People have encountered unexplained lights, objects, creatures and entities since ever. One need not believe in such things in order to meet them. Anomalous phenomena are most often experienced by lone individuals in isolated locations and occur abruptly and can evoke shock and terror. Factors of perception such as duration of the event and distances involved come into play. Our sum total of knowledge concerning the "unknown" depends heavily upon the accuracy of excited eyewitness observation and memory.

For thirteen months, from November 1966 until December 1967, some residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia and environs divided their citizenship between the United States and the Twilight Zone. Weird lights haunted their skies. Mysterious incidents disrupted their lives.

Then came the "Monster Moth Man."

This fiery-eyed demon was encountered by several folk, but often by teens and often at night. Reports (ultimately from over one hundred people in total, according to author John A. Keel) described a creature that stood taller and broader than a man, walked in sort of a halting shuffle on humanlike legs, took off straight up like a helicopter, chased cars, and emitted humming and squeaking sounds. The red glowing eyes, set into the shoulders, seem to have been more terrifying than either the size of the creature or ten-foot-plus span of its wings. Many witnesses reported feeling an uncontrollable, indescribable terror in its presence.

Local interest in Mothman reports faded in the mind-numbing aftermath of the Silver Bridge collapse that claimed forty-six lives. Some insisted that this Mason County monster was only a sandhill crane. Superstitious folks called it a harbinger of death.

TYPICAL MOTHMAN SIGHTINGS

November 15, 1966 --- Salem, West Virginia resident Newell Partridge was watching television at his home.

"It was about 10:30 that night, and suddenly the TV blanked out. A real fine herringbone pattern appeared on the tube, and at the same time the set
started a loud whining noise... It sounded like a generator winding up...The dog was sitting on the end of the porch, howling down toward the hay barn... I shined the (flash)light in that direction, and it picked up two red circles, or eyes, which looked like bicycle reflectors. I certainly know what animal eyes look like…these were much larger. It’s a good length of a football field to that hay barn….still those eyes showed up huge for that distance."

Partridge described an unbelievably intense, morbid fear that swept over him as Bandit, his large and muscular German shepherd, snarled and ran toward the eyes. Newell hurried inside to get a gun but decided not to go back outside. He slept with his shotgun all night.

Bandit was never seen again.

November 15, 1966 --- At 11:30 p.m., a classic 1957 Chevrolet slowly drove around a deserted World War II ammunition dump, known locally as the "TNT" area, six miles north of Point Pleasant. The West Virginia Ordnance Works had once been the site’s official name. The WVOW was created to supply TNT for the war effort.

In the earlier part of the 1900s, a vast area outside of Point Pleasant was set up as the McClintic Wildlife Preserve. It was, among other things, designed as a bird sanctuary. During World War II, more than 2,500 acres of this area were ripped up in order to construct about 100 "igloos" laid out in a grid-like pattern to keep the entire complex from being destroyed during a possible enemy attack. These large mounds of earth were made to be unnoticed from the air. Deep inside each, cement and steel protected the
explosive contents. Twin coal-fired power plants were constructed to supply power for the manufacturing facility. A series of underground bunkers, tunnels, and sewers connected the entire complex. Grass was allowed to grow high enough to camouflage the operation. After the war, parts of the preserve were sold off or leased to companies like the Trojan-U.S. Powder Company, the LFC Chemical Company, and American Cyanamid.

The easy access and remoteness of this TNT area made it a popular hangout for local youth.

Inside the ’57 Chevy were two young married couples, Roger, 18, and Linda Scarberry and Steve, 20, and Mary Mallette. They were chasing parkers and looking for friends who might also be out that clear, cold night.

Their search paused at the North Power Plant.

What they saw there would forever change their lives.

"It was shaped like a man, but bigger. Maybe six and a half or seven feet tall. And it had big wings folded against its back," Roger Scarberry said.

"But it was those eyes that got us. It had two big eyes like automobile reflectors," added Linda Scarberry. "They were hypnotic. For a minute, we could only stare at it. I couldn’t take my eyes off it."

The creature slowly turned toward the open door of the abandoned power plant.

