Mothman is an unidentified creature reported as a large, seven-foot, grey creature with man-like legs, bat-like wings and horrifying red eyes. The creature is said to have no head with it's eyes stuck to its chest and its arms are replaced by the wings, which are used to fly at over 100 mph.



Mothman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman

Mothman is a legendary creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia from 15 November 1966 to 15 December 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register dated 16 November 1966, entitled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something".[1]

Mothman was introduced to a wider audience by Gray Barker in 1970,[2][3] later popularized by John Keel in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, claiming that Mothman was related to a wide array of supernatural events in the area and the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies, starring Richard Gere, was based on Keel's book.

History

On Nov. 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette told police they saw a large white creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a "flying man with ten foot wings" following their car while they were driving in an area of town known as 'the TNT area', the site of a former World War II munitions plant.[5][6]

During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron he termed a "shitepoke". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature.[7] Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the Sandhill Crane, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route.

There were no Mothman reports in the immediate aftermath of the December 15, 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people, giving rise to legends that the Mothman sightings and the bridge collapse were connected.[7][8][9]

Claims of later sightings

UFOlogist Jerome Clark writes that many years after the initial events, members of the Ohio UFO Investigators League re-interviewed several people who claimed to have seen Mothman, all of whom insisted their stories were accurate. Linda Scarberry claimed that she and her husband had seen Mothman "hundreds of times," sometimes at close range, commenting, "It seems like it doesn’t want to hurt you. It just wants to communicate with you."[10]

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman claims that sightings of Mothman continue, and told USA Today he re-interviewed witnesses described in Keel's book who said Mothman was "a huge creature about 7 feet tall with huge wings and red eyes" and that "they could see the creature flapping right behind them" as they fled from it.[11]

Explanations Paranormal

Some UFologists, paranormal authors, and cryptozoologists believe that Mothman was an alien, a supernatural manifestation, or an unknown cryptid. In his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, author John Keel claimed that the Point Pleasant residents experienced precognitions including premonitions of the collapse of the Silver Bridge, unidentified flying object sightings, visits from mysterious or threatening men in black, and other bizarre phenomena. However, Keel has been criticized for distorting established data, and for gullibility.[10]

Skeptical

Skeptic Joe Nickell says that a number of hoaxes followed the publicity generated by the original reports, such as a group of construction workers who tied red flashlights to helium balloons. Nickell attributes the Mothman reports to pranks, misidentified planes, and sightings of a barred owl, an albino owl, or perhaps a large snowy owl, suggesting that the Mothman's "glowing eyes" were actually red-eye effect caused from the reflection of light from flashlights or other bright light sources.[5]

Folklorist 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". 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. 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. He also records anecdotal tales of Mothman supposedly attacking the roofs of parked cars inhabited by teenagers in lovers lanes.[12]

Festivals and statue

Point Pleasant held its first Annual Mothman Festival in 2002 and a 12-foot-tall metallic statue of the creature, created by artist and sculptor Bob Roach, was unveiled in 2003. The Mothman Museum and Research Center opened in 2005 and is run by Jeff Wamsley.[13][14][15] The Festival is a weekend-long event held on the 3rd weekend of every September. There are a variety of events that go on during the festival such as guest speakers, vendor exhibits, and hayride tours focusing on the notable areas of Point Pleasant.[8]
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MOTHMAN
The Enigma of Point Pleasant
http://www.prairieghosts.com/moth.html

“Mothman”, as the strange creature came to be called, is perhaps one of the strangest creatures to ever grace the annals of weirdness in America. Even though this mysterious and unsolved case has nothing to do with ghosts, it would be remiss of me to not include it in a section of the website about the unexplained.

The weird events connected to the Mothman began on November 12, 1966 near Clendenin, West Virginia. Five men were in the local cemetery that day, preparing a grave for a burial, when something that looked like a “brown human being” lifted off from some nearby trees and flew over their heads. The men were baffled. It did not appear to be a bird, but more like a man with wings. A few days later, more sightings would take place, electrifying the entire region.


