(woman) It did have the biggest red eyes.

(man) There's a six-foot bird and massive wings.

(man #2) And I ask her how big the wingspan was. She said about 10 to 12 feet.

(hostess) Is Point Pleasant haunted?

(man) Yes, very much.

(Describer) Walking through a small town...

I'm here in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, the little Appalachian town with a big monster history. It's home to one of America's most notorious legends, Mothman. Described as a humanoid creature with massive wings and glowing red eyes, this man with wings was first spotted in this area in the 1960s and has been a fixture of life in Point Pleasant ever since. The monster is a perfect example of iconic modern American folklore. There's even a Mothman statue in the middle of downtown. Hi.

(Describer) She touches its finger.

It speaks to the idea that this really is modern folklore. It came from this town. Like, we're staking this spot in this part of the world as Mothman. So they're really uniting Mothman and Point Pleasant and West Virginia.

(Describer) In archival footage, men walk past fallen metal.

[soft music]

On December 15, 1967, this paranormal activity culminated in a very real tragedy-- the collapse of Silver Bridge. Some claimed Mothman was the cause of the accident. Others say he was actually meant to forewarn the town of the catastrophe.

(Describer) A small boat moves through a river underneath.

But how do you explain the Mothman phenomenon? Was it an elaborate hoax or did people simply mistake something real for an imaginary creature? Or maybe it was something truly so bizarre that it just can't be easily explained.

(Describer) In animation, a huge orange eye appears.

[theme music]

I'm Dr. Emily Zarka, and this is "Monstrum."

(Describer) On a card hanging over an old stage, title: Monstrum.

[ominous music]

On November 12, 1966, in Clendenin, West Virginia, five grave diggers claim to have seen what they describe as a man with wings gliding over their heads. Eyewitness Kenneth Duncan later said the being was gliding through the trees and was in sight for about a minute. But it was here where Mothman became a legend. I'm at the spot of what is widely believed to be the earliest officially reported Mothman sighting, what used to be the West Virginia Ordnance Works Munitions Plant, better known as the TNT area.

(Describer) She stands in a clearing by a thick forest. More trees stand on either side of a straight road.

[suspenseful music]

On November 15, 1966, two young married couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, were driving around the TNT area when they reportedly spotted what looked like a man with large wings standing in the middle of the road. Steve described the creature as being 6 or 7 feet tall with a 10 foot wingspan and red eyes about 2 inches in diameter and 6 inches apart. Linda claims she couldn't see a head or arms, but also saw glowing red eyes when the car headlights hit the figure, who seemed to shy away from the light. Frightened, they quickly sped away from the figure. But shortly after, while traveling along Route 62, they spotted it again. This time, it followed them. They claimed they couldn't shake the creature, even when the car reached speeds as fast as a hundred miles an hour.

(Describer) Zarka walks with a man.

This is Denny Bellamy, the Mason County Visitors Bureau Executive Director.

(Describer) He drives.

Danny has lived in the Point Pleasant, Mason county area for over 60 years.

(Denny Bellamy) I was in the third grade. My neighbors saw it. Said there's a large-- there's a six foot bird with big red eyes and massive wings chasing cars in the TNT. And, in fact, it kept up with Roger Scarberry's '57 Chevy. It was right on this road. This road, as you can see, is like a drag strip. And that's what Roger Scarberry was doing out here, was drag racing. There were scratch marks on the ceiling of his car. And he was upset and he was scared. Shaken by the experience, the group drove straight to the sheriff's office to file a report around 2:00 AM that morning. Officers immediately set out to investigate. But by the time they arrived at the TNT site, no evidence of the creature could be found.

(Describer) Later, in a building with a wrought-iron fence....

[soft music]

I'm here at the Point Pleasant public library doing some research, looking through their archives, and there's a lot of stuff here that I'm super excited to explore. This is a copy of the original "Point Pleasant Register" of the first Mothman sighting. Wednesday, November 16-- so it would've been the morning after-- "Couple sees man-sized bird, creature, something."

(Describer) She keeps looking through copies of old newspapers.

Oh, there's drawings. There's drawings. "Scarberry very eyewitness sketch of Mothman verified by others." "One of the original eyewitnesses. "Both were slightly pale and tired from lack of sleep "during the night following their harrowing experience. "'If I had seen it while by myself, "'I wouldn't have said anything, but there "were four of us who saw it.' "They speculated that the thing was "living in the vacant power plant, possibly "one of the huge boilers. "There are pigeons in all the other buildings, but not in that one." This is new info.

I love finding new info. (laughs) I really do.

[suspenseful music]

(Describer) Photos show aerial views of the area now and then.

