Mothman

From TinWiki.org

Artistic rendition of the Mothman entity.

The Mothman is the name given to a being reported in the Charleston and Point Pleasant areas of West Virginia. The creature was sighted numerous times between 15 November 1966 near Clendenin, West Virginia; and December 1967, shortly after the famous collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River.

The first recorded sighting of the creature has been somewhat romanticised by the plaque displayed on the statue portraying it in Point Pleasant: "On a chilly, fall night in November 1966, two young couples drove into the TNT area north of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, when they realized they were not alone." The "TNT" area in question is the abandoned West Virginia Ordinance Works, which had manufactured TNT during World War II, and would incidentally become the center of several Mothman sightings.

An earlier, unverified sighting of the Mothman is given as an incident involving five men preparing a grave for burial, when "something" rose from the trees nearby and flew above them. These men described it as a ' brown humanoid being', like a man with wings.

The name "Mothman" was coined by an Ohio newspaper copyeditor who used the name as a play off of the name "Batman", after the DC Comics superhero.

1 Theories
2 External links
- 2.1 Relevant discussion threads

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Theories

From the time the Mothman made its first appearance, there has been much speculation as to its nature and origins.[1] Among some of the examples:

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Magic/Vampirism

Around the time the Mothman made his first appearance there were reported deaths of family pets and farm animals. The deaths were a classic sign of the talked about cattle mutilation i.e. organs removed, no spilled blood, just like a surgical procedure. There were no signs of footprints leading to or from the animals. Many people around that time supplied the theory that they were sacrificed to raise the Mothman up from the depths. It was thought that the deaths of so many animals were because the Mothman needed some sort of physical substance to create shape like human or animal blood suggesting it was some sort of vampire.

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Cornstalk Curse

The Governor of Virginia at the time, Lord Dunmore, was a British Loyalist just before the American Revolution. It has been thought that he betrayed both the Virginia militiamen and Native American confederation and got them in to a major fight on October 10, 1774 with each other, this took place on the land that is now reputed to be that of Point Pleasant. The chief of the native Americans Hokolesqua or Chief Cornstalk as he was known was under the illusion that he was coming to sign a peace treaty but was killed in an ambush it has been reported that he was meant to have cursed the people and this land for the next 200 years, this fueled the debate on the many unfortunate occurrences which happened during that time span. This included major floods, and severe fires that seemed to plague the downtown through the years, up through a cowardly, murderous hostage situation at the Mason County Courthouse in 1976. And of course, the collapse of the Silver Bridge on December 15, 1968. A related theory maintains that Red Hawk, Cornstalk's sub chief, returned to the area to warn people of danger, just as he had done in 1777, in the form of a red hawk. Many people indeed reported that they felt the creature was trying to tell them something.

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Hysteria

There are those who feel that the Mothman was a product of hysteria surrounding the collapse of the Silver Bridge. Some time lines place the Mothman sightings after the collapse of the bridge, and not before. This allows for people's judgment being poorer than usual from being understandably upset and distraught over the recent catastrophe. These theories often involve John A. Keel, author of “The Mothman Prophecies”, arriving in town after the collapse and sightings, and intentionally creating confusion about the order of events. With so much uncertainty as to the timing of events, he was able to pick and choose from deliberately tainted eyewitness accounts and assemble his book as he saw fit; allowing for a nonfiction book to be assembled largely from the imagination of John Keel. Some locals who subscribe to this theory think very poorly of Mr. Keel for taking advantage of a traumatized community.

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Sandhill Cranes

Some believe the Mothman sightings were mostly people seeing Sandhill Cranes. Sandhill Cranes can stand over 5 feet tall, larger than any other bird in the area. These birds are not common as far east as Point Pleasant; but have a migratory range from Florida, through much of the United States, Canada, and all the way up to Siberia. Sighting one anywhere in North America is not unthinkable. The size of the birds and terrific sound their wings make in flight can give the immediate impression that the bird is very out of place. They have also been reported to follow people and vehicles, behavior exhibited by the Mothman. Detractors of this theory point to the crane's long neck; the Mothman was reported to have no neck and glowing red eyes below the level of its shoulders, features not seen in Sandhill Cranes.

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