Roger Scarberry, who was driving, jumped on the accelerator and took off, claiming the Chevy at one point reached "better than a hundred miles per hour." To everyone’s horror, the creature spread its wings and flew after the car. It didn’t seem to flap its wings at all, and the wingspan was over ten feet. Mary Mallette said that it made a squeaking sound, "like a big mouse." The four also noted that a dead dog had been lying by the side of the road, but was gone when they returned.

The creature followed their car to the Point Pleasant city limits before it broke off its pursuit.

The terrified couples reported their experience to Deputy Sheriff Millard Halstead.

"I’ve known these kids all their lives," Mason County Deputy Halstead said. "They’d never been in any trouble and they were really scared that night." He returned to the TNT area with the four, to the spot where they had initially seen the figure, to locate the cause of their fear.

As Halstead switched on his police radio, a loud screech came out of the speaker, like a garbled tape recording being played at very high speed. Noticeably shaken, the deputy quickly turned off the radio. They all left soon after and he reported the incident to his department.

Linda was in such a state that she was taken to the hospital.

Mason County Sheriff George Johnson called a press conference the very next day. Reporters interviewed all the witnesses. It was staffed by local journalist Mary Hyre, Point Pleasant correspondent for the Messenger, out of Athens, Ohio. The story was picked up by the wire services. Another newsman dubbed the creature "Mothman."

November 16, 1966 --- One of the families living in the desolate TNT area was that of Ralph Thomas. At about 9:00 p.m., Mr. Raymond Wamsley, 19, and Mrs. Cathy Wamsley, 18, with Mrs. Marcella Bennett, 21, carrying her young daughter, were ending a social call and walking back to their car when they disturbed something much too close to them on the Thomas property along White Church Road. That something seemed as if it had been lying down.

"It rose up slowly from the ground. A big, gray thing. Bigger than a man, with terrible, glowing, red eyes," reported Marcella Bennett, who became soterrified that she dropped her daughter and fell to the ground in shock. As the creature unfurled its huge wings, Raymond Wamsley snatched up the child and the witnesses ran back to the safety of the house, where they were let in by Ricky Thomas, 15, and sisters Connie and Vickie. The figure shuffled along behind them, coming onto the porch and looking through the window. They called the police, but the creature had vanished by the time help arrived. Marcella Bennett was so traumatized that she eventually sought medical attention.

November 17, 1966 --- Seventeen-year-old boy driving along Route 7 near
Cheshire, Ohio was pursued by giant bird for nearly a mile that afternoon.

November 18, 1966 --- Paul Yoder and Benjamin Enochs, two firemen from Point Pleasant, saw a giant bird with red eyes in the TNT area.

November 20, 1966 --- Several teenagers driving along Campbells Creek at night saw a man-sized bird standing beside a rock quarry. It scurried into the woods when the headlights hit it.

November 21, 1966 --- Richard West, of Charleston, West Virginia told police that a winged figure was sitting on the roof of his neighbor’s house. The six-foot tall winged figure with red eyes took off straight up, he said, "like a helicopter."

November 24, 1966 --- Two adults and two children spotted a giant creature with red eyes flying near the TNT area.

November 25, 1966 --- At 7:15 a.m., Tom Ury was driving north of the TNT area along Route 62 when his auto was circled and pursued by a giant bird. "It kept flying right over my car even though I was doing about seventy-five."

November 26, 1966 --- That evening, Mrs. Ruth Foster, a housewife in the St. Albans suburb of Charleston, West Virginia, looked out and discovered Mothman waiting in her front yard.

November 27, 1966 --- While driving home from church at 10:30 a.m., Connie Carpenter, 18, saw a gray figure standing on the deserted greens of the Mason County Golf Course near Mason, West Virginia. It was shaped like a man, but taller and broader. The creature unfolded a pair of wings and lifted off the ground, straight up, like a helicopter. Never seeing those wings flap once, she watched in absolute horror as the thing swooped low over her head in pursuit. She described the face as "horrible" and
"science-fiction-like" with glowing red eyes. The next few minutes were an exercise in her car's performance as she floored the accelerator in terror.

November 27, 1966 --- That evening, Sheila Cain, 13, and her younger sister were walking home from the store along Route 60, near that same St. Albans suberb when they saw something bigger than a man, gray and white with big red eyes standing next to the local junk yard. That something flew into the air and followed them as they ran to a neighbors home. The neighbor confirmed the sighting.