(Denny) This was a top-secret government facility. They made all these places for the atomic bomb. It employed all the people from the town. And you would come to work here onto a bus

(Describer) Bellamy:

that all the windows were blacked out of so you couldn't see anything of the facility. And they drove you right to where you were working and you did your job. You got back on the bus, and they never saw anything. And the day we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, they closed the facility. That was it. They were done.

(Describer) They carry umbrellas and walk.

We're going to go look at the bunkers that give the TNT area its name. It's where they stored the explosives, the TNT and the nitroglycerin. Oh, it's creepy.

(Describer) Without umbrellas, they walk into a dark tunnel. One carries a light.

(Denny) This is where they stored explosives. And when we first started bringing people out here, there were still rusted cans of gunpowder. So here is definitely some Mothman graffiti. I mean, we have the humanoid structure. We have the wings, the big-- you can see two large eyes. Yes, Mothman.

(Describer) She walks through the clearing.

I grew up in forests, but there's something about the abandoned building and the legends and the real history that there's a spooky vibe. I mean, it's honestly really, really creepy.

(Describer) Foliage and vines cover the ruins.

We're walking into one of the buildings that used to be part of the TNT site. So we're going to go in. We have no idea what's inside. It's pitch black. Let's see what happens.

(Describer) She goes inside with a phone light.

OK, I don't know how far back it goes. Look at these cool lights.

(Describer) Burned-out above.

I know it's small, it's really dark, and I don't know what it was used for, and there's stuff everywhere. It definitely looks like it could be haunted, especially by the workers who used to be here. You never know. Oh, and I just kicked something. [singing] OK.

(Describer) She leaves.

[trills tongue] I'm more creeped out now

that I've been in that building.

(Describer) Bellamy:

(Denny) I haven't lost a film crew yet, but you never know.

(Emily) Oh, my god. We're the first.

[laughing]

(Describer) She works at the library.

(Emily) Over the following three days after the November 15 sighting, at least eight more people reported similar creatures. My brother said, "Well, don't look, but there's something there beside the car." If I'd rolled my window down, I just could have touched it. And then it jumped on the hood and just sat there

(Describer) Faye Dewitt-Leport:

and just squatted, kind of, and looked at us. But it did have the biggest red eyes. And it run right past the car. And it jumped up in the air and just opened up the biggest pretty set of bird wings. Because you could see the feathers in it and everything. It just opened them up and just went off in the night like that. For one year, starting in November 1966, over a hundred eyewitnesses reported accounts of the Mothman in this area. Almost all agreed on the same points-- the monster was as large or as larger than a big man, it had wings but no feathers, and took off into the air straight like a helicopter, gliding through the sky. Its face was indistinguishable besides two large, glowing red eyes. The town's population was so intrigued by the creature that hundreds of local residents-- some armed-- went hunting for the winged figure.

(Denny) There was a police officer directing traffic.

(Describer) Bellamy:

There was so much traffic out here.

(Emily) Wow.

(Denny) Well, the sheriff's deputies had to come out. Newspapers are often the first indicators of an emerging legend. They help rumors become lore as more variations are published and told to the public. Mothman was no exception. He even received his famous title from an anonymous Ohio newspaper copy-editor who likely gave the mysterious bird the name Mothman after the famous comic book character Batman, who was the subject of a popular TV show at the time. Later that month, the "Beckley Herald Dispatch" renamed the Mothman as the Mason Bird-Monster, but that didn't quite stick. Were the Mothman eyewitnesses in the 1960s really seeing a monster? Some people certainly saw something in the night sky. The sheer number of sightings might be an example of the psychological and social phenomenon known as mass hysteria. The textbook definition of mass hysteria says it is a form of mass contagion in which an irrational belief or behavior grips a group or community. The size of a small town like Point Pleasant offered a unique social environment. Residents either had a Mothman story themselves or knew someone who did, which allowed the story to circulate in a relatively closed inner network that could bolster the belief in the creature. What is undoubtedly very real is the event that stopped the Mothman sightings of the 1960s. On December 15, 1967, exactly 13 months after the first reported sighting of Mothman, an estimated 31 cars and trucks plunged into the Ohio River after the bridge connecting Ohio and West Virginia collapsed. Sixty-four people went into the water; forty-six of them died.

(Describer) A historical sign marks the area and names are engraved in stones. Bellamy:

[solemn music]

(Denny) It officially ended the Mothman. That's what ended the story. That was it. When the bridge fell, no one wanted to hear about the Mothman anymore.