(Courtesy of Cathy Wilkins)


Late in the evening of November 15, two young married couples had a very strange encounter as they drove past an abandoned TNT plant near Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The couples spotted two large eyes that were attached to something that was "shaped like a man, but bigger, maybe six or seven feet tall. And it had big wings folded against its back". When the creature moved toward the plant door, the couples panicked and sped away. Moments later, they saw the same creature on a hillside near the road. It spread its wings and rose into the air, following with their car, which by now was traveling at over 100 miles per hour. "That bird kept right up with us," said one of the group. They told Deputy Sheriff Millard Halstead that it followed them down Highway 62 and right to the Point Pleasant city limits. And they would not be the only ones to report the creature that night. Another group of four witnesses claimed to see the “bird” three different times!

Another sighting had more bizarre results. At about 10:30 on that same evening, Newell Partridge, a local building contractor who lived in Salem (about 90 miles from Point Pleasant), was watching television when the screen suddenly went dark. He stated that a weird pattern filled the screen and then he heard a loud, whining sounds from outside that raised in pitch and then ceased. “It sounded like a generator winding up” he later stated. Partridge’s dog, Bandit, began to howl out on the front porch and Newell went out to see what was going on.

When he walked outside, he saw Bandit facing the hay barn, about 150 yards from the house. Puzzled, Partridge turned a flashlight in that direction and spotted two red circles that looked like eyes or “bicycle reflectors”. They moving red orbs were certainly not animal’s eyes, he believed, and the sight of them frightened him. Bandit, an experienced hunting dog and protective of his territory, shot off across the yard in pursuit of the glowing eyes. Partridge called for him to stop, but the animal paid no attention. His owner turned and went back into the house for his gun, but then was too scared to go back outside again. He slept that night with his gun propped up next to the bed. The next morning, he realized that Bandit had disappeared. The dog had still not shown up two days later when Partridge read in the newspaper about the sightings in Point Pleasant that night.

One statement that he read in the newspaper chilled him to the bone. Roger Scarberry, one member of the group who spotted the strange “bird” at the TNT plant, said that as they entered the city limits of Point Pleasant, they saw the body of a large dog lying on the side of the road. A few minutes later, on the way back out of town, the dog was gone. They even stopped to look for the body, knowing they had passed it just a few minutes before. Newell Partridge immediately thought of Bandit, who was never seen again.

On November 16, a press conference was held in the county courthouse and the couples from the TNT plant sighting repeated their story. Deputy Halstead, who had known the couples all of their lives, took them very seriously. “They’ve never been in any trouble,” he told investigators and had no reason to doubt their stories. Many of the reporters who were present for the weird recounting felt the same way. The news of the strange sightings spread around the world. The press dubbed the odd flying creature “Mothman”, after a character from the popular Batman television series of the day.

The remote and abandoned TNT plant became the lair of the Mothman in the months ahead and it could not have picked a better place to hide in. The area was made up of several hundred acres of woods and large concrete domes where high explosives were stored during World War II. A network of tunnels honeycombed the area and made it possible for the creature to move about without being seen. In addition to the manmade labyrinth, the area was also comprised of the McClintic Wildlife Station, a heavily forested animal preserve filled with woods, artificial ponds and steep ridges and hills. Much of the property was almost inaccessible and without a doubt, Mothman could have hid for weeks or months and remained totally unseen. The only people who ever wandered there were hunters and fishermen and the local teenagers, who used the rutted dirt roads of the preserve as “lover’s lanes”.

Very few homes could be found in the region, but one dwelling belonged to the Ralph Thomas family. One November 16, they spotted a “funny red light” in the sky that moved and hovered above the TNT plant. “It wasn’t an airplane”, Mrs. Marcella Bennett (a friend of the Thomas family) said, “but we couldn’t figure out what it was.” Mrs. Bennett drove to the Thomas house a few minutes later and got out of the car with her baby. Suddenly, a figure stirred near the automobile. “It seemed as though it had been lying down,” she later recalled. “It rose up slowly from the ground. A big gray thing. Bigger than a man with terrible glowing eyes.”

Mrs. Bennett was so horrified that she dropped her little girl! She quickly recovered, picked up her child and ran to the house. The family locked everyone inside but hysteria gripped them as the creature shuffled onto the porch and peered into the windows. The police were summoned, but the Mothman had vanished by the time the authorities had arrived.

