Post by MCDemuth on Feb 2, 2018 15:29:22 GMT
Was The Mothman... Real; a Hoax; just a Made-Up Story; a mis-identifed bird, such as: the sandhill crane... or perhaps a combination of all these explanations?
And if it was real... Was it a Mutant, or perhaps an Alien?
Thoughts?
In West Virginia folklore, the Mothman is a legendary creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area from November 12, 1966, to December 15, 1967.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
Accounts have varied from "a large, black, bat-like being with glowing red eyes” to "a big owl” or something that resembled a "Gothic gargoyle” or a “Mothman.”
www.vice.com/en_us/article/paqv9z/mothman-sightings-in-chicago
The weird events connected to the Mothman began on November 12, 1966 near Clendenin, West Virginia. Five men were in the local cemetery that day, preparing a grave for a burial, when something that looked like a “brown human being” lifted off from some nearby trees and flew over their heads. The men were baffled. It did not appear to be a bird, but more like a man with wings. A few days later, more sightings would take place, electrifying the entire region.
www.prairieghosts.com/moth.html
Shortly thereafter, on November 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, told police they saw a large grey creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a "large flying man with ten-foot wings", following their car while they were driving in an area outside of town known as "the TNT area", the site of a former World War II munitions plant.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
The remote and abandoned TNT plant became the lair of the Mothman in the months ahead and it could not have picked a better place to hide in. The area was made up of several hundred acres of woods and large concrete domes where high explosives were stored during World War II. A network of tunnels honeycombed the area and made it possible for the creature to move about without being seen. In addition to the manmade labyrinth, the area was also comprised of the McClintic Wildlife Station, a heavily forested animal preserve filled with woods, artificial ponds and steep ridges and hills. Much of the property was almost inaccessible and without a doubt, Mothman could have hid for weeks or months and remained totally unseen. The only people who ever wandered there were hunters and fishermen and the local teenagers, who used the rutted dirt roads of the preserve as “lover’s lanes”.
www.prairieghosts.com/moth.html
Some ufologists, paranormal authors, and cryptozoologists claim that Mothman was an alien, a supernatural manifestation, or a previously unknown species of animal. In his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, author John Keel claimed that the Point Pleasant residents experienced precognitions including premonitions of the collapse of the Silver Bridge, unidentified flying object sightings, visits from inhuman or threatening men in black, and other phenomena.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
By this time, most of the sightings had come to an end and Mothman had faded away into the strange “twilight zone” from which he had come... but the story of Point Pleasant had not yet ended. At around 5:00 in the evening on December 15, 1967, the 700-foot bridge linking Point Pleasant to Ohio suddenly collapsed while filled with rush hour traffic. Dozens of vehicles plunged into the dark waters of the Ohio River and 46 people were killed. Two of those were never found and the other 44 are buried together in the town cemetery of Gallipolis, Ohio.
www.prairieghosts.com/moth.html
After the December 15, 1967, collapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people, the incident gave rise to the legend and connected the Mothman sightings to the bridge collapse.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
Skeptic Joe Nickell says that a number of hoaxes followed the publicity generated by the original reports, such as a group of construction workers who tied flashlights to helium balloons. Nickell attributes the Mothman reports to pranks, misidentified planes, and sightings of a barred owl, an albino owl, suggesting that the Mothman's "glowing eyes" were actually red-eye effect caused from the reflection of light from flashlights or other bright light sources. The area lies outside the snowy owl's usual range.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron he termed a "shitepoke". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature.[8] Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the sandhill crane, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven-foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route. This particular crane was unrecognized at first because it was not native to this region.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
The Sandhill Crane
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhill_crane
I remember learning about this Urban Legend from the TV Show "Unsolved Mysteries"...
The recreations involving The Mothman terrorizing people from their front porches by screeching, were very scary...
John Keel wrote a novel in 1975 called: "The Mothman Prophecies", which was based on the ubran legend. In 2002, a movie was made called "The Mothman Prophecies", starring Richard Gere, which was loosely based on the novel...
Of course, it seems, Hollywood butchered the "real" story, to make something, which they thought, would be more interesting.
I have to admit, I have no doubt that SOME of the reports were as a result of... mis-identified birds, such as: the sandhill crane... and Hoaxes.
But there is usually a grain of truth involving Urban Legends... And something had to get the legend going, AND KEEP IT GOING for so long!
If it were, just a bird, one would think that, the community would have quickly realized this and it would have ended there... But...
Descriptions describe a man like being, not a bird... Others reported strange mysterious lights in the area, which could not have be cause by owls and cranes...
And of course, skeptics will always try to suggest any kind of an explanation they can, to dismiss unexplained events...
"such as a group of construction workers who tied flashlights to helium balloons."
For every unexplained light in the skies? I don't think so...
