Is the Mothman real? The legend behind the mythical monster on 'Unsolved Mysteries' (2024)

It's a busy time to be Jeff Wamsley, the owner and creator of the world’s only Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

Most recently, the mythic Mothman creature has received its very own “Unsolved Mysteries” episode on Netflix. Volume 4 of the beloved series revival premiered on the streaming service in August, and episode five is devoted to the shadowy monster.

But the Mothman was well known long before the popular Netflix reboot came to be.

Thanks to “The Mothman Prophecies” movie starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney in 2002, the phenomenon is now part of pop culture, Wamsley says. Plus, as Jim Harold, host of “The Paranormal Podcast” points out, that movie is actually based on author John Keel’s 1975 book of the same name, “which detailed the strange events surrounding Mothman in the Point Pleasant area at the time.” And the first Mothman sighting is said to have taken place almost a decade before the novel’s debut, back in November 1966.

While you’ll have to tune in to Netflix to get the latest scoop on Mothman sightings, keep reading to learn about the origin story of this fascinating beast.The legend of the Mothman

Consider the Mothman Bigfoot’s cousin.

Per Dr. Daniel P. Compora, PhD, professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at The University of Toledo, the Mothman is a large, human hybrid bird, known in folklore as a cryptid.

“It has become one of the most prominent cryptids in the United States,” says Dr. Compora, noting that while the Mothman has not achieved the fame of other cryptids, such as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, it represents one of America’s most famous local monsters.

Wamsley, who is also the author of “Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes” and co-author of “Mothman: The Facts behind the Legend” was kind enough to share the Mothman origin story. Here’s his synopsis of the tale:

“On November 15, 1966, two young couples spotted an enormous, birdlike figure in the abandoned TNT plant area outside of Point Pleasant. The creature chased their car at 95 miles per hour back into town, where the encounter was reported to the local sheriff’s department. Over the next few months, more than 100 sightings were reported. Some think it was a large bird, but others claim it looked like a man with wings and two prominent red eyes. Sightings of UFOs and strange men in black approaching witnesses have also been reported. Sightings of the ‘Mothman’ continued for several years in and around the Point Pleasant area.”

As for that first famous sighting in November 1966? Following that eerie event, the story was published in the “Point Pleasant Register.” Sightings of this massive winged beast with glowing red eyes exploded in the area thereafter, claims Carrie McCabe, co-host of the “Ain’t it Scary? with Sean & Carrie” podcast. McCabe, an enthusiast of all things strange, scary and unexplained, says everything came to a head on December 15, 1967, with the collapse of the Silver Bridge.

“The Silver Bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio. Tragically, this collapse happened during rush-hour traffic, and many of those traveling on the bridge were heading to or from doing their Christmas shopping that day,” says McCabe. “The loss of life was horrific, with 46 people killed in the accident — two of them never being found. After the collapse, the Mothman sightings turned from strange local story to eerie premonition: People began to say that maybe the creature was either trying to warn of the tragedy to come, or perhaps was involved in the failure of the bridge itself.”

McCabe believes this seems mostly to be because the Mothman only began to be “seen” a year before the collapse. “In that respect, it’s similar to the British legend of ghostly black dogs that are supposedly seen as an omen of the witness’ untimely death,” says McCabe.

Is the Mothman real?

Clearly, this determination is up for debate.

Wamsley, for one, sums it up as follows: “One thing is for certain, people were seeing something very strange and abnormal in Point Pleasant and the TNT area.” What’s more, he believes that many witnesses with the same description of the Mothman help to give the legend more viability.

Harold doesn’t claim to know if the Mothman is real or not for sure, but he will say this: “I don’t believe for a minute that all of the reports are hoaxes,” he says. “There are enough different accounts that I believe that some of these eyewitnesses were truly experiencing something quite bizarre.”

McCabe couches it a tad more diplomatically.

“There are certainly plenty of people who think that this cryptid is a real, living, breathing creature. There are also some who believe that these witnesses may have encountered something strange, but that it was likely a large bird, perhaps one that was not in its usual habitat,” she says. “And, of course, there are those who believe the legend is just that — purely a legend. Until we have absolute proof one way or the other, the Mothman will remain like Bigfoot, Nessie and other ‘monsters’ ... elusive.”

And last but not least, Dr. Compora, might crush your Sasquatch soliloquies outright. “No, the mothman is not real in a literal sense,” he says. That said, Dr. Compora concedes that since the stories are so enduring and pervasive, the figure has become real in the American imagination.

Where has the Mothman been seen?

While most of the original sightings of the so-called Mothman are said to have occurred in the small West Virginia town of Point Pleasant, others across the globe claim to have seen what they feel may be the Mothman, says Wamsley.

Famously, there were reports of a Mothman-type creature in Moscow, Russia in the 1990s, which Russian UFO experts claimed foreshadowed the 1999 Russian apartment bombings, which McCabe says serves as another example of the creature being associated with “predicting” a tragedy.

“Most recently, there was a rash of Mothman sightings in the Chicago area in 2017, when 55 people voluntarily came forward and reported seeing a similar creature,” she adds.

Whether you believe it or not, experts agree the Mothman represents a fascinating look into American folklore and “how stories of allegedly real events grow, change and mutate,” says McCabe.

“Nowadays, the Mothman is not only the subject of countless books, shows and documentaries, but its very own festival — and it has transformed into a sort of benevolent mascot for Point Pleasant rather than frightening figure, at least for locals,” she continues.

Wamsley likes to say, “it’s a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.”