Mrs. Bennett would not recover from the incident for months and was in fact so distraught that she sought medical attention to deal with her anxieties. She was tormented by frightening dreams and later told investigators that she believed the creature had visited her own home too. She said that she could often hear a keening sounds (like a woman screaming) near her isolated home on the edge of Point Pleasant.

Many would come to believe that the sightings of Mothman, as well as UFO sightings and encounters with “men in black” in the area, were all related. For nearly a year, strange happenings continued in the area. Researchers, investigators and “monster hunters” descended on the area but none so famous as author John Keel, who has written extensively about Mothman and other unexplained anomalies. He has written for many years about UFO’s but dismisses the standard “extraterrestrial” theories of the mainstream UFO movement. For this reason, he has been a controversial figure for decades. According to Keel, man has had a long history of interaction with the supernatural. He believes that the intervention of mysterious strangers in the lives of historic personages like Thomas Jefferson and Malcolm X provides evidence of the continuing presence of the “gods of old”. The manifestation of these elder gods comes in the form of UFO’s and aliens, monsters, demons, angels and even ghosts. He has remained a colorful character to many and yet remains respected in the field for his research and fascinating writings.

Keel became the major chronicler of the Mothman case and wrote that at least 100 people personally witnessed the creature between November 1966 and November 1967. According to their reports, the creature stood between five and seven feet tall, was wider than a man and shuffled on human-like legs. Its eyes were set near the top of the shoulders and had bat-like wings that glided, rather than flapped, when it flew. Strangely though, it was able to ascend straight up “like a helicopter”. Witnesses also described its murky skin as being either gray or brown and it emitted a humming sound when it flew. The Mothman was apparently incapable of speech and gave off a screeching sound. Mrs. Bennett stated that it sounded like a “woman screaming”.

John Keel arrived in Point Pleasant in December 1966 and immediately began collecting reports of Mothman sightings and even UFO reports from before the creature was seen. He also compiled evidence that suggested a problem with televisions and phones that began in the fall of 1966. Lights had been seen in the skies, particularly around the TNT plant, and cars that passed along the nearby road sometimes stalled without explanation. He and his fellow researchers also uncovered a number of short-lived poltergeist cases in the Ohio Valley area. Locked doors opened and closed by themselves, strange thumps were heard inside and outside of homes and often, inexplicable voices were heard. The James Lilley family, who lived just south of the TNT plant, were so bothered by the bizarre events that they finally sold their home and moved to another neighborhood. Keel was convinced that the intense period of activity was all connected.

And stranger things still took place..... A reporter named Mary Hyre, who was the Point Pleasant correspondent for the Athens, Ohio newspaper the Messenger, also wrote extensively about the local sightings. In fact, after one very active weekend, she was deluged with over 500 phone calls from people who saw strange lights in the skies. One night in January 1967, she was working late in her office in the county courthouse and a man walked in the door. He was very short and had strange eyes that were covered with thick glasses. He also had long, black hair that was cut squarely “like a bowl haircut”. Hyre said that he spoke in a low, halting voice and he asked for directions to Welsh, West Virginia. She thought that he had some sort of speech impediment and for some reason, he terrified her. “He kept getting closer and closer to me, “ she said, “ and his funny eyes were staring at me almost hypnotically.”

Alarmed, she summoned the newspaper’s circulation manager to her office and together, they spoke to the strange little man. She said that at one point in the discussion, she answered the telephone when it rang and she noticed the little man pick up a pen from her desk. He looked at it in amazement, “as if he had never seen a pen before.” Then, he grabbed the pen, laughed loudly and ran out of the building.

Several weeks later, Hyre was crossing the street near her office and saw the same man on the street. He appeared to be startled when he realized that she was watching him, turned away quickly and ran for a large black car that suddenly came around the corner. The little man climbed in and it quickly drove away.

By this time, most of the sightings had come to an end and Mothman had faded away into the strange “twilight zone” from which he had come... but the story of Point Pleasant had not yet ended. At around 5:00 in the evening on December 15, 1967, the 700-foot bridge linking Point Pleasant to Ohio suddenly collapsed while filled with rush hour traffic. Dozens of vehicles plunged into the dark waters of the Ohio River and 46 people were killed. Two of those were never found and the other 44 are buried together in the town cemetery of Gallipolis, Ohio.