In the end, I am not sure what to believe concerning the "creature", but I do believe the some residents of Point Pleasant are convinced that what they saw, was REAL...
So "Made-Up Story"? No.
And if it was real... Was it a Mutant, or perhaps an Alien?
Thoughts?
In West Virginia folklore, the Mothman is a legendary creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area from November 12, 1966, to December 15, 1967.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
Accounts have varied from "a large, black, bat-like being with glowing red eyes” to "a big owl” or something that resembled a "Gothic gargoyle” or a “Mothman.”
www.vice.com/en_us/article/paqv9z/mothman-sightings-in-chicago
The weird events connected to the Mothman began on November 12, 1966 near Clendenin, West Virginia. Five men were in the local cemetery that day, preparing a grave for a burial, when something that looked like a “brown human being” lifted off from some nearby trees and flew over their heads. The men were baffled. It did not appear to be a bird, but more like a man with wings. A few days later, more sightings would take place, electrifying the entire region.
www.prairieghosts.com/moth.html
Shortly thereafter, on November 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, told police they saw a large grey creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a "large flying man with ten-foot wings", following their car while they were driving in an area outside of town known as "the TNT area", the site of a former World War II munitions plant.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
The remote and abandoned TNT plant became the lair of the Mothman in the months ahead and it could not have picked a better place to hide in. The area was made up of several hundred acres of woods and large concrete domes where high explosives were stored during World War II. A network of tunnels honeycombed the area and made it possible for the creature to move about without being seen. In addition to the manmade labyrinth, the area was also comprised of the McClintic Wildlife Station, a heavily forested animal preserve filled with woods, artificial ponds and steep ridges and hills. Much of the property was almost inaccessible and without a doubt, Mothman could have hid for weeks or months and remained totally unseen. The only people who ever wandered there were hunters and fishermen and the local teenagers, who used the rutted dirt roads of the preserve as “lover’s lanes”.
www.prairieghosts.com/moth.html
Some ufologists, paranormal authors, and cryptozoologists claim that Mothman was an alien, a supernatural manifestation, or a previously unknown species of animal. In his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, author John Keel claimed that the Point Pleasant residents experienced precognitions including premonitions of the collapse of the Silver Bridge, unidentified flying object sightings, visits from inhuman or threatening men in black, and other phenomena.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
By this time, most of the sightings had come to an end and Mothman had faded away into the strange “twilight zone” from which he had come... but the story of Point Pleasant had not yet ended. At around 5:00 in the evening on December 15, 1967, the 700-foot bridge linking Point Pleasant to Ohio suddenly collapsed while filled with rush hour traffic. Dozens of vehicles plunged into the dark waters of the Ohio River and 46 people were killed. Two of those were never found and the other 44 are buried together in the town cemetery of Gallipolis, Ohio.
www.prairieghosts.com/moth.html
After the December 15, 1967, collapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people, the incident gave rise to the legend and connected the Mothman sightings to the bridge collapse.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
Skeptic Joe Nickell says that a number of hoaxes followed the publicity generated by the original reports, such as a group of construction workers who tied flashlights to helium balloons. Nickell attributes the Mothman reports to pranks, misidentified planes, and sightings of a barred owl, an albino owl, suggesting that the Mothman's "glowing eyes" were actually red-eye effect caused from the reflection of light from flashlights or other bright light sources. The area lies outside the snowy owl's usual range.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron he termed a "shitepoke". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature.[8] Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the sandhill crane, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven-foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route. This particular crane was unrecognized at first because it was not native to this region.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman
The Sandhill Crane
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhill_crane
I remember learning about this Urban Legend from the TV Show "Unsolved Mysteries"...
The recreations involving The Mothman terrorizing people from their front porches by screeching, were very scary...
John Keel wrote a novel in 1975 called: "The Mothman Prophecies", which was based on the ubran legend. In 2002, a movie was made called "The Mothman Prophecies", starring Richard Gere, which was loosely based on the novel...
Of course, it seems, Hollywood butchered the "real" story, to make something, which they thought, would be more interesting.
I have to admit, I have no doubt that SOME of the reports were as a result of... mis-identified birds, such as: the sandhill crane... and Hoaxes.
But there is usually a grain of truth involving Urban Legends... And something had to get the legend going, AND KEEP IT GOING for so long!
If it were, just a bird, one would think that, the community would have quickly realized this and it would have ended there... But...
Descriptions describe a man like being, not a bird... Others reported strange mysterious lights in the area, which could not have be cause by owls and cranes...
And of course, skeptics will always try to suggest any kind of an explanation they can, to dismiss unexplained events...
"such as a group of construction workers who tied flashlights to helium balloons."
For every unexplained light in the skies? I don't think so...
In the end, I am not sure what to believe concerning the "creature", but I do believe the some residents of Point Pleasant are convinced that what they saw, was REAL...
So "Made-Up Story"? No.