyes "glowed red", standing at the side of the road near "the TNT area", the site of a former World War II munitions plant. Īn annual festival in Point Pleasant is devoted to the Mothman legend. The book was later adapted into a 2002 film, starring Richard Gere. The creature was introduced to a wider audience by Gray Barker in 1970, and was later popularized by John Keel in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, claiming that there were supernatural events related to the sightings, and a connection to the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The source of the legend is believed to have originated from sightings of out-of-migration sandhill cranes or herons. The national press soon picked up the reports and helped spread the story across the United States. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register, dated November 16, 1966, titled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird. In West Virginia folklore, the Mothman is a humanoid creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area from November 15, 1966, to December 15, 1967.
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