Mothman

This coming Thursday, we are headed to the annual Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, WV.  If our previous trips are any indication, we should have an interesting time.  Here is a quick overview of the story of Mothman:

The McClintic Wildlife Preserve located in Point Pleasant, West Virginia is a designated bird sanctuary. During World War II, the preserve was dug up to bury 100 igloos to hold wartime explosives. The igloos were covered over and made to look like rolling hillsides from the air.

After the war, the underground igloos were sold to several different companies, all of whom dealt with biochemicals. The McClintic Wildlife Preserve is now referred to the TNT area, and has also developed a far more perplexing history: a creature known as Mothman.

November 14, 1966 - A gentleman by the name of Newell Partridge was home watching television one night around 10:30 P.M. when the TV picture turned to static and a loud whining noise started. Bandit, Newell Partridge's German Shepherd, was on the porch when he began howling towards the barn. Partridge shined his flash light towards the barn and picked up the glow of two red pulsating eyes like bike reflectors. The dog ran towards the eyes snarling and Newell went inside and locked his door. He was very shaken and terrified.
The next morning, Newell went outside to find Bandit, but all he saw of the dog were a lot of tracks that looked as if the dog had been chasing his tail, something the dog had never done before. Bandit was never seen again.
November 15, 1966 - Two young couples were parking in the TNT area when they saw the shape of a man 7 ft tall. What they saw had wings folded on its back and large red eyes. Terrified, the young adults took off in the car, only to have the creature shoot straight up in the air and follow them, at speeds up to 100 MPH. Once they had reached the city limits, the creature stopped following.
The two couples contacted Deputy Halstead with the Mason County Sheriff's Department. Halstead returned with the individuals to the spot they had first sighted the creature. The deputy's radio began making high pitched squealing noises and garble. Everyone left and Halstead reported the trouble with the radio.
Several more sightings were reported of the creature flying over cars. The sheriff conducted a press conference. In the time that Mothman as the creature became know, was active, there were over 100 reports. Between November 1966 and December 1967, dog and livestock disappearances and mutilations were common around the TNT area.
When did the Mothman sightings stop? On December 15, 1967 The Silver Bridge spanning from Point Pleasant, WV and Gallipolis, OH was covered with rush hour traffic when suddenly cables ripped off moorings and the bridge and cars plunged into the water. Of the 46 people killed, most had seen the Mothman. Though Mothman sightings are still reported, the reports aren't of the same frequency as they were those 13 months in 1966-67. The collapse of the bridge put an end to Mothman sightings for the most part.
I personally believe that the biochemical companies were to blame for Mothman. Who knows what sort of things leached into the ground water that an animal could have gotten into. On a trip to the TNT area in Point Pleasant, WV, there were several ponds with signs warning of contamination. One pond in particular had red ooze in it and giant lily pads.

One of the contaminated ponds.

Spray painted sign reads: "Mothman shall return"