A West Virginia hunter believes he has captured the legendary “Mothman” creature on-camera, WCHS-TV (Charleston, West Virginia) is reporting .
The “Mothman” has been sighted around the Ohio/West Virginia border area for a few decades. Like Bigfoot or Champ (a creature believed to inhabit Lake Champlain, between Vermont and New York), Mothman is a “cryptid” — one of those mythological creatures that are rumored to exist but is not accepted scientific fact. Unlike Bigfoot and Champ and other cryptids, who just seem to go about their business and not bother anyone, the Mothman has an air of evil about him. But more on that in a few paragraphs.
On Sunday night, a hunter, who has asked not to be identified, said he was driving around in a wooded area when he saw something jumping from tree to tree. He pulled out his cell phone and snapped a picture of what he says is the legendary Mothman.
Mothman 4B (our final part) is up. Commercial free. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Photo:Sighted in PP a few days ago. https://t.co/NFqkvDxOH4 pic.twitter.com/hTsrtPiYNR
— Scott Philbrook (@AstonshngLegnds) November 22, 2016
The creature appears to have a round head, like a humanoid, plus two wings and “legs” bent at an odd angle extending behind it. It also appears to be a bird with two broken tail feathers behind it, caught at an angle that makes its avian head look round.
Around the West Virginia/Ohio border, particularly the towns of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, the Mothman has been a local legend for decades. Described as looking humanoid with black wings and red eyes, he’s been spotted around the area since 1966. In fact, he’s something of a tourist draw in the area, with the town of Point Pleasant even putting up a statue of him downtown.
A statue of the infamous Mothman in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first si… pic.twitter.com/8lDe8e7NnR
— El Reipan (@ElReipan) November 15, 2016
However, the Mothman isn’t just a joke or a mascot to bring in tourists. The Mothman legend is tied closely to death and horror, and even today, he’s viewed as a portent of doom.
Beginning in November of 1966 — 50 years ago this month — people around Point Pleasant started reporting seeing and sometimes hearing the creature that would later become known as the Mothman. According to Blumhouse , encounters with the terrifying creature continued until December 15, 1967 .
As the sun was setting over the Ohio River on December 15, 1967, as rush hour traffic clogged the Silver Bridge linking the towns of Point Pleasant and Gallipolis, the bridged collapsed. As the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported, 75 vehicles plunged into the icy Ohio River below. Forty-six people died in the tragedy, either dying from the impact, drowning, or dying of hypothermia as rescuers tried frantically to get to them. Two of their bodies were never found.
The cause of the disaster was later determined to be a result of a mechanical failure combined with poor maintenance.
The entire sequence of events was immortalized in John Keel’s 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies , which was itself turned into a 2002 movie starring Richard Gere.
The sightings of the Mothman leading up to the disaster gave rise to the notion that the being either foretold or perhaps even caused the disaster. Now, legend holds that the appearance of the Mothman is a portent of doom. He’s even rumored to have been seen around Lower Manhattan during the events of September 11, 2001.
@A_denjohn MOTHMAN DID 9/11 pic.twitter.com/52UBqMFL6t
— ghoul (@okaykevn) April 27, 2016
[Featured Image by Jason Cornell /Shutterstock]
