Mothman
A winged, red-eyed creature reported around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966, now the town's best-known legend.
Meaning
On 16 November 1966 the Point Pleasant Register reported that two local couples had met a "man-sized, bird-like creature" in the TNT area north of town about midnight. Steve Mallette and Roger Scarberry described it as six or seven feet tall, with a wingspan of 10 feet and red eyes about two inches across and six inches apart (New Hampshire Union Leader; West Virginia Public Broadcasting).
Origin and history
The Register's Mary Hyre wrote ten columns about what she called the Mason County monster before the end of 1966, long before anyone called it Mothman (West Virginia Public Broadcasting).
What did the witnesses see?
Within a fortnight there was a candidate. On 1 December 1966 Robert Smith, a wildlife biologist at West Virginia University, told the Associated Press that the descriptions all fitted a sandhill crane that had strayed from its migration route: a bird almost as tall as a man, with a wingspan of more than seven feet and bare reddish skin around its eyes (Snopes). The Register asked the same question in a headline: "Is Mysterious Creature Balloon Or Crane?" (West Virginia Public Broadcasting).
The investigator Joe Nickell later argued for owls, whose eyes shine red in a light, and settled on the barred owl, which a wildlife manager at the McClintic area on the old TNT site told him was common there (Skeptical Inquirer, 2002).
See also
Flatwoods monster, Kraken, Sea serpent, Loch Ness Monster, Champ (Lake Champlain monster), Bigfoot (Sasquatch).
Sources
- 'Couples see man-sized bird...creature...something!' (New Hampshire Union Leader), New Hampshire Union Leader, Back Page, on the 55th anniversary of the first report, New Hampshire Union Leader
- From Mothman To The Silver Bridge: 13 Months In The Life Of A Local Journalist (West Virginia Public Broadcasting), Eric Douglas, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, 20 October 2025, West Virginia Public Broadcasting
- 'Mothman' Returns to Point Pleasant, West Virginia? (Snopes), Snopes, Snopes
- Mothman Revisited: Investigating on Site (Skeptical Inquirer, 2002), Joe Nickell, Skeptical Briefs 12.4, 2 December 2002, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
Last reviewed September 28, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research