(Emily) It was ultimately discovered that a single I-bar, 55 feet long, fractured, causing the pin holding it in place to become loose and the tragic chain of events to follow. Survivors and witnesses recall that the bridge shook violently before it collapsed. Some even say they saw Mothman on the bridge days before. This is really where the myth of the Mothman as a harbinger of death started. Was he a warning to the townspeople or a cursed being bringing destruction with him? Some people speculated that Mothman and the bridge collapse had something to do with a rumored legend known as the Curse of Cornstalk. A Shawnee leader of the outlet indigenous people, Chief Cornstalk, and his men fought in the battle of Point Pleasant against colonial troops in 1774.

(Describer) ...shown in a painting.

Local legend in Point Pleasant said that with his dying breath, Cornstalk cursed the town for 200 years. Some people even speculated that the Mothman was sent by Cornstalk himself from beyond the grave. But in 2006, it was revealed that the rumored Curse of Cornstalk was nothing more than a myth. A rediscovered historical pageant play was found in an old grade school in Point Pleasant that includes Cornstalk's Curse. Most likely, the playwright added it in to give the performance a little more drama.

(Describer) She reads.

"'And the energies of its people paralyzed "by the stain of our blood.' So saying, he fell dead by the sight of the sun." There's the curse.

(Describer) By the river...

Maybe the Mothman sightings can be explained by something from the natural world. It was proposed early on that the Mothman was actually a sandhill crane when a West Virginia University professor told the press in an article published December 1, 1966, quote, "I definitely believe that's what these people are seeing."

(Describer) Another article:

[gasps] This is the sandhill crane.

"Dr. Robert Smith of the West Virginia University Biology Department said the description fits that of a sandhill crane." Sandhill cranes have an average wingspan of around 6.5 feet and are about 3 to 4 feet tall. They also happen to have red patches around their eyes. But Dr. Z, you may be wondering, do sandhill cranes ever make it to West Virginia? The answer is yes. Because I am a crazy bird person and this Mothman thing was driving me insane, I contacted the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for sandhill crane data from the 1960s. While they couldn't give me anything from that time period, I did find that sightings of sandhill cranes happen today. At least 28 of them have been spotted in West Virginia between January, 2017, and August 2019, sometimes in large groups. Brenda Knight, the sister-in-law of one of the November 15 witnesses, said, quote, "We all thought it was a mutant sandhill crane because of the toxins in the swamp."

(Describer) In the clearing...

Maybe Brenda was onto something. She wasn't the only one to think that illegally dumped chemicals had caused animal mutations. The munitions plant that gave the TNT area its name was built during World War II to produce and store explosives from 1942 to 1945. After the war, much of the land was given to the Department of Natural Resources. It became a wildlife reserve in 1966 and is now called the McClintic Wildlife Management Area. The mutation theory might have a little more validity to it than some of the other explanations. In 1981, a red water seep was discovered in the area, which led to the realization that contamination had occurred. The red water is a result of a cold water and sellite mixture used to rinse the TNT. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the red water was discharged directly to the Ohio River through a pipe located about one foot off shore. After becoming part of the National Priority List in 1983, cleanup became the focus and groundwater extraction was completed in 1997. So how could you explain Mothman's infamous glowing red eyes? Another type of bird was quickly thrown out as a possible explanation to the humanoid flying creature, one known for its silent nocturnal flights-- owls. It's always owls. Birds' eyes appear red when a bright light is shined at them because of the vascular membrane that shows through the pigment layer of the retina, an effect referred to as eye shine. One owl is known for its very dramatic eye shine. The barred owl is a large species with a rounded head common throughout the Southeast that prefers to roost in old trees and open forests. Extra blood vessels around their eyes make them glow more red than other species. Officials at the McClintic Wildlife Management Area told the Audubon Society, who also looked at owls as an explanation for Mothman, that the area has a healthy population of this species. Some people in Point Pleasant argue that Mothman was really just a lost weather balloon or even an elaborate hoax. A local rumor exists alongside Mothman himself, one about a local teenage prankster who found it fun to jump out at cars driving at night in the TNT area while wearing a Halloween costume. Hoaxes like these could have happened on more than one occasion, but that doesn't really explain the Mothman phenomenon.

(Describer) In a film, a car brakes hard.

You're probably wondering how we've gotten this far without mentioning "The Mothman Prophecies." Written by John Keel, the book and its 2002 film adaptation are the most important texts for how the legend took root outside of Point Pleasant. Keel was a journalist and paranormal investigator who went to Point Pleasant in December, 1966, to explore the Mothman and other supernatural sightings in the area. He interviewed a lot of the original witnesses and even claimed to have experience with what he calls ultraterrestrials. I read the whole thing, and it's a doozy. Honestly, the book seems more concerned about UFOs and men in black than Mothman. Regardless of how factual the "Mothman Prophecies" is or not, the 1975 book and the movie did have one indisputable result. They made Mothman globally recognized and turned the town of Point Pleasant into a tourist destination.