The Silver Bridge (Photo Courtesy of William Wright)
On that same tragic night, the James Lilley family (who still lived near the TNT plant at that time) counted more than 12 eerie lights that flashed above their home and vanished into the forest.

The collapse of the Silver Bridge made headlines all over the country and Mary Hyre went days without sleep as reporters and television crews from everywhere descended on the town. The local citizens were stunned with horror and disbelief and the tragedy is still being felt today.


During Christmas week, a short, dark-skinned man entered the office of Mary Hyre. He was dressed in a black suit, with a black tie, and she said that he looked vaguely Oriental. He had high cheekbones, narrow eyes and an unidentified accent. He was not interested in the bridge disaster, she said, but wanted to know about local UFO sightings. Hyre was too busy to talk with him and she handed her a file of related press clipping instead. He was not interested in them and insisted on speaking with her. She finally dismissed him from her office.

That same night, an identically described man visited the homes of several witnesses in the area who had reported seeing the lights in the sky. He made all of them very uneasy and uncomfortable and while he claimed to be a reporter from Cambridge, Ohio, he inadvertently admitted that he did not know where Columbus, Ohio was even though the two towns are just a few miles apart.

So who was Mothman and what was behind the strange events in Point Pleasant?

Whatever the creature may have been, it seems clear that Mothman was no hoax. There were simply too many credible witnesses who saw “something”. It was suggested at the time that the creature may have been a sandhill crane, which while they are not native to the area, could have migrated south from Canada. That was one explanation anyway, although it was one that was rejected by Mothman witnesses, who stated that what they saw looked nothing like a crane.

But there could have been a logical explanation for some of the sightings. Even John Keel (who believed the creature was genuine) suspected that a few of the cases involved people who were spooked by recent reports and saw owls flying along deserted roads at night. Even so, Mothman remains hard to easily dismiss. The case is filled with an impressive number of multiple-witness sightings by individuals that were deemed reliable, even by law enforcement officials.

But if Mothman was real... and he truly was some unidentified creature that cannot be explained, what was behind the UFO sightings, the poltergeist reports, the strange lights, sounds, the “men in black” and most horrifying, the collapse of the Silver Bridge?

John Keel believes that Point Pleasant was a “window” area, a place that was marked by long periods of strange sightings, monster reports and the coming and going of unusual persons. He states that it may be wrong to blame the collapse of the bridge on the local UFO sightings, but the intense activity in the area at the time does suggest some sort of connection. Others have pointed to another supernatural link to the strange happenings, blaming the events on the legendary Cornstalk Curse that was placed on Point Pleasant in the 1770's. (Click Here to Discover the details about the Cornstalk Curse)

And if such things can happen in West Virginia, then why not elsewhere in the country? Can these “window” areas explain other phantom attackers, mysterious creatures, mad gassers and more that have been reported all over America? Perhaps they can, but to consider this, we have to consider an even more chilling question... where will the next “window” area be? It might be of benefit to study your local sightings and weird events a little more carefully in the future!
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Here's some information about the movie...

The Mothman Prophecies (film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mothman_Prophecies_(film)

The Mothman Prophecies is a 2002 psychological horror film directed by Mark Pellington, based on the 1975 book of the same name by parapsychologist and Fortean author John Keel. The screenplay was written by Richard Hatem. The film stars Richard Gere as John Klein, a reporter who researches the legend of the Mothman.

The film claims to be based on actual events that occurred between November 1966 and December 1967 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Critical reviews were mixed, but the film was a modest financial success.

Reception

The Mothman Prophecies received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports 52% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based on 135 reviews, with a rating of 5.5/10.[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it two stars out of four, calling it "unfocused" and "meandering," but praised the direction by Mark Pellington "whose command of camera, pacing and the overall effect is so good, it deserves a better screenplay." [5]

Differences from the book

The film adaptation of The Mothman Prophecies concentrates more on the personal stories and personalities of the characters and less on the investigation of UFOs and other strange phenomena upon which much of the book is based. Also, it is set in the modern day rather than in the 1960s, when the alleged sightings of the Mothman entity occurred.

