On a cold midnight on November 15, 1966, the cold war was still brewing a chill down everyone’s spines; Ronald Reagan was chosen governor of California, Lunar Orbiter 2 was launched into space, and two couples inside one car drove down State Road 62. The lot of them were responsible adults, the duo of men and women with few distractions besides each other. Against a backdrop of pitch-black woodland, they’d be neighboring a long-abandoned weapon testing facility, the TNT Dome. They might have been talking about recent sports, town gossip, whose house they were deciding to park at, but not much of anything would compare to when the driver and owner of the vehicle, Roger Scarberry, slammed the breaks to a pair of red eyes shining in the headlights. 

Thus, Point Pleasant got its own resident horror that would take the world by storm. 

West Virginia is not absent of its monsters, ranging from the silly Vegetable-Man to the sole dragon of North America, the Snallygaster, and lest we forget the headless Grafton Monster... but this newcomer, making their start in the small town on the far west end of Mason county, stood by and large the tallest, casting its shadow over all of West Virginia. Not only that, but it also took cryptozoology by the throat, effectively standing toe-to-toe with Bigfoot and Nessie. But the Loch Ness monster had a 33-year head start; Sasquatch in 1811. What makes Mothman so popular in the eyes of Americans despite the lateness?

Well, besides being allegedly named after one of Batman’s rogues by an anonymous reporter, and lying in the middle ground of tangible and fantastical, it took on a far more real form than most things lurking in the shadows. Unlike most monsters in North America, Mothman demanded attention. 

Since their first appearance, locals of Point Pleasant fell into hysterics, pointing fingers at every dark and dreary bird minding its own business, or any indistinct object drawing attention with its appearance. The town was caught in moth-mania, with upwards of a hundred people making reports on the skyward fiend, averaging about one report every four days for the next year or so. Many proposed sightings, however, came from children’s books, or eye-witness accounts without names attached. Regardless, these accounts ranged from mere sightings of it passing by, to the extreme, attacking teenagers in their cars. All eventually culminating in Mothman’s most infamous appearance, where not once was the monster actually seen.

Silver Bridge, December 15, 1967, exactly 13 months after the original sighting, the connecting bridge of West Virgina and Ohio collapsed, taking 46 with it. 13, as a number, holds major significance to cultures around the world, and in this instance, would’ve fallen into the category of “bad luck.” Though the tragedy was brought on by a defective link in the bridge's construction, leading to its collapse, it did not stop some people from making connections.

One John Keel, author of The Mothman Prophecies, would be responsible for the theory that Mothman was, in fact, an omen of disaster, foretelling great tragedies of humanity... Alongside also labelling it as an alien and connected to government cover-ups. The man was a ufologist foremost. But with a new mythos constructed around the monster, what once was just a terror of West Virginia now took roost in branches all over America.

Mothman is a household name, and today, despite never being seen again after its painful crescendo nearly 60 years ago, cryptid-hunters, sightseers, and the average horror-enthusiast still find themselves intrigued with this... thing. Books, movies, documentaries, TV shows, and games feature its near-featureless mug, it’s the subject of creatives looking to take new spins on the original idea, but above all, it has no bigger fan than Point Pleasant itself. With its alleged home becoming a tourist attraction, a statue made in its likeness, and a whole museum built to preserve its legacy, tribute has been given to the monster. 

Why do people like Mothman? It isn’t everyday a small town has its own resident monster, but Mothman stands out. It wasn’t a one-time sighting in the fog, or two, it was a year of terror that followed everyone, and left its scars deep, culminating in tragedy it can never be separated from. Unlike other monsters of America, it wanted to be known.

SOURCES

“Couples See Man-Sized Bird ... Creature ... Something.” Point Pleasant Register, 16 Nov. 1966, https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/couples-see-man-sized-bird-creature-something-55th-anniversary-of-mothmans-appearance/article_29d2777a-b499-53cd-b0ad-318b1fd955df.html. Accessed 25 Dec. 2021.

Keel, John A. The Mothman Prophecies. Tor, 2013.

Mallow, Gwen. “An Ode to a Hometown Creature: Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia.” Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, 7 June 2021, folklife.si.edu/magazine/mothman-point-pleasant-west-virginia.

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Maddox Charles Gordon Morphy is an aspiring writer and artist from Ottawa, on a constant hunt for those strange and enthralling things. A student at Algonquin College for Professional Writing, he is early in his career of traversing avenues unexplored by more prevalent authors. Despite his lack of time in the field, he’s already pushed himself to take on the the difficulties ahead with grace. Here’s hoping to a long career!