January 11, 1967 --- At 5:00 p.m., Mrs. Mabel McDaniel was walking near Tiny's restaurant in Point Pleasant when she saw "something" circle low overhead and soar down Route 62. The wings were motionless and she saw men's legs hanging down from it but no head or neck. It was totally silent.

November 2, 1967 --- Shortly after noon, Mrs. Ralph Thomas heard a "squeaky fan belt" outside her home and saw a "tall gray figure" moving among the concrete domes in the TNT Area.

THE C.U.T.E. FACTOR

Every year, clearly identifiable OOPS (Out Of Place Species) such as alligators, kangaroos, cougars, black panthers, giant condors, etc are discovered in places where they have never belonged. Without fail, each time this happens, all manner of experts (usually professors at some local college or curators from the nearest museum or zoo) appear and soberly inform the media that these witnesses are mistaken or that the creature obviously is an escaped pet or attraction from a traveling circus. Heaven
help those innocents who stumble across the likes of Mothman. Many learned men of science just know that these unexplained are delusions or alcohol-related. I call this perpetual reaction the Compulsive Urge To Explain (C.U.T.E.) Factor. It isn't pretty.

Although Mason County Sheriff George Johnson admitted that the witnesses had "seen something" unusual enough to frighten them, he quickly theorized (without the slightest trace of evidence) that it may have been an "oversized Shitepoke, possibly a freak of nature."

According to the Point Pleasant Register story of Thursday, November 17, 1966: "This bird is also known as a 'Shagpoke' and actually is a large bird with spindly legs, long wing spread, web-feet and lives around water, and makes a 'raucous noise,' they say. The bird... is sometimes referred to as a green heron and it roosts in the day and feeds at night."

Another United Press International release, datelined Point Pleasant, clarified things: "Johnson said he feels whatever everyone saw was nothing more than a 'freak shitepoke,' a large bird of the heron family. The shitepoke, or shag as it is sometimes known, is the smallest heron in the western hemisphere."

Let's set the record straight. These "experts" are confusing two entirely different birds. The Green Heron, known today as the Green-Backed Heron, is the runt of the normally diurnal heron family, measuring a terrifying 18-22 inches long. The Black-crowned Night-heron is the nocturnal suspect these "experts" are referring to. It is described as having a stocky build, with black cap and back, white belly, pale gray wings and unblinking red eyes that glow like fanned embers. Its scientific name, Nycticorax, means "night
raven." and in many places, this nocturnal heron is known as "the squawk" for its short and raucous croaking cry. Approach it and this shy bird retreats with a frantic flapping of wings and its namesake squawk. The Black-crowned Night-heron measures 23-28 inches long. A far cry from something "bigger than a man" in anyone's book.

Ralph Turner, a professor of journalism and mass communications at Marshall University, was a reporter at The Herald-Dispatch (Huntingdon, West Virginia) when the Mothman story broke. He came up with the bright idea that a reporter should spend the night in the TNT area where Mothman was first reported. City Editor Bill Wild went for the plan, and assigned the story to Turner and reporter/photographer Mike Hoback.

"I remember talking to people in the wee hours of the morning," Turner said. "I also remember being cold and damp and feeling slightly foolish.

"It was a hot thing at the time," Turner explained. "I don’t know if many people took it seriously, but it was a good conversation piece. We wanted to bring it to some kind of conclusion.

"I never really believed there was such a thing as Mothman." Turner confessed. Four days after the initial Mothman sighting of November 15, 1966, his news article began:

"The case of the Mason County monster may have been solved Friday by a West Virginia University professor. Dr. Robert L. Smith, associate professor of wildlife biology in WVU’s division of forestry, told Mason Sheriff George Johnson at Point Pleasant he believes the 'thing' which has been frightening people in the Point Pleasant area since Tuesday is a large bird which stopped off while migrating south.

"From all the descriptions I have read about this ‘thing’ it perfectly matches the sandhill crane," said professor Smith. "I definitely believe that’s what these people are seeing."

Duane Pursley, wildlife biologist and manager at McClintic Wildlife Station said he didn’t think a large bird, if it did exist, would stay in the area more than a day with all the commotion and hundreds of people searching for it. He suggested that maybe the "thing", crane, or whatever the people reported seeing, wasn’t as large as they thought it was during their excitement. "We have a lot of Canadian geese stop over here during migration periods."