The majority of the characters are also re-imagined. All have been renamed and in some cases, several characters have been merged into one or altered in some other way. Several have been removed entirely, such as the newspaper editor Mary Hyre, although her death somewhat mirrors that of one of the characters in the movie. The Men in Black, or “MIBs,” in the book are removed; Indrid Cold, a relatively benign being in the book, is something more sinister in the film; and the Mothman itself rarely appears in the film. Instead, it is used to evoke subtle notes of supernatural horror for the filmgoer, versus functioning as the central, mysterious and provocative character as in the book.

Differences from Fact

In reality, 46 people died in the collapse of the Silver Bridge, not 36. Also, the film's claim at the end credits of the collapse of the Silver Bridge never being explained is incorrect; the incident was found to be caused by the failure of an eye-bar in a suspension chain.[6]

Home media

Mothman Prophecies was released on DVD on June 2002, with a two-disc Special Edition DVD set released later, in May 2003.[7]
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you forgot that stupid episode of monster hunters

History Channel Wrote:
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> you forgot that stupid episode of monster hunters
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More like "Quack Hunters".

The Mothman

In 1966, the residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia witnessed many strange and terrifing things. Little did they know that it was all leading up to a tragic event that would change their lives forever.

The Story begins on November 12, near Clendenin, West Virginia. Five men were in a local cemetery preparing a grave for a burial, when something that looked like a brown human being lifted off from some nearby trees and flew over their heads. The men were baffled. It did not appear to be a bird, but more like a human with wings.

November 15 - At 11:30 pm two young couples from Point Pleasant, Mr. and Mrs. Scarberry and Mr. and Mrs. Mallette, were driving through the TNT area of the old West Virgina Ordnance Works. They were looking for friends, but no one was out that night. All of the twisted back roads were deserted and the few houses amoung the Igloos were dark. As they pulled along side the old generator plant, Linda Scarberry gasped. They all looked into the darkness and saw two big bright red eyes, which were two inches in diameter and six inches apart. As the car stopped the eyes bobbed away from the building and they could now see they were attached to a some huge animal. They then sped away and shot through the gate, spun onto the exit road and headed for route 62. Suddenly they saw the creature again, standing on a small hill next to the road. As they drove past it spread it's batlike wings and took off straight up into the air. They were driving 100 mph and the red eyed monster kept up with them, without ever flapping it's wings. Panic-stricken they went directly to the Mason County Courthouse, charged into the Sheriff's office and reported their unbelievable encounter.

November 16 - Mr. and Mrs. Wamsley, Mrs. Bernett and her baby daughter were on their way to visit the Thomases who lived in a bungalow back amoung the Igloos. When they arrived they only found three of the Thomas children at home. After exchanging a few words, they headed back to their car. Suddenly a figure moved in the darkness behind the car. It seemed to be lying down and it rose slowly from the ground. The creature was grey and big, bigger than a man, with terrible glowing red eyes. Mrs. Bennette let out a cry, she was so horrified that she dropped her small baby. The child started to cry, but the mother was paralyzed and unable to move. She stood hypnotized by the blazing red eyes on top of the towering, headless, creature. It's wings slowly unfolded behind it's back. Mr. Wemsley grabbed the woman and her child and they all ran back into the house, and bolted the door. There was a sound on the porch and the two red eyes peered in through the window. Mr. Wemsley called the police but by the time they arrived the monster had vanished.

November 17 - A 17 year old boy was driving down route 7 near Cheshire, Ohio when a huge bird suddenly dove at his car and pursued him for a mile or so.

November 18 - Two firemen from Point Pleasant, Paul Yoder and Benjamin Enochs, were in the TNT area when they encountered a giant bird with big red eyes.

November 20 - Five teenagers were driving along Campbells Creek when they recieved the shock of their lives. Their headlights bounced off a man sized birdlike creature standing beside a rock quarry. It turned and scurried into the woods.






An elderly businessman in Point Pleasant found mothman standing on his front lawn. He stepped outside to see why his dog was barking and confronted a six or seven foot tall grey apparition with flaming red eyes. He stood transfixed for several minutes, unaware of the passage of time. Suddenly the creature flew off and he staggered back into his house. He was so pale and shaken that his wife thought he was having a heart attack.



November 24 - Four people, two adults and two children were driving past the TNT area when they saw a giant flying creature with red eyes.

