The True Story Behind The Myth Of West Virginia's "Mothman"

certain stories and tales are so scary that they sure will keep you up deep into the night. But it’s quiet rare to find a story that could end up being so chilling, very intense, really downright blood curdling that would send an entire town spending three days every year, and this happens every single year, examining its every aspect for more clues and trying to dissect the myth from the truth. That’s exactly the kind of story which surrounds the being which was sighted in Point Pleasant, West Virginia to be precise, which throws a complete three-day Mothman Festival every September. Talk about small cult or generally accepted subliminal ritual.

Just Like Bigfoot and the notoriously popular Jersey Devil, the Mothman in its own right has gradually gone from a figure who arouses fear in people to a sort of underground popular pop icon. And his festival does brings together all sorts of people from all works and class of life, ranging from the hardest core conspiracy theorists to little kids who just want their faces to be painted to emulate the look of the creature. It seems quiet odd that the same town that was very petrified by this rather mysterious creature has now gone ahead to put him on a pedestal (like literally, Visiting Gunn Park, you will find a metallic Mothman statue standing there), but every visitor as well as every plush doll which is made in his likeness is a huge boon to the local economy as it was discovered. But the publicly accepted myth factor hides rather a very real terror to be feared of the creature. Popular Mystic hunters Weird USA had a chance to talk with Linda Scarberry, who was actually as at the time of the first sightings one of the first to come forward and speak with the press as a witness to the being.

The account recalled, “I did see it in 1966. It was just about 11:30 pm one night. When we came up to this road, the lights did shine over, and there it was standing there right in front of the powerhouse... It did look so much like a man, had the exact body of a man. The wings came up over its head down its body and around as well. The wings were so huge they actually dragged on the floor as it moved.”

“We did see it dozens of times over. It was even at our very apartment one certain day. It remember it was sitting up on the roof. At first sight I was very afraid of it, but as i recall it had very many chances to hurt us an to cause us pain, but it didn’t seem like it wanted to or any interest in that. A gaze into Its eyes would kind of hypnotize you. It acted on many occasions like it wanted to or at least it was trying to communicate with us through its eyes.”

People did think that Linda was crazy and she had lost it, but as even more and more people saw the same creature, the more the number of people who began to fear the creature. A sudden state of hysteria gripped the entire town. One man even went so far as to shoot at the creature, only to find out that to his surprise he had indeed instead just killed a very rare snow owl.

Am sure as many would recall the incident of the silver bridge, When the Silver Bridge did collapse at exactly thirteen months reported from the first Mothman sighting, speculation ran wild and swept across the entire town so rapidly that the creature was in fact a portent of disasters waiting to come upon them all. One attendee of the popular Festival filled in some theories, including one about the Chief Cornstalk’s curse.

It is remembered that when he was murdered, he put a curse on the entire town, that the very area would be blighted for over 200 years. And the sightings of the being seemed to fall perfectly right into the time frame. There are certain theories from some sources about it being an avatar or even a spirit, even theories about it being an extraterrestrial. I think these days, most of the common perception is that it is definitely not an alien.”

As much as the mystery of the creature, the reality of who or what the creature was will never be fully understood. But for those that are intrigued and desire to learn as much as they can about certain or all of the legends, the Mothman Festival each September is a sure can’t miss event for you.

VIDEO EXPO OF THE CREATURE

Locals Sharing Their Memories from Personal sightings and encounters to the weirdusa team who went for some on ground investigation during the festival.

Being born and raised up in this rather small river town, I’m very pleased to see anyone at all taking a profound interest in our local folklore and urban legends.

I sincerely appreciate the fact that you and your team made out time to bring your crew down to Point pleasant and ended up making the day of at least a few of the good souls in the town who truly do deeply believe in the fictionalized and mystical propaganda in which they have usurped to cover themselves from the ever present shadow remnants of what that horrible disaster did to this beloved town. Please keep up the good work. –Charles Taylor

It did start way back in 1966. Some people as well as some locals say the creature was as a result of the evil curse of Chief Cornstalk, a rather Shawnee leader who had been brutally and deviously murdered in Point Pleasant, West Virginia back in 1777, and who had now finally gotten back his long proclaimed revenge. Others did account to the appearance of the creature differently saying that in fact it was a mutant, spawned from the local chemical dump."How Theoretical" Whatever story you end up agreeing with, all locals for some reason call the creature the same name: The Mothman.

Another account says, the creature started out scaring off farmer’s dogs, but after awhile, it did start eating them! It also went ahead to start scaring off teens parked in vehicles. And then, on the 15th of December, 1967, the Silver Bridge did suddenly collapse into the Ohio River, causing the sudden and tragic death of about 46 people. Some said the unfortunate event was inevitably was caused by a sonic boom generated from Mothman's wings. Others think the creature had been sent to warn the people of Point Pleasant ahead of time about the disaster, but absolutely no one understood the message instead they were all afraid of its presence. whether it be for good or bad, it has remained a vital part of West Virginia folklore, and who knows? It might just decide to come again to this our small town of Point Pleasant. –Mothgirl

In my lovely town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia there looms in the atmosphere a story of a creature with huge wings that would easily without stress pick up farmers cows and fly off with them to unknown destinations, and it did also cause a bridge to collapse, which ended up killing a lot of people. The town called this creature the Mothman, and there is a movie released out of these stories called The Mothman Prophecies. We even have a statue of this being on our popular main street and even a full week which is dedicated to it in the fall. – Adam Marcum

Due credit to the WeirdUSA Team for this piece.

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