 By Robert A. Goerman
They called it "Mothman."
Eyewitness accounts, ultimately from over one hundred people, from November 1966 until December 1967, described a winged creature that stood taller and broader than a man, walked 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.
The incidents began on 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, West Virginia.
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 this operation created to supply TNT for the war effort.
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 looking for friends who might also be out that night.
Their search paused at the North Power Plant.
"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."
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.
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.
Linda was in such a state that she was taken to the hospital.
Mason County Sheriff George Johnson called a press conference the next day. Reporters interviewed all the witnesses. The story was picked up by the wire services. One newsman dubbed the creature "Mothman."
Heaven help those innocents who stumble across monsters. Many learned men of science just know that these phenomena are delusions or alcohol-related. The author labels this perpetual reaction the Compulsive Urge To Explain (C.U.T.E.) Factor. Despite the acronym, 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 recognition of small, fleeting creatures (fox, rabbit, skunk, raccoon) briefly entering the high beams of 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.
One of the families living in the desolate TNT area was that of Ralph Thomas. At about 9:00 p.m., November 16, 1966, 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.
"It rose up slowly from the ground. A big, gray thing. Bigger than a man, with terrible, glowing, red eyes," reported Marcella Bennett, who screamed, and panic-stricken, dropped her baby and fell to the ground in shock. As the creature unfurled its huge wings, Raymond Wamsley snatched up the child and herded 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. 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 reaches the kneecaps of most people.
Was it a common Barn Owl that ambled over to Marcella Bennett 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?
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