November 25 - At 7:15 am Thomas Ury was driving along route 62, just north of the TNT area when he noticed a tall, grey manlike figure standing by the road. Suddenly it spread a pair of wings and took off straight up, like a helicopter. The creature flew over the car and began to circle. Mr. Ury sped away at a speed of 75 mph, with the red eyed phantom still flying above his car. Mr. Ury rushed into Point Pleasant and went straight to the Sheriff's office, still in shock.

November 26 - A woman in St. Albans a suburb of Charleston, West Virginia found Mothman standing on her lawn. It was standing beside her porch. It was fall with big red eyes that popped out of it's face.

November 27 - Mothman chased young Connie Carpenter near mason, West Virginia golf course. It also made an appearence that evening in St. Albans. Sheila Cain and her sister were walking home from the store when they saw and enormous "something" standing next to a local junk yard. It was grey, seven feet tall and had big red eyes. The girls screamed and ran home. The creature flew up in the air and followed them part of the way.

Below: One of the hundred Igloos found at the West Virignia Ordnance Works.
Attachments:

Strange lights in the Sky
http://www.exploringtheunexplained.com/mothman.htm

Even before the first sighting of Mothman, the sky over the Ohio river valley had strange things flying around it. Every night these colored lights in the sky would invade the area. These UFO's seemed to follow the same flight pattern night after night, drawing people from far and wide. Not everyone was excited about the UFO presence, a good majority of the residents in the Ohio river valley were terrified. There were many reports of strange events associated with the arrival of these mysterious visitors.

UFO's chasing vehicles - Not long after the first UFO sighting, reports began about vehicles being chased at hight speed. In some cases the UFO would land infront of the vehicle and engage the driver in conversation. The occupant of the UFO would ask very simple and strange questions, such as what the time was, who the drivers were and where they came from. No information of real importance was obtained. The occupants were described as human looking, wearing strange clothing and very weird behavior.

Power outages & phone manipulation - Often when UFO's were sighted, strange power outages, blown transformers, and damage to electrical appliances were reported. Also vehicles would completely lose power and anyone attempting to photograph the UFO's would experience camera malfunctions. Many UFO witnesses have reported recieving phone calls that when answered there would be no one on the line, beeping noises, mechanical voices or loud squeaking sounds.

Animal mutilation & disappearances - Ranchers began to notice their cattle missing or they would find them dead in the pastures. The dead cattle would be drained of blood and missing their eyes, tounge and organs. Dogs and other small animals were disappearing all over the river valley. The owners would see strange lights in the sky just before they vanished without a trace.

Many of the UFO witnesses reported feeling paralyzing fear at the time of their encounter and suffered from horrible nightmares for weeks after their incidents.

The Men in Black
http://www.exploringtheunexplained.com/mothman.htm

UFO witnesses and a local Point Pleasant reporter began to recieve visits and phone calls from strange men in black. These men would pretend to be Air Force officers, police officers, salesmen, reporters and ufologist to gain entry to witnesses homes. They would obtain information about the witness and their family, then warn against telling anyone about seeing the UFO's. These men in black were all described as having dark skin, pointy features, possibly oriental. They would wear clothing that did not fit properly and was not appropriate for the weather. They are all described as wearing shoes with very thick soles. They speak in a very sing-song manner, almost mechanical and in most cases have trouble speaking clearly. The majority of the people who have encountered these mysterious men all reported that they drive older black cars with blacked out windows. The vehicle would look brand new, even though they were several years old.

The Cornstalk Curse
http://www.exploringtheunexplained.com/mothman.htm

Almost two hundred years before Mothman was first sighted in Point Pleasant, the land around the Ohio river ran red with blood. As the residents of the American colonies began to travel west, they entered into war with the Native American inhabitants of the land. One of their most worthy advisaries was Chief Cornstalk, who later became an ally of the Colonials. Treachery, deception and murder would bring an end to the Chief's life and begin the Legend of the Cornstalk curs

Seven Native American tribes formed an alliance to keep the white man from invading their territory. The Shawnee were the most powerful of the tribes and we lead by a feared and respected Chief named "Keigh-tugh-gua", which translates to "Cornstalk". As the Settlers continued to move further and further onto Native American land, the tribes began to make preperations to attack the white settlers near Point Pleasant. Word of the impending attack reached the Colonial Military leaders, troops were dispatched and a bloody battle ensued. The Native American tribes were no match for the Colonial troops and their muskets. The battle ended with 140 Colonial Soldiers killed and more than double the number of Native American Warriors. The tribes retreated west into Ohio. The Colonials then constructed a fort to protect the Settlers from further attacks.

