Post by Tyrant Cecelia on Oct 27, 2006 15:08:09 GMT -5
Mothman was the name given to a strange creature sighted many times in the Charleston and Point Pleasant areas of West Virginia between November 1966 and December 1967. Some observers described the creature as a man-sized beast with wings and large reflective red eyes, while others claimed that the creature possessed luminous eyes. A number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain what people reported, ranging from paranormal phenomena to owls.
History
The Mothman creature, named in parallel to the villian "Killer Moth" in the Batman TV series that was popular at the time, was first sighted November 12, 1966. A group of five men were preparing a grave in a cemetery close to Clendenin, West Virginia when what they described as a "brown human shape with wings" lifted off from behind nearby trees and flew over their heads. However, this sighting was not made public until later, and the first sighting described in the media took place three days later.
Late at night on November 15, two young married couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, were out for a drive in the Scarberrys' car. They were passing a World War II TNT factory about seven miles outside of Point Pleasant, in the 2,500 acre (10 km²) McClintic Wildlife Station, when they noticed two red lights in the shadow by an old generator plant near the gate of the factory. They stopped the car and were startled to see that the lights were the glowing red eyes of a large animal, "shaped like a man, but bigger, maybe six and a half or seven feet tall, with big wings folded against its back," according to Roger Scarberry. Terrified, the couples drove off in their car, heading for Route 62. Going down the exit road, they saw the creature again, standing on a ridge near the road. It spread its wings and took off, following their car to the city limits. They went to the Mason County courthouse and told their story to Deputy Millard Halstead, who later said "I've known these kids all their lives. They'd never been in any trouble and they were really scared that night. I took them seriously." He followed Roger Scarberry's car back to the TNT factory, but found no sign of the strange creature. According to the book Alien Animals, by Janet Board, a poltergeist attack on the Scarberry home took place later that night, in which the creature was seen several times.
The next night, November 16, local townspeople, armed, went searching the area around the old TNT plant for signs of Mothman. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wamsley and Mrs. Marcella Bennett with her baby daughter Teena were in a car on their way to visit their friends, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Thomas, who lived in a bungalow among the "igloos" (concrete dome-shaped structures erected for explosives storage during WWII) close to the TNT plant. The igloos were now empty, some owned by the county, some by companies intending to use them for storage. They were headed back to their car when a figure appeared behind their parked car. Mrs. Bennett said it seemed like it had been lying down, slowly rising up from the ground, large and gray, with glowing red eyes. While Wamsley phoned the police, the creature walked onto the porch and peered in through the window at them.
On November 24, four people saw it flying through the air over the TNT area. On the morning of November 25, Thomas Ury, who was driving along Route 62 north of the TNT, who said he saw the creature standing in a field by the road, then spread its wings and took off, following his car as he sped into Point Pleasant to report it to the sheriff.
On November 26, Mrs. Ruth Foster of Charleston, West Virginia saw Mothman standing on her front lawn, but it was gone when her brother-in-law went out to look. On the morning of November 27, it pursued a young woman near Mason, West Virginia, and was reported again in St. Albans the same night, by two children.
The Mothman was seen again January 11, 1967, and several times during 1967. Fewer sightings of the Mothman were reported after the collapse of the Silver Bridge, when 46 people died. The Silver Bridge, so named for its aluminum paint, was an eyebar chain suspension bridge that connected the cities of Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Gallipolis, Ohio over the Ohio River. It was built in 1928 and collapsed on December 15, 1967; investigation of the wreckage pointed to the failure of a single eye-bar in a suspension chain due to a small flaw when it was made.
Reports of Mothman sightings and events continue to this day. Instances of "strange flying creatures" and "winged men" have been reported in many American states as well as across the globe in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including supposed sightings in Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986, shortly before the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.
Analysis
1976 British edition of The Mothman Prophecies.There are several theories for what the Mothman phenomena involved.
A large collection of first-hand material about Mothman is found in John Keel's 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies[1], in which Keel lays out the chronology of Mothman and what he claims to be related parapsychological events in the area, including UFO activity, Men in Black encounters, poltergeist activity, Bigfoot and black panther sightings, animal and human mutilations, precognitions by witnesses, and the December 15, 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River.
Keel's first book was the basis of a 2002 movie of the same name, starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney and Debra Messing, directed by Mark Pellington. A companion book called The Eighth Tower was also released in 1975, built on material edited from The Mothman Prophecies by the publishers.
