The Monster of the Appalachia

[This post is for my Digital and Multimedia Writing class project: Webify a Text]

If you've ever lived in New England, chances are you've heard of a certain creature at one point or another. Maybe you heard of it in the news or by your mother in one of her famous anecdotes. A creature of unknown origins haunting a small town in West Virginia. Believed to be the cause of numerous disasters and witnessed by many individuals, yet no solid proof can be found. 

This creature in question is known as the Moth Man... (Queue dramatic music)

Described as a tall, dark, bird-like creature with glowing red eyes, this monster has brought devastation to the North Eastern United States since the 60s. But is there any truth to this creature? Is it just a product of a mass hallucination going on for the last 60 years? Let's go through a brief history of the Moth Man and you decided for yourself.

According to this site, one of the first sightings of the creature was on November 12th, 1966 in Clendenin, West Virginia as two gravediggers claimed they saw a dark figure flying overhead as they worked. Three days later, a couple in Point Pleasant claimed that a winged creature stood in front of their car as they were going for a night-time drive. In this archive of a 1966 newspaper, two men known as Roger Scarberry and Steve Mallett claimed to have also seen the creature and swore that they were not drunk at the time. 

"It was like a man with wings," Mallette said. "It wasn't like anything you'd see on TV or in a monster movie..." excerpt from https://web.archive.org/web/20071011230219/http://www.westva.net/mothman/1966-11-16.htm

It would be seen several more times after these initial sightings. Described as a 10 foot tall humanoid creature with massive wings. Could fly '100 miles an hour' according to one report. Though also reported to be a terrible runner. Several claimed they were interviewed by men in suits after all the sightings began. 

Many rationalized it as it being due to the construction being done at the time as many sightings were near a TNT area. Claiming the sightings were only the silhouettes of cranes or owls. There were those who had claimed it was an angel gracing the Earth. But that would soon be dismissed as the next sighting brought devastation to many. 

On December 15th, 1967, disaster struck as the Silver Bridge that spanned from Point Pleasant, West Virginia to Gallipolis, Ohio fell. The death toll; 46 confirmed. Prior to this travesty, many accounts claimed that moments before the bridge fell, that same Bird-like figure was seen flying over the bridge. According to the West Virginia Department of Transportation, the collapse was due to a single link on the Ohio side of the bridge failing. Without going into the technical jargon, the cause was a crack in the link that had grown from corrossion. When it snapped, the whole 1,460' bridge collapsed in a mere 20 seconds. 

[At 5 p.m. on December 15, 1967, eyewitnesses recall, there was a loud gunshot-like noise and, “folding like a deck of cards” in less than 20 seconds, the entire 1460-foot suspended portion of the Silver Bridge collapsed into the river, taking with it 32 vehicles and 46 victims, including two whose bodies were never found.] Excerpt from https://transportation.wv.gov/highways/bridge_facts/Modern-Bridges/Pages/Silver.aspx

More sightings prior to disasters have happened since then. Most famously was several sightings just before the Towers collapsing on 9/11. 

So is Moth Man real or not? I hope you'll do more research and see for yourself. He's one of many interesting cryptids I plan to write more about in this blog. For more information, try this video on Moth Man from Monstrum!