In celebration of author John Keel and the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, WV this weekend, I’m offering a few Mothman eyewitness accounts from the past:
Mothman Comes Home
I received the following email from a woman in Ohio who had concerns in reference to a sighting her and a girlfriend had six months prior to the report. She stated that she substituted their names for anonymity. ‘Megan’ affirms that all other details…location, date and description of the incident are factual:
“Sir – my name is Megan. I am forwarding a summary of an experience that I and a friend had in August 2010. My friend and associate Kyra and I traveled from Columbus, Ohio to Ravenswood, West Virginia on business. While we were there, I wanted to make a side trip to Gallipolis, Ohio in order to visit relatives I had not seen for quite awhile.
After our meeting and presentation, we drove onto Ohio Rt. 7 and traveled south along the Ohio River towards Gallipolis. We had a nice, though brief, visit with my relatives. Around 6PM, we left their home and drove a few miles north on Rt. 7 to check-in to a hotel near the local airport.
Around 7:30PM, we decided to get dinner and found a quiet restaurant so we could eat and work. After we finished, Kyra needed to go to the store and pick up a few items that she forgot to pack. We headed to a Wal-Mart that was nearby the restaurant.
After we finished shopping, we were walking to the car when I noticed a woman running through the parking lot. When she reached her car, she looked back in the direction of the store then hurriedly got into the car. I quickly looked in the same direction and saw what looked like a large bird flying above the roof of the store. It was difficult to see but when it swooped downward the parking lot lights would shine off of it. It looked like it was either oily or had shiny leather-like skin. Whatever it was, it had a wide wing span. I would guess it reached 8-10 foot across. It circled above the store for about a minute then just disappeared.
We were both somewhat shocked at what we witnessed but figured that it was just a huge bird. Since it was dark, I figured we had misjudged what it really was.
We drove back to the hotel and decided to call it a night so we could get an early start on the drive home in the morning. I got ready for bed but thought I’d watch some television first. By this time it was around 10PM or so.
I must have dozed off fairly quickly because the next thing I remember is frantic knocking on my door. I stumbled out of bed and checked who it was. It was Kyra and she was obviously upset. She rushed into my room and said “it’s here!” “What are you talking about?”- a little bit perturbed that she woke me up. She said that she was laying on the bed reading when she heard something in the hallway. She got out of bed, walked to the door and listened to what she thought was ‘scratching’ sounds. After a few minutes the sounds stopped, so she went back to bed. Not long after she lay down she heard more scratching sounds but, from outside her window. Again she got up and peeked through the curtains. This time, something looked back at her.
Our rooms were on the second floor in the back section of the hotel and both looked out onto a small parking lot and a large field beyond that. She could see, what she described as, a ‘bald ugly man with wings’ who was looking directly at her with ‘large bulging eyes that lit up bright red.’ It was there for only a few seconds. It then spread it’s wings while running at the same time towards the end of the parking lot and lifted off the ground like a bird.
“You’re kidding, right?” I muttered to her. “Meg, I swear to God – that thing is out there and it knows we saw it!” I knew the only way I was going to get some sleep was to allow Kyra to stay in my room. The next morning we woke early, checked out and drove back to Columbus.
Kyra didn’t mention the incident from the previous night during the ride. In fact, she has still never said anything else about it. We continue to be good friends and have a very good working relationship.
But – I got curious. I had never heard about the Mothman or any of the tales associated with it. I grew up in Texas and had only lived in Ohio for a few years. I moved into my Mom’s house after she had passed away. Her relatives lived throughout Ohio but I had never been told any of the stories.
This is the reason I am writing to you. We were near Point Pleasant, WV when we had this encounter. Do you think that it is possible that this was a Mothman? I read some of your posts recently and I’m starting to believe that Kyra actually saw something supernatural.
In light of the prophecies of danger that this thing is suppose to warn people about, Kyra has had some bad luck and tragedy since that day. Her husband suddenly left her, she had a fire in her house and she severely injured her leg in a fall. Could this be connected?
I personally don’t believe in predictions, either good or bad. But I will admit that these have been strange times since we witnessed ‘whatever.’”
NOTE: I responded to ‘Megan’s’ concerns with a lot more uncertainty…I really don’t have many answers for the Mothman. Is it natural, supernatural or non-terrestrial. Some people think that it may be an escaped experiment performed by the government. What would you tell ‘Megan?’…Lon
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Mothman Sighting – Mertztown, PA
Mertztown is in Longswamp Township in eastern Berks County, Pennsylvania. The witness wrote me after reading one of my previous reports (unedited):
“Good morning, as I sit reading this article, it amazes me that no one caught one of these things yet. I understand that if something with a 25-30 ft wingspan flies past you, you’re not going to grab your camera as a first instinct.
