The History of Mothman.

I don't know about the book, but my husband is 53 years old and grew up in Pt. Pleasant. He was there when all of this happened.

The people that saw this creature had no motivation to lie. They were respected known citizens of the county. Something was there, but no one ever saw him in TNT. I have been there many times and it looks very surreal. The branches to all of the trees are twisted as in a horror movie. It is a wildlife refuge but everyone from Pt. Pleasant knows not to eat anything from there. They are actually trying to clean up the land as we speak.

The bridge fell because the bridge inspector was a relative of someone in the county(I can't remember his name right now) and had no bridge inspecting experience. He got the job through nepotism. He had recently inspected the bridge and said all was right with the world. It was a Friday evening and as is the habit even today people go to Gallipolis to eat, go to the store and generally have a good time. Upon inspection after the fall they found major stress cracks in the bridge.

The jail blew up also. There was a woman in the jail who had been arrested for starving her child to death. It was an infant. Her husband showed up with a suitcase full of dynamite and told the Sheriff Pete Wedge that he was taking his wife out of the jail. No one knows if he was trying to free her or wanted to kill her. The jail was cleared. Several deputies said this goes above and beyond the call of duty and left. They were initially fired but got their jobs back.Anyway Pete Wedge tried to shoot her husband and shot the briefcase that was actually holding dynamite and blew up the jail. Windows shook for 3 blocks.

We watched the movie and it was amazing how they tried to blame everything on the Mothman. If you ask most people in Pt. Pleasant they will tell you that their bad luck and demise of the town actually comes from Chief Cornstalk and the curse he put on the town. The Ohio River is the only thing separating Ohio and West Virginia and yet Ohio by the standards of W VA thrives as they flounder.

I don't know the origins of the Mothman but do know the town of Pt. Pleasant erected the statute of the Mothman after the movie. It sits in front of Tu Endi Wei Park and they did it in hopes that tourism would come to the town after the movie. There were a lot of articles in the paper about it.

As for the person who has spent time looking into this (earlier post) if you U2U me I can have my husband talk to you. He knows far more about it than I do and I know a lot having been married to him all these years. He actually knows and knew some of the people this happened to. It is a small town.

Originally posted by seejanerun
As for the person who has spent time looking into this (earlier post) if you U2U me I can have my husband talk to you. He knows far more about it than I do and I know a lot having been married to him all these years. He actually knows and knew some of the people this happened to. It is a small town.

[edit on 11/20/2008 by yeahright]

Here are a few more occurances that have happened in Point Pleasant over the years.

1913: Flooding on both the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers nearly destroyed Point Pleasant.

1937: Flooding again on the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers nearly destroy Point Pleasant again for the second time in nearly thrity years. Meanwhile, flooding down river in Huntington left parts of that city under fifteen plus feet of water. This event was the catalyst for the construction of the floodwalls for both Huntington and Point Pleasant.

1953: Six men from Point Pleasant were killed just before Christmas when the barge they were standing on exploded.

One thing that is never mentioned about the Silver Bridge collapse is the ramifications that were set into effect after the disaster. This disaster brought about swift changes in bridge inspection and maintenance. At the time, there was no possible way that the miniscule crack that was on the eyebar could have been detected with the technology they had at the time of the disaster.

Originally posted by jitombe
reply to post by gimmefootball400

 

Please don't take this as a personal attack against you but I talk to people nationwide daily and the people from West Virginia have got to be some of the dumbest people in this country. Nothing personal, just an observation and I'm fine with you calling me the dumbest person on this planet if it makes you feel better. As for mothman, blah blah blah blah.

West Virginians are the dumbest, what state do you live in? You can't base someones stupidity based on where they live. It's just like believing that all blondes are stupid.

You brought up two different things. The first one I feel has no place in this conversation. I mean I think the mothman is an interesting topic. But not as infamous as the Braxton county monster of Flat Woods.

I admit, there are some dumb people that live here. However I don't think that I am one of those dumb residents. The dumb residents are the ones that like to do ninety to one hundred miles per hour on a curvy interstate. I find the Mothman Mystery intresting because of what has happened around the Point Pleasant area in the past two and a half centuries. Also, the Mothman Mystery is not as well known as the Braxton County Monster. This happened back in 1952 when those ufos were causing chaos over Washington, D.C. Frank Feschino has written extensively about the Braxton County Monster and happenings related to that sighting.

Originally posted by Ronnie K.

Originally posted by jitombe
reply to post by gimmefootball400

 

Please don't take this as a personal attack against you but I talk to people nationwide daily and the people from West Virginia have got to be some of the dumbest people in this country. Nothing personal, just an observation and I'm fine with you calling me the dumbest person on this planet if it makes you feel better. As for mothman, blah blah blah blah.

West Virginians are the dumbest, what state do you live in? You can't base someones stupidity based on where they live. It's just like believing that all blondes are stupid.

You brought up two different things. The first one I feel has no place in this conversation. I mean I think the mothman is an interesting topic. But not as infamous as the Braxton county monster of Flat Woods.

Ronnie, I would'nt read in to it, lets face it, what did they contribute to the discussion? nil, thats what. There are 'dumb' people all over, I see them every day on my commute into Chicago... but thats all OT anyways.