Author Jeff Wamsley has compiled two books on the Point Pleasant Mothman phenomenon. In his 2002 book Mothman: The Facts Behind the Legend (with Donnie Sergent, Jr.), Wamsley presents old press clippings, local history, and eyewitness interviews. In his second book, Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes (2005), Wamsley interviews nearly a dozen eyewitnesses, allowing them to describe what they saw — sometimes in contrast to what was reported earlier. Wamsley is also the owner of the Mothman Museum and a key organizing figure in the Mothman Festival each year in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
A.B. Colvin, a photojournalist and documentary film maker who claims to have seen the creature in 1967 and 1973, has produced a 32-hour DVD news series on Mothman called The Mothman's Photographer, with over 40 eyewitnesses and experts. Colvin's sister took a snapshot of him in 1973 that allegedly shows Mothman in the background. Colvin took a picture of a supposed MIB in 1979 that he alleges could be either his deceased father (who was at the infamous Philadelphia Experiment in 1943) or Indrid Cold, a supposed 'spaceman' who reportedly contacted local resident Woody Derenberger. While researching various forms of Buddhist philosophy and history and various Native tribes, Colvin seems to have reached the conclusion that both the Garuda of the Far East and the Thunderbird of the Native Americans are synonymous with Mothman, and that the Mothman was fulfilling a pre-ordained, archetypal role that involves stopping heinous crimes at pivotal moments in mankind's cyclical existence by sending visions, dreams, and messages to ordinary humans.
Loren Coleman, in the 2002 book Mothman and Other Curious Encounters[2] focusing on the details of cryptozoology investigations, acknowledges Keel's "ultraterrestrial" approach. Many who research Mothman sightings agree with Coleman's cryptozoological analysis of the events in Point Plesant, West Virginia, as did the late Ivan T. Sanderson. The first eyewitnesses discussed with law enforcement officers and the media that they had seen a "big bird," and the psychic and ufological elements were only added later by sensational newspaper writers and mystical paranormalist authors. Indeed, as Coleman points out, the word "Mothman" was coined by a copyeditor in Ohio who was a fan of the television "Batman" series. The locals, before they were influenced later, while not believing they were seeing cranes, definitely thought it was an unknown zoological (avian) species that was being sighted. Coleman points out that the addition of UFOs and the "Indrid Cold" story, told by alleged hoaxer Woodrow Derenberger (according to Jerome Clark) have little or nothing to do with the core Mothman reports. Coleman's book also reveals for the first time that reports of Mothman-like giant winged creatures were seen in the Point Pleasant area back over a 100 years before the 1966 incidents. Keel, one of Coleman's friends, publicly endorsed the book with a cover recommendation, just as Coleman likewise praised and endorsed Jeff Wamsley's book.
Skeptics have argued (notably in the March/April 2002 issue of the magazine Skeptical Inquirer)[3] that the most likely explanation of the sightings is excited eyewitnesses mistaking a barn owl for a winged monster. Others have argued that the most likely candidate is the Great Horned Owl, the largest owl known to breed in West Virginia. The Great Grey Owl, a rare winter visitor to the lower forty-eight states, is the largest owl in North America, and could possibly have been the figure behind some of the Mothman sightings. Another possibility is the misidentification of a sandhill crane. The sandhill crane grows up to six feet and has red patches around its eyes. Mark A. Hall in his book Thunderbirds suggests a giant cryptid owl species, allegedly seen in the area for over 100 years.
Most sightings of Mothman do not make a clear distinction between the creature's arms and wings, which is interpreted by some as evidence of the theory that the creature is avian.
A more recent theory advanced in response to findings by Dr. John D. Pettigrew as published in the Journal of Australian Primatology is that the Mothman may in fact be a form of bat-primate cryptid. As stated in the article, the larger species of bats (called 'megabats') are distinctly different then their smaller cousins (‘microbats’). Megabats navigate by binocular sight, have a complex social structure, and primarily eat fruit. All of these traits are common to primates. By comparing these and other similarities between megabats and primates, Dr. Pettigrew makes a compelling argument for the idea that micro- and mega- branches of the bat family tree may not be related at all, and may in fact be a case of convergent evolution (microbats, and usually, bats in general, are thought to have evolved from a small, shrew-like rodent). The similarities between mega bats and primates may suggest that these creatures are actually a type of primate evolved from lemur-like creatures. This has led to the notion that earlier forms of bat-primates may exist, possibly larger or more noticeably a primate. Both conditions would help to explain Mothman’s description as a winged man, as it is much easier to see how someone could confuse a human with a primate (as humans are primates) than an owl or other bird. Adding fuel to this theory is the fact that many megabat species have large eyes which reflect a red light when viewed directly. Note that Dr. Pettigrew did not draw any connections between his work and the Mothman in his article to the Journal of Australian Primatology.