The Mothman

Point Pleasant, West Virginia The year is 1966, and the sleepy mountain town of Point Pleasant, nestled between the Appalachian mountains and the Ohio River, lives up to its charming name. But the sighting of a towering, winged being near the town's abandoned TNT factory will send this close knit community, and eventually, the entire world, into a mass hysteria of untold proportions.

Witnesses would describe this creature as a “large flying man with ten-foot wings” and "glowing red eyes" that gave chase to cars speeding away at one hundred miles per hour, lurked near the TNT plant, and even swooped from the skies to carry away unsuspecting pets. Point Pleasant residents that had never locked their doors now sat awake into the darkest hours of the night with hunting rifles and forbid their children from playing outside. The terror that gripped the small town and the numerous reports of encounters with "The Mothman” was, most likely, a product of the local papers' coverage of the first Mothman sighting and the collective delusion that emerged from the panic the articles caused. But, whether or not the red-eyed, humanoid creature was real or merely a figure of the town's imagination, the fear "The Mothman” brought to Point Pleasant was. And the Mothman hysteria was only confounded when hours after multiple reported sightings of the creature atop Point Pleasant Silver Bridge, an engineering flaw caused the bridge to collapse into the icy December waters below - killing forty six. The Mothman was no longer a mysterious winged figure haunting West Virginia skies, he was now a harbinger of certain disaster (Source: Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage).

Following the Silver Bridge collapse, the Mothman would be seen lurking near the Chernobyl power plant only hours before the explosion, in Japan before the 2011 tsunami, and in Moscow before the apartment bombings of 1999, just to name a few notable appearances. Now, in part due to investigative journalist John Keel's book The Mothman Prophecies and social media, the Mothman is an international phenomenon - but what do the students of Watauga High School know about the mencancing winged humanoid that originated in the small town of Point Pleasant, less than three hundred miles away?

Graph depicting results of a Watauga student survey.

What do Watauga students know or believe about Mothman? Despite Boone's relative proximity to the Mothman legend, about a fourth of Watauga students had never heard of West Virginia's winged harbinger of doom. And though there were a few students who had ample knowledge of the Mothman, many had interesting misconceptions about the identity of the cryptid. Despite the wide range of Mothman related knowledge, most students did seem to agree on the Mothman's origin in Appalachian folklore. Scroll down to view a collection of students responses and how close they are to the actual legend, and last but not least, a students personal encounter with the Mothman.

most Random

1. I've watched one or more Penguinz0 (youtube) videos about it but I don't remember anything.

2. Something like bigfoot?

3. It is a tall black demon with long wings and red eyes and if you see it something bad is going to happen but not for me because he is my best friend

4. I know theres a statue of him somewhere and i watched a horror movie where he was evil one time

5. There is a big statue of him and people leave money in the cheeks of the statue

The Conglomerate theory

1. As far as I know Mothman is just a conglomerate of many normal sized moths rather than a huge human-sized moth.

The bridge

1. I think he lives under a bridge. I'm not sure?

2. It's a creature from West Virginia that can be found under bridges.

3. He is a humanoid sort of figure that is seen before something really bad happened, he was first seen around the 50s and before some bridge collapsed.

4. He made a bridge collapse? I don't know.

5. Yes. I've heard about people seeing him on bridges a few hours or days before they collapse.

6. If he is real he's probably a omen of bad things (the bridge collapse) and most likely not evil but more benevolent.

half man, half moth...

1. I believe that hes is a large moth with the build of a man that stalks at night.

2. The mothman is a mythical being that from my knowledge originates from the appalachian mountains who resembles a huge moth that kinda looks like a man.

3. Moth man is a man who is a also a moth

4. he is a giant moth guy who would reportedly chase people around.

5. I know he's an anthropomorphic moth man hybrid

6. Mothman is a humanoid creepy moth guy

7. He is a man/moth-like creature that scares people and i think most of the legends are from farther up in the northeast of the US.

8. he is from like virgina or somthing and he is a moth

9. he's a guy that's a moth

10. I'm guessing he like half moth half man

11. He's a man that's a moth that has red eyes

12. The mothman is an urban folklore prevalent in the south, its like part man part moth and comes out during the night or something.

The mothman's appalachian origins

1. Its