From November 1966 to December 1967 one of the strangest events in ufological history took place in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. John Keel’s Mothman Prophecies was written about this tragic series of encounters with a bat-like, winged creature that had a humanlike appearance. Mothman, as he was dubbed, stood between six and seven feet tall, was gray in color, and had wings like a bat - featherless. He had a man’s legs and huge, hypnotic red eyes. He was seen by dozens of people with some witnesses standing face-to-face with the creature. The events ended when the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River on December 15, 1967 during an afternoon traffic jam.
The Mothman was reported to have been seen in New York prior to the 911 attacks.
The Mothman was also reported in Mexico, just before the H1N1 virus outbreak.
The 2007 bridge collapse in Minnesota, there are reports of a fire eyed, winged creature in the area prior to the fall of the bridge.
There have been many sightings and reports, some accounts sound different, but from the sketches of the witnesses, they are all the same vision. Many people have a religous view towards the Mothman, as seeing him will foretell a tragedy or disaster in a town.
Here is a newspaper report from the Point Pleasant Register.................
Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something
Point Pleasant Register
Point Pleasant, WV
Wednesday, November 16, 1966
"It was a bird... or something. It definitely wasn't a flying saucer."
Two Point Pleasant couples said today they encountered a man-sized, bird-like creature in the TNT area about midnight last night.
Sheriff's deputies and City Police went to the scene about 2 o'clock this morning but were unable to spot anything.
But the two young men telling their story this morning were dead serious, and asserted they hadn't been drinking.
Steve Mallette of 3305 Jackson Avenue and Roger Scarberry of 809 30th Street described the thing as being about six or seven feet tall, having a wing span of 10 feet and red eyes about two inches in diameter and six inches apart.
"It was like a man with wings," Mallette said. "It wasn't like anything you'd see on TV or in a monster movie..."
The men and their wives were in Scarberry's car between 11:30 p.m. and midnight when they spotted the creature near the old power plant adjacent to the old National Guard Armory buildings.
The creature was seen standing on three occasions and was described as being extremely fast ("it flew about 100 miles an hour") in flight but was a clumsey (sic) runner.
Deputy Millard Halstead said he had seen dust in the vicinity of a coal field. But "it could have been" caused by the bird, he said.
"I'm a hard guy to scare" Scarberry said, "but last night I was for getting out of there."
They did just that but the "thing" followed them. They said it was hovering the car, apparently gliding, until they reached the National Guard Armory on Route 62.
"We went downtown, turned around, and went back and there it was again," Mallette said. "It seemed to be waiting on us." He said the light-grey-like creature then scurried through a field. It also had flown across the top of the car.
"It apparently is afraid of light," Mallette reasoned, "and maybe it thought it was scaring us off."
The young men said they saw the creature's eyes, which glowed red, only when their lights shined on it. And it seemed to want to get away from the lights.
They said it looked like a "man with wings" but that the head was "not an outstanding characteristic."
Both were slightly pale and tired from lack of sleep during the night following their harrowing experience.
They speculated that the thing was living in the vacant power plant, possibly in one of the huge boilers. "There are pigeons in all the other buildings," Mallette said, "but not in that one."
"If I had seen it while by myself I wouldn't have said anything," Scarberry commented, "but there were four of us who saw it."
They said it didn't resemble a bat in any way, but "maybe what you would visualize as an angel."
The last time they saw it was at the gate of the C. C. Lewis farm on Route 62.
They heard a sound like wings flapping and they said the bird rose straight up, like a helicopter.
"This doesn't have an explanation to it," Mallette said, "It was an animal but nothing like I've seen before."
Are they going back to look for the creature?
"Yes," Mallette said, "this afternoon and again tonight."
"Today," Scarberry said, "but tonight, I don't know."