As time passed Chief Cornstalk made peace with the Colonials. In 1777, he would send word to his new friends about the British coaxing the tribes into attacking the rebellious Colonials. The tribes began to mass along the Ohio river, intent on attacking the fort. Cornstalk did not desire to make war with the Colonials and he went to the fort on November 7, to negotiate peace. Before the war began Cornstalk told Captain Arbuckle, who was the Garrison Commander, that he was opposed to war but only he and his tribe were holding back from battle. He was afraid he may have no other choice. Cornstalk admitted to the Commander that he would allow his men to fight if the other tribes went to war.

The Commander took Cornstalk and two other men hostage. The Colonials believed they could use the great Chief to keep the other tribes from attacking. Their plan worked as the tribes would not risk putting the respected Chief in danger. Although being a hostage, Cornstalk and the two other men were treated well and were given comfortable quarters, leading many people to wonder if the Chief was a hostage or part of the plan to prevent war.

On November 9, Cornstalk's son came to the fort to visit his father and was also detained. The following day two soldiers out deer hunting were attacked, with one of the men being killed. When his corpse was brought back to the fort, the other Soldiers were enraged. Acting against orders, they broke into the quarters where Cornstalk and the other men were being held. Even though these men had nothing to do with the Soldiers death, they were executed out of revenge. As the Soldiers burst throught the door, Cornstalk rose to meet them. He stood facing the Soldiers with such bravery that they had to pause momentarily before shooting him eight times. His son and the two other men were then killed right before his eyes. As the great Chief layed on the floor dying he placed a curse on the land. He looked up at the murderers and said: "I was the borderman's friend. Many times I have saved him and his people from harm. I never warred with you, but only to protect our lands I refused to join your enemies in the red coats. I came to the fort as your friend and you murdered me, you have murdered by my side my young son. For this may the curse of the Great Spirit rest upon this land. May it be blighted by nature, may it be blighted in its hopes. May the strength of it's people be paralyzed by the stain of our blood". After speaking these words he died. The bodies of the other men were dumped into the river, but Cornstalk was buried near the fort on Point Pleasant over looking the river.

In 1794, the town of Point Pleasant was established near the site of the old fort. Cornstalk's remains were removed in 1840 and placed on the grounds of the Mason County Courthouse. In the late 1950's the Chiefs remains were moved one last time to Point Pleasants Tu-endie-wei park.
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Tragic Events Blamed on the Cornstalk Curse

1907-The worst coal mine disaster in american history took place in Monongah, west Virginia on December 6, when 310 miners were killed.

1944-In June, 150 people were killed when a tornado through the tri-state area.

1967-On December 15, the Silver Bridge collapsed killing 46 people and injuring 9.

1968-A piedmont Airlines plane crashed near Kanawha Airport, killing 35 people.

1970-On November 14, a Southern Airways DC-10 crashed into a mountain near Huntington, West Virginia killing 75 people.

1976-In March there was an explosion at the Mason County Jail in Point pleasant. Harriet Sisk was under arrest for the murder of her infant daughter. On March 02, her husband came into the jail with a suitcase full of explosives. Both the Sisk's were killed, along with three law enforcement staff.

1978-In January, a freight train derailed at Point Pleasant, dumping thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals. The chemicals contaminated the towns water supply and the wells had to be abandoned.

1978-In April of the same year, the town of St. Mary's was struck with tragedy when 51 men who were working on the Willow Island Power Plant were killed when their construction scaffolding collapsed.

Is the Cornstalk Curse responsible for all these tragic deaths?

There is one last thing to consider. Did Chief Cornstalk summon an old Native Spirit known as the Thunderbird?

Could the creature known as Mothman really be the great Thunderbird Spirit that is found in cave drawings and Native American Legends for hundreds of years?

You decide.
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I have a friend from Point Pleasant. And I have a mothman t-shirt.

luvsmesomemothman Wrote:
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> I have a friend from Point Pleasant. And I have a
> mothman t-shirt.

Hey, take a pic and post it. We'd love to see it!
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