This weekend (September 14, 2012) is the 10th
anniversary of the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. I am pleased to be part of the speaker lineup
again this year, and if you are able I highly recommend attending this free
fest. Mothman’s fame may be in West
Virginia, but Canada certainly is part of this creature’s world itinerary. Sightings occur worldwide, and have for a
very long time.
If you are not familiar with this cryptid, here are some
basics. First and foremost, know that
not everyone considers Mothman a cryptid.
Some believe he is thoroughly paranormal, some believe he is alien, and
skeptics have both pooh-poohed the sightings and attributed them to barn owls
or sand hill cranes. Most witness
descriptions place him at 4 to 6 feet and human shaped, having a shiny dark
grey or black skin, batlike wings, and large glowing red eyes. He is able to fly without flapping his wings,
take off and land vertically, and has sharp fingernails.
In 2002, the motion picture “The Mothman Prophecies”
starring Richard Gere was released by Lakeshore Entertainment and Director Mark
Pellington. Most people have,
unfortunately, gotten their information from this film. Based on the book by John Keel, the movie
describes some of the event of the mid 1960’s in Point Pleasant and the Mothman
involvement. While an entertaining film,
it is so factually incorrect and veers so far from the original book, that
witnesses and locals in the Point Pleasant area tend to avoid any association
with it.
Any serious researcher should purchase and study the books
by Jeff Wamsley on the subject. While
not a witness himself, he has collected newspaper accounts and police reports
and real evidence from the period. Additionally, Wamsley runs the local “Mothman
Museum” and is instrumental in the planning and execution of the yearly
festival. His books are called Mothman:
Behind the Red Eyes, and Mothman: The Facts Behind the Legend
(written with Donnie Sergent, Jr.) and are available at Amazon.
Mothman reports have come in from many countries. Viet Nam, Mexico, and The Ukraine have
notable sighting reports. Native American
cave art depicts drawings of creatures quite similar to Mothman as well. He has
also been sighted just before other major world disasters including explosion, the Tsunamis in India and Japan,
Afghanistan and Iraq, and in New York on September the 11th.
In Canada, there are but a few sightings thought to be
attributable to Mothman. One witness
reports that in August of 2007 in Ontario, Canada, heard a loud rustling sound
in some tall grass. When the creature emerged it is described as having large,
bright red eyes. The creature was about seven feet tall, black shiny skin that
looked like a bat's, long arms that reached almost to the ground, and a
wingspan of about eight feet wide. It let out a loud blood-curdling screech and
the witnesses ran. A police report was
filed but never taken seriously. Later the same night the witness heard a
scratching sound on the window and went to see what it was and it was the tall,
dark creature peering in the living room window. Two weeks after the
occurrence, the house had burned down.
Similar stories trickle in from across Canada. Sightings have occurred from Dawson City,
Yukon, to CFB Gagetown near Frederickton, New Brunswick. As a West Virginia native and Mothman witness
myself, I ask that if you (yourself, not via heresay) have seen this creature,
please contact me. I have research
ongoing.
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