My son and I saw this monster thing last summer in Mertztown, PA. We were parked on the side of the road in a heavily wooded area when this thing casually glided up the road. It looked big enough to carry a full grown man away with no effort. When the wing flew over the hood of my car, we instantly ducked down. This thing had a round human sized head with no beak (hence the term man-bird), and huge bat-like wings. Now I would never tell this story if it wasn’t for my 16-yr-old son sitting in the backseat who also witnessed it on that summer day. I’m a pretty capable guy, not too many things can shake me, but this thing scared the hell out of me. Here is what I saw:
The body was 5-6 ft in length easy, wing span was 25-30 ft easy, no feathers, bat like skin, jet black, and a 4-5 ft skinny (rat or dragon) like tail that stuck straight out. This thing didn’t fly like a bird, it glided about 10 ft off the ground at a VERY slow speed. After 50-75 ft of gliding, it took one huge flap of the wings, never changing elevation, and glided up the road till it disappeared into the woods. I’m convinced this thing lives underground, probably near some sort of hot spring because it has no feathers.
Well that’s my story. Feel free to reply with any questions, that 45 second event will forever be etched into memory. I say we find it and catch it, I would love to see it again up close.”
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The North Georgia Mothman
In December 2011 I received an email from a woman (who I will refer to as ‘EW’) from north Georgia who thought she had encountered a Mothman. After many months of correspondence, the witness has agreed to allow me to post the event but only under strict circumstances. She has reviewed this post and has agreed to the following content being published:
“Hello – I am hoping you can shed some light on an incident I had a few years ago. I was twenty-five at the time and was driving to my friend CW’s house. It was quiet at 11:30 pm as I drove south on an old country road off of (redacted) highway near (redacted) in north Georgia. Very few people pass this way because it leads to nothing but a small group of houses. I turned on the radio but nothing came on. I figured it was a blown fuse but then I started to hear weird scratching sounds coming through the speakers. It sounded like a distant voice but I couldn’t understand what it was saying.
Suddenly, something flew in front of the car and hit the windshield with enough size and force that it totally mangled the grill and hood. I immediately stopped the car. I heard what sounded like wings flapping on the roof, but then something rolled down the back window onto the trunk then eventually on to the road. I thought I killed whatever it was. A woman in a truck had pulled up from behind and said she saw the thing hit the road. She said that it’s eyes were glaring bright red. As we looked more closely at this thing it resembled a man with large bat-like wings. The woman walked back to her truck and pulled a shotgun from the back and pointed it at this bat-like creature.
It was starting to move and we backed off. It slowly stood up on two large raptor-like claws, turned and stared directly at us with those terrible bright red eyes. The woman pumped the shotgun. It slowly levitated off the ground with wings spread until it was about 10 foot up then instantly, it let out a deafening screech as it just disappeared with a loud ‘swoosh’. The woman (who I found out later was CW’s aunt) and I just looked at each other.
This thing had the body of a well-built man. It had no feathers but charcoal gray skin like that of a bat with some hair on the shoulders and around the eyes and legs. When it spread its wings, it had the span of 12 foot or more. I estimate it was about 8 foot tall. It had no head however, just the eyes embedded on the shoulders that had brows. I didn’t notice a mouth or nose. There is no way I was going to report this and CW’s aunt totally agreed. We both drove off to CW’s house. I was so shook up I stayed the night.
The next morning, I went outside to inspect the car. There was a huge crack in the windshield and the grill was mangled beyond repair. The hood also had a deep 25 inch dent. I started to walk back to the house when I noticed something lying in the grass beside the garage. It was CW’s Golden Retriever lying dead from massive lacerations up and down its back. I just knew that thing did it.
That was 3 years ago and I constantly dream of this creature. I was told by a friend that I had encountered a Mothman. It looked more like a Batman to be honest. I decided to look up a few of the sightings by others and saw your name and blog. Many of the images on Google were very similar to what I saw. I wrote to someone else about a year ago but they never got back to me. I have included 2 of the images I think look the most like the creature I hit with my car that night. Could you contact me at this email? Thank you for your time. EW
NOTE: I contacted EW and tried to answer her questions. I have no doubt she witnessed a winged humanoid and most likely a Mothman. She agreed to let me post the incident provided I leave out several of the more personal points from the original email. I will say that EW has experienced many of the same anomalous events claimed by a few of the original Point Pleasant, WV witnesses…including some I discovered myself through research and witness interviews. Lon