Mothman legend lives on

The legend behind the infamous winged creature known as Mothman began 43 years ago this Sunday in November 1966 when two young couples saw something they would never forget.
When Steve and Mary Mallette and David and Linda Scarberry turned onto a dirt road on the outskirts of Point Pleasant, W.Va., and traveled through an area known as TNT, named for an abandoned World War II TNT factory, the foursome came face-to-face with the creature, said Jeff Wamsley, author of two Mothman books, Mothman museum creator and director of the Mothman festival. The account of what they saw that day started a craze that has since swept the city of Point Pleasant, the nation and the world.
While joyriding through the heavily wooded area, the couples saw two red lights in the distance they simply passed off as shadows from a nearby power plant. Moments later, however, those lights began to move toward them at a rapid pace.
What they saw next, according to reports, were the eyes of an enormous creature that looked like a man with wings in its back. The creature chased them in their car exceeding speeds of 100 miles per hour.
They claimed to have escaped when the creature became distracted by a dead dog on the side of the road. The following day, they were unable to find the creature.
On the same night, Newell Partridge, a Salem W.Va. resident, also reported strange sightings on his property. His TV began showing strange patterns on the screen, and he heard terrible noises coming from outside. He said his dog began howling from the porch.
Partridge went outside to investigate and reportedly saw the same red-eyed creature. When Partridge's dog, Bandit, saw the creature, he ran after it and the dog was never seen again.
Partridge learned the next day the same creature was seen later that evening 90 miles away in the TNT area and he believed Bandit was the dog the couples saw.
Wamsley said over the next year more than 100 reports of a "bird-like" creature began popping up all over the city. He said there were probably around 100 more sightings at the same time that went unreported because of the skepticism of the event.
Sparse sightings have since occurred.   
This story caught on internationally with the help of a movie. The 2002 movie entitled "The Mothman Prophecies" was directed by Mark Pellington and written by John A. Keel, an avid researcher on the Mothman, and Richard Hatem.
Delyssa Huffman, Point Pleasant resident and chairwoman for the Mothman Festival, said she does not want to see the movie because it is disliked by most residents of the area.
"Everyone always says that it's not accurate and that there is something that has to do with chap-stick and I have no idea what that is about," Huffman said.
Wamsley agrees with Huffman.
"Of course when the movie came out people got different angles on it and everything, so I tell people that come into the museum that the real story is a lot scarier than what the movie was," Wamsley said.  
The creature is also associated with the worst disaster in Point Pleasant's history, the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The event happened Dec. 15, 1967 when a bridge that spanned the Ohio River collapsed during rush-hour traffic.
More than 45 cars fell into the icy water in less than a minute. According to Dorsal Plants, former resident of Point Pleasant, 46 lives were lost and she said the bridge failure was because of a defect in an eyebar. However, some say the Mothman was sighted under the bridge moments before it collapsed.
The Mothman has been linked to a curse on the town of Point Pleasant and has been associated with 83 deaths so far.
Sightings of the creature have also been reported in London, Liverpool, Mexico and several places in the U.S. and around the world. Each report has been linked to the occurrence of a major event.
The most recent sighting was in Mexico where the Swine Flu pandemic began. Loren Coleman, reporter for Wireless Flash News Inc., said the Mothman can "sense viruses."
Wamsley said most scientists dismiss the creature as nothing more than a large bird such as a sandhill crane. This specific type of bird has red patches on its head.
Plants said other things may be to blame for Mothman sightings. When the Mothman legend was just taking off, Plant said he was approached by an out-of-town man looking for the TNT area in search for the creature.
"As it turns out, we got out to the TNT area," Plants said. "It was very, very late at night. One of my friends happened to have a flashlight with a red lens cap and as it turns out, at the right moment a huge red light came shining on. We all screamed it was the Mothman. We all took off running including the guy with the cameras, and we never seen him since."  
Despite touring the TNT area, Huffman said she is convinced they just saw a large bird.
The name changed from "bird-like" to Mothman when an Ohio newspaper used the term, and it has been used ever since.
Despite what scientists say, the people of Point Pleasant dismiss the possibility of just a large bird and are still exploring the Mothman legend.
The legend is being used in the city of Point Pleasant as a main theme for tourism and has caused the city to grow beyond expectations, Wamsley said.
"It has been a good launching board for other things that are in Point Pleasant," Wamsley said. "Not too many small towns like us have that kind of a calling card, you know, to get people to come and look around and stuff."
Point Pleasant is home to the world's only Mothman Museum, Mothman Statue, guided tours of the TNT area and the Mothman Festival.

Heather Crum can be contacted at crum41@marshall.edu.