New Mothman Sightings Raise More Questions

Artist depiction of Mothman from witness accounts

West Virginia’s Mothman may be making a comeback.  As paranormal enthusiasts know the creature dubbed Mothman spent a couple years in the late 1960s around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, some say terrorizing residents, others say benevolently warning residents of impending doom.  The creature was seen on the town’s Silver Bridge shortly before it’s collapse, which killed 46 people. 

A new photo has came to light that claims to be a shot of the Mothman.  Sharon Davis contacted a Portland radio show because she was terrified of a creature she said was stalking her home.  The radio show host told her to take a picture and send it in.  Too scared to open her door or go outside, Davis snapped the shot below with a friend’s cell phone through her peephole. 

Mothman? Shadow figure standing behind car

This isn’t the first time the Mothman has been sighted since the late 1960s.  Sightings are still reported from time to time.  It would seem that the winged creature, which was said to have kept pace flying alongside a car traveling in access of 100 miles per hour, has done some traveling outside of West Virginia.  It was reported that the Mothman was seen in the Ukraine before the Chernobyl disaster.  Below is a picture taken 9/11 that purports to show Mothman flying away from the one of the World Trade Center towers. 

WTC 9/11

Whether Mothman is simply sightseeing or fulfilling his destiny of warning us about impending disasters, he has been sighted from the east coast, in the Midwest, and on the Pacific coast.  He hasn’t restricted his travels to inside the US.  Mothman has reportedly been sighted in countries ranging from Brazil and Argentina to England and Russia.  

Mothman in Chicago? 2011

For the uninitiated the Mothman story began in November of 1966. Five men were digging a grave when they witnessed a brown human-like being take off flying from a nearby tree.  Days later on November 15 two young married couples were planning on enjoying some quiet time together at an abandoned TNT plant outside of Point Pleasant.  Upon arriving their headlights first caught sight of a steel door that had been ripped from its hinges.  The lights then fell on a human-like creature that appeared to be six or seven feet tall and had wings folded into it’s back.  But it were the eyes that scared them the most.  They described them to the local Sheriff as being red and as big as bicycle reflectors.  In terror they fled the plant, only to see the same creature on a hillside.  It spread it’s wings and took to the air, flying towards their car. In fear, they floored the accelerator and as they raced away at speeds over 100 miles an hour, the thing kept pace and flew beside them.  

Front page of the Point Pleasant Register

Numerous other sightings of the Mothman were reported in and around Point Pleasant over the next year.  The creature was said to make a terrible screeching sound at times and caused interference with radios and televisions.  In total over 100 reports were made before the collapse of the Silver Bridge.  Some residents hold the Mothman somehow responsible for the tragedy, while others believe he was attempting to warn them.    

Silver Bridge collapse aftermath

There is no shortage of theories about the Mothman’s origins.  Popular in theaters at the time were films depicting biochemically-altered animals and insects, usually growing to absurd sizes and always hungry for human flesh.  Early theories suggested that chemicals had leaked from the abandoned TNT plant and caused a mutation that resulted in the Mothman.  Strange lights in the sky were often reported in Point Pleasant at the same time the Mothman was being seen, leading some to believe they were from UFOs and the Mothman was extraterrestrial in origin. 

Another popular theory refers to the Cornstalk Curse.  Chief Cornstalk reigned over a tribe of Shawnee Indians in the mid 18^th century.  He sought to reclaim land for his people, but his methods were sometimes ruthless, mass murder being in his repertoire.  As a result he found himself along with his son and several other tribesmen imprisoned by soldiers in a fort at Point Pleasant.  After his people carried out a particularly bloody raid, enraged soldiers went to the prisoners with their muskets drawn.  Cornstalk rose and faced them calmly, causing them momentary pause.  After seeing the others killed and suffering no less than eight gunshots himself, Chief Cornstalk lay dying.  His final words were, “For this, may the Curse of the Great Spirit rest upon this land. May it be blighted by nature. May it even be blighted in its hopes. May the strength of its peoples be paralyzed by the stain of our blood."  A mining disaster that killed over 300 people and a tornado that claimed over 150 lives before the Silver Bridge collapse are said to have been the result of the curse.  

Mothman on bridge?

Perhaps the chief conjured up a Native-American Golem-type creature, to carry out his perceived justice.  While primarily associated with Plains Indians, Algonquin-speaking Native Americans of New England and those further south knew of the Thunderbird.  The Thunderbird’s description is similar to that of the Mothman.  It resembles a winged man, strikes fear in those who see it, and was said to actually kill and eat humans.  

Scientists attempting to explain away the sightings most commonly hypothesized that what people were seeing was actually a Sandhill Crane.  The problem with that explanation is that type of crane is not native to the area, nor has ever been documented as straying there.  Some of the more out-there theories include that the Mothman is an angel, which is why he would try to warn people of impending doom.  It’s been theorized that the winged creature could be the result of the mating of a human with a nephilim.  According to the Old Testament when God cast Satan out of heaven, several angels who were on Team Devil were cast out with him and sent down to earth where they mated with humans.  According to the Bible this resulted in all kinds of wickedness which displeased God so much he flooded the earth sparing only Noah, his family, and a boat load of animals.  Could one of these hybrids have stowed away on the ark?

An interesting and mysterious side note to the Mothman story is that of The Grinning Man, or Indrid Cole.  Days before the initial sightings began a man named Woodrow Derenberger was driving home when a strange vehicle sped up behind him and passed him.  He described it as looking like “an old fashioned kerosene lamp chimney, flaring at both ends, narrowing down to a small neck and then enlarging in a great bulge in the center."  The strange vehicle came to a stop blocking the road.  A door in the middle of it opened and a man emerged.  He described him as being around six feet tall, well-tanned skin, wearing a shimmering green suit, and always grinning.  He spoke to Derenberger telepathically and told him his name was “Cold,” he was from a planet called Lanulos, and that he would be back to visit him again. On subsequent visits Cold asked Derenberger strange questions and told him about his home planet, which is similar to ours.  Witnesses passing by that first night confirmed that Derenberger was talking to someone on the side of the road.

Some theorize that Indrid Cold was a MIB.  Men In Black, again for the paranormal uninitiated, are thought to be highly classified government agents whose primary purpose seems to be to cover up UFO and alien evidence.  Taking it a step further, some purport that the ETs have their own MIBs, disguised as humans and on reconnaissance missions.  Cold has been said to also be an inter-dimensional being and a time-traveler.  Several other people in and around Point Pleasant encountered this grinning man during the Mothman craze.  Writer John Keel, who came to town to investigate and wrote the book The Mothman Prophecies on which the movie was based, received a series of phone calls from someone claiming to be Indrid Cold.  During the calls Cold would relate prophecies of future events to Keel.

With just days left before the December 21 2012 date that has been interpreted to be the predicted end of the world, is this new Mothman sighting another warning?  Could the mysterious creature be tirelessly trying to fulfill his fate of warning humans of impending doom?  We won’t have to wait long to see if there is a correlation….two weeks to go……

Mothman statue in Point Pleasant

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