I agree, the Mothman story is a fascinating one, as is the Braxton County Monster (why isn't there a thread about that??) I have to say that I feel the demise of the 'life' in Point Pleasant is more on a down to earth level than the alleged curse of cornstalk. It would appear that there is not much money being pumped into the area, which means that even the little mom and pop places can't survive. Myself and my girlfriend went there for a visit, and the place is like a ghost town, but across the river, yeah, there is a bit more going on, although I wouldn't say the place was kicking or anything. The major lifeline to PP was the road straight into it, which crossed the Silver Brige, and once you sever a major artery, you lose a lot of blood, in this case, through traffic and therefore business. It's sad really, as I could imagine it was quite a little hub of activity back in the day.

just a side note about something the OP mentioned in the first post, Mothman wasn't reported to be 'half man half moth', it was given the name by a reporter, playing on the popularity of the Batman TV show that was popular at the time.

[edit on 3/5/2009 by Genus_Unknown]

[edit on 3/5/2009 by Genus_Unknown]

idk if this was already posted, but I watched a video where they interviewed people and one speculated it was an aliens pet.
idk i just remembered hearing that.o\h, and I live in west virginia, btw

reply to post by gimmefootball400


a lot of people believe the mothman is what i saw three years ago in my backyard

(wont go into it)

but ive always had mixed feelings on the existance and credibility of the mothman

Just for fun, I ran across an alleged photo of Indrid Cold today. The guy is sorta peculiar-looking yet passable for human.

houseofboyd.com...

Good lord! that is one creepy looking individual!

This is where the line gets hazy with the whole Mothman/Point Pleasant weirdness, as this falls under the whole UFO phenomena, where Mothy falls into another hazy area of cryptid/paranormal (more likely the latter).

reply to post by Genus_Unknown


Well, I just finished the Mothman Prophecies this morning and was wanting to see some photographs of the different players if I could. I googled Woodrow Derenberger and this popped up!

I have no doubt that the things did happen there in West Virginia. I am not too sure of Keel's accounts, I mean I believe some of it, but he may have been so deep into the whole mess that he imagined some of it.

The thing I can't figure out is how Keel stated that these odd people were popping up taking photos of him and the contactees, but none of them, I mean Keel, the lady reporter Mary Hyre, Derenberger, etc. none of them took pictures of anything. I don't understand that. Everyone and I mean everyone had a polaroid camera in the 60's.

reply to post by Genus_Unknown


Hey have you seen (heard) this interview of Derenberger?

Someone also claims Indrid Cold was in a different town (not Point Pleasant), well I don't know what that's about.


www.freewebs.com...


[edit on 4-6-2009 by Bombeni]

reply to post by Bombeni


Derenberger claimed to have seen Indrid Cold on the night of November 2nd, 1966. This after a kerosene lamp-shaped ufo landed in front of his vehicle. Now keep in mind that this was over a week before the sightings of Mothman were to have began. What gets me about it though is that Cold just seemed to have up and disappeared after the Mothman sightings, the Men In Black visits, and the ufo sightings had ceased.

reply to post by gimmefootball400



I finished the John Keel book a few days ago, wow a LOT of information there, lol. I am still absorbing it in fact I find myself going back through the book several times to see if what I thought I read, I really read! lol

I read at another site today, someone posted that the movie was fictionalized, they THOUGHT, but when they watched it the second time they realized the movie portrayed the true events perfectly. Well, I have to mull that over because I don't connect the movie with the book that way.

I don't understand why the Mothman/Indrid Cold/Silver Bridge etc etc is not a daily discussion here. In my opinion, the events that took place in West Viginia in 1966-67 are the most bizarre yet unquestionably valid events in recorded history.

Also, do you know of any websites/forums where people are discussing the Mothman Prophecies?



[edit on 9-6-2009 by Bombeni]

I can tell you why it is not a daily discussion on here. Not a lot of people on here are from West Virginia. Nor do a lot of West Virginians know the legend behind the Mothman sightings. Some people doubt the sightings ever occurred in the first place. What I also find interesting is the number of ufo sightings in Eastern Ohio and Western West Virginia that were going on at this time. I believe another reason as to why it is not followed is due to the lack of evidence to either support or deny the existance of the mothlike creature. I for one do not doubt that something out of the ordinary went on around here from November of 1966 to December of 1967. What still baffles me about these events though is that people still blame Mothman for the collapse of the Silver Bridge. If there was a reason as to why Mothman appeared, I do not believe it was for evil intentions.

One thing that most people do not realize is that the locations of these sightings either at one time existed or still exist to this day. The site of the West Virginia Ordnance Works, a.k.a. The TNT Area, is now an airport, an industrial complex, and home to the McClintic Wildlife Management Area.

The again.........
If Mothman does not exist in any shape or form. Then what were people seeing in the skies over the Ohio River Valley in 1966 and 1967? I for one do not think that it was a Giant Condor.

S and F'd Gimme
Here are some videos if people need them (not too advanced) but gives a good visual

press play...mothman episode

www.aetv.com...

I read somewhere dat moth man got killed by a moth ball

reply to post by purplemer


I do not know what or where you saw that. I can probably tell you this about the article though. The article that you saw probably does not have a clue about the Mothman Mystery or it was in a tabloid magazine. One thing is for certain though. That is there have been sightings of Mothman reported from around the world.





[edit on 9-6-2009 by gimmefootball400]

reply to post by gimmefootball400


I don't think it was a condor either. It stood on two legs, many described the legs as man-like, and those giant red eyes, creepy.

My sons and their gf's said they might go with me to the Mothman festival. They aren't really into the phenomena of it, but for a long time we've had these family jokes about shape-shifting and skinwalkers, and, WV is a beautiful part of the country they haven't seen.