A clipping from The Athens (Ohio) Messenger ended one begrudged Mothman report with "a number of hunters have reported seeing owls, larger than normal size, in the Mason County area."

"Owl? Goose? Prank: Or Take Your Choice" reads yet another timely headline from The Herald-Dispatch. It elaborated, "Despite the confusion, the reports are amusing, a sheriff’s deputy said today. The deputy said nearly everyone has voiced an opinion as to what they believed the people actually saw. They included: A large owl, a migrating goose and boys playing pranks with some type of rigged device."

Edward Pritchard, advisor to the Science Interest Club at Proctorville High School, told newspaper reporters that Mothman may only be one of the weather balloons released by his students. "The prevailing winds would carry them over Mason County." Pritchard chuckled. "Light catches these things in strange ways at some angles. Imagination can do the rest."

"Authorities here have concluded that the so-called Mason County monster was a large bird of some kind..." reported The Herald-Dispatch, hoping to put an end to it.

It certainly is time to put an end to this nonsense.

Never once has this author ever - even momentarily - mistaken an erect woodchuck for Sasquatch or a Great Blue Heron for some threatening pterodactyl or thunderbird.

Many years of personal experience dictates that instant recognition of small, fleeting creatures (fox, rabbit, skunk, raccoon) briefly entering the high beams of my car headlights takes very little effort. Even driving along at fifty-plus miles per hour, animal identification is easier still with larger species as deer and bears.

Some of these eyewitnesses got a really good look at Mothman.

"Raymond Wamsley, Mrs. Katherine Wamsley and Mrs. Marcella Bennett visited at the Ralph Thomas home Wednesday, a short distance from the TNT power plant where the 'creature' is supposedly domiciled. Mrs. Bennett, carrying her baby in her arms, started to her car and was suddenly confronted with the 'Bird of Paradise.' She screamed, and panic-stricken, dropped her baby and fell to the ground. She described the 'thing' as a huge, gray winged creature with large red eyes," stated yet another newspaper account.

Inviting ridicule and scorn, these eyewitnesses honestly told everyone what they saw.

What they encountered was not some straggly, pencil-legged Sandhill Crane, regarded as one of the wariest birds in the American wilderness.

"Bigger than a man... red eyes that glowed like fire when headlights hit them... huge wings..."

Canada goose, my ass!

Even decades later, supposedly intelligent and educated people still suggest totally ludicrous "explanations" for the unexplained. Such a "logical" explanation was recently offered:

The classic Mothman sightings were inspired by a common Barn Owl.

The Barn Owl (also known variously as the "White Owl," "Ghost Owl," "Spirit Owl," "Golden Owl," and "Monkey-faced Owl") is easily recognized. This distinctive, relatively small owl species grows 13 to 19 inches long with a wingspan stretching up to 44 inches. It weighs in at about a pound. Females are larger than males. It has long, feathered legs and makes a loud, rasping hiss, rather than hoot.

The Barn Owl has a white breast and buff, yellow and tawny shadings and red-brown speckles. Its heart-shaped facial disc of white, rimmed with tan, is arresting. There are no ear tufts. The eyes and beak are completely encircled. Their eyes are small and mahogany in color, rather than the familiar yellow. Barn Owls despise daylight. Being strictly nocturnal, they are the focus of many superstitions.

The Barn Owl stands an imposing sixteen inches tall.

Sixteen inches tall barely reach the kneecaps of most people.

Was it a common Barn Owl that ambled over to Marcella Bennett on November 16, 1966 and frightened this young mother so badly that she dropped her child to the cold, hard ground and collapsed herself out of shock and sheer terror?

EYES OF FIRE

"But it was those eyes that got us. It had two big eyes like automobile reflectors. They were hypnotic. For a minute we could only stare at it. I couldn't take my eyes off it."---Linda Scarberry

Were these demonic self-luminous eyes that glowed red of their own volition?

Bioluminescence? Like fireflies?

Or some kind of infrared vision?

This all-important characteristic of the Mothman has been distorted over time.

The original eyewitnesses here were very precise during initial interviews.