(Denny) Quite frankly, I mean, there's only one Mothman and there's only one Point Pleasant. People were really interested in that, although I wasn't, and, actually, the town wasn't.

(Describer) Bellamy:

The town didn't believe it, although there kept on being sightings. The newspaper kept writing about it. But it was mostly tongue in cheek. It was all that. Quite frankly still is today for most. One time someone said, I'd like-- "We'd like to talk to some people that don't believe in the Mothman." I said, "Pick anyone on Main Street."

(Emily) One year after the movie came out, they erected a statue of him on Main Street in 2003.

(Denny) We're dedicating the statue, and we're all kind of-- the mayor and everyone's kind of like, "Oh, jeez," you know? The mayor has to speak at the dedication. I go over to see what's going on. I have to come back. I said, "You probably got to put a suit and tie on." And he said, "What's going on?" And I said, "CBS is here." CBS Sunday Morning with Bill Geist is out there-- that's Willie Geist's father-- and that's how it started. When Bill Geist showed up, I became a Mothman believer that day. And I haven't slowed down since. In 2005, a whole Mothman museum opened up. Created by Jeff Wamsley, Point Pleasant resident and local Mothman expert, it sees thousands of visitors a year. A lot of the movie props that we have here in the museum were donated, and that was kind of like the catalyst to get the museum going. The Mothman Festival was started back in 2002. It's a big boon to the tourism here, I mean, with the festival and the museum. People have embraced it. And you still have skeptics, which is fine. I mean, I'm not out to convince anybody of anything. I mean, everything in the museum is for people to decide for themselves.

(Describer) Bellamy:

(Denny) They weren't sure that they really wanted the Mothman in our town. And-- but the Mothman Festival grew every year. We had to. They were all coming. We had no choice. Tourism has grown and grown. And our entire state has embraced it now. That is one week in the year the entire town will tell you anything you want to know about the Mothman. And we just enjoy looking at everybody. And it's entertaining for us. How much money is made on average now, at least, from Mothman? Oh, probably two million flows down our Main Street on that weekend, which is probably more than the rest of the year. We attract 10,000 to 12,000 people.

(Describer) Walmsley:

So the town's population doubles. The local people, they're used to it. I mean, they're used to the attention and everything. And don't get me wrong, Point Pleasant has a lot to offer rather than just Mothman-- Native American history, riverboat history, farm museum, river museum, all that kind of stuff. To me, I think, the Mothman story is just a nice way to get people's attention. They come here and they're like, oh, we got the flood wall murals, we got the river museum. There's-- I don't see anything negative about it.

(Emily) With the help of the internet, Mothman has become a global phenomenon. Online rumors circulate frequently, some claiming that he was spotted before the Chernobyl disaster and even in the smoke of the towers at 9/11. Most recently, the largest number of Mothman sightings in one area occurred in Chicago in 2017. There were more than 20 reports of a winged humanoid in Chicago from April to July of that year.

(Describer) A view slowly flies over the TNT Area.

Whether you believe in him or not, Mothman has become a cultural touchstone-- a monster myth that inspires both fear and fascination. Legends only truly take root when they become a subject of conflicting opinions. They are born in stories told and retold with countless contradictions, additions, and disputes. Mothman is no different. He's been demonized and deified in almost equal measure. Mothman shows us how a local phenomenon can become a global sensation. People identify with Mothman. He's a rumor and an outcast, a monster who was ultimately embraced by the small town that once feared him. Whether the people of Point Pleasant like it or not, Mothman is now part of their town's identity. It can even be argued that the people of Point Pleasant embrace the creature because it made their little part of the world visible to a lot more people. Like other small towns, a portion of the town's economic survival depends on its ability to attract outsiders.

(Describer) Walking past the ruins...

It does feel like a ruin, and I always think that ruins carry some kind of energy that allows them to attract myths like this. I'm not surprised, being here now, that there were so many Mothman sightings. I'm actually not. I don't know. I think it's probably a bird, some kind of giant bird, maybe mutated, maybe just abnormally large and freakish, but there is something. And the way this forest is so creepy, there's definitely a way that imagination could have run wild-- 100%, personal opinion. I have also been in a lot of creepy forests and this one takes the cake. I don't know. If I was a monster, this is where I'd hang out. A legend survives when it is able to adapt to the current cultural moment. The Mothman has done this astonishingly well. He's gone from mysterious humanoid to prophetic demon, guardian angel to ultraterrestrial, scary monster to cute cryptid, and everything in between. Interestingly, no witness has ever reported this creature harmed a human. Maybe he really is just your friendly neighborhood Mothman.

[music playing]

(Describer) Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.