"Fiery-red eyes that glow when the lights hit it. There was no glowing about it until the lights hit it."---Linda Scarberry

"The dog was sitting on the end of the porch, howling down toward the hay
barn... I shined the (flash)light in that direction, and it picked up two
red circles, or eyes, which looked like bicycle reflectors. I certainly know
what animal eyes look like... these were much larger. It's a good length of
a football field to that hay barn... still those eyes showed up huge for
that distance." ---Newell Partridge

Here we find our first vital clues toward scientific reality.

Animals that prowl in the dark must have eyes that are more efficient in gathering the available light so that the animal can "see" in the dark. Eyes possessing two or more of the following characteristics identify creatures which spend time using their eyes in dim light:

1.) Night eyes should be large. The bigger the eyes, the more light they can collect.

2.) Night eyes should have big pupils. Bigger pupils let in more light.

3.) Night eyes should have lots of special cells, called rods, that help them see in the dark.

4.) Night eyes should have a reflector. A cat's eyes are perhaps its most striking feature, and never more so than at night, when they seem to glow in the dark with an almost supernatural light. A membrane behind the retina causes the spooky look.

Some creatures that spend part of their time using their eyes in dim light have a special reflective layer (using platelets of guanine crystals) that acts almost like a mirror at the backs of their eyes. You see, not all light is absorbed by visual pigments in the retina; some of it passes through. A mirrored layer called the tapetum (ta-PEE-tum) lucidum, a Latin term that translates as "bright carpet," behind the retina, reflects some of this light back through the retina so it has more chance of being captured. By bouncing the light that comes into their eyes, these animals effectively increase the amount of light available for their eyes to see with, and increase their ability to see in what we perceive as "darkness". Cats, partly due to the tapetum lucidum, can see clearly in just 1/6th the amount of light humans need. These animals lose some visual acuity this way, but make more efficient use of low light. Light that is not used exits through the pupil causing the "glow" of animal eyes often seen in car headlights. In other words, if you shine a flashlight or headlights into their eyes at night, their eyes shine back. This phenomenon is called "eyeshine."

Humans do not have a tapetum lucidum. People's eyes look red in some photographs, but it's not a reflector. "Red-eye" is the result of the brilliant camera flash bouncing off the red blood vessels and red tissue in the back of their eyes.

Animal eyeshine ID is an important clue for hunters as well as naturalists. Most cats and dogs have green eyeshine. Alligators have red eyeshine. Birdwatchers often refer to the color reaction to a bird's eyes when they have a light shined on them at night. Most owls have red eyeshine. Opossums have eyes that shine pink. At night, wolf spiders can be collected by taking advantage of their eyeshine. The light from a flashlight will reflect off ofthe tapetum located in the eyes of the spider.

Mothman was reported as having large red eyes. The eyes are front-facing and separated giving good (3-D) binocular vision. Eyeshine has been completely documented during Mothman encounters. This is solid evidence that the creature's eyes employ a mirror-like reflecting layer.

Over and over again, frightened witnesses suggested Mothman was "light-sensitive" and that the creature avoided bright light sources at all costs.

"It apparently is afraid of light." ---Steve Mallette

Have we a natural examples of this behavior?

Yes. The tapetum lucidum gives walleyes a built-in survival advantage. They can see well in dim light, but their prey cannot. This natural "night vision" explains why these fish do most of their feeding in dim light. But because of their light-sensitive eyes, walleyes will not tolerate sunlight. If the water is clear and there is no shade in the shallows, the fish may go as deep as 40 feet to escape the penetrating rays. But in dark or choppy waters, walleyes can remain shallow all day.

Perhaps the light-sensitive eyes of the Mothman were slow to recover from the blinding effects of automobile headlights and other brilliant light sources at night.

Previously ignored facts recorded by independent witnesses plainly indicated that Mothman had eyes that were more efficient in gathering the available light so that this creature could "see" in the dark and that it behaved accordingly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Born March 3, 1952, Robert A. Goerman is a native of New Kensington, Pennsylvania. You've seen him on Unsolved Mysteries and The Unexplained on the Lifetime and A&E cable television networks. The History Channel found him working on both sides of the camera for History's Mysteries and Incredible But True? His writings have appeared in national magazines and served as source material for several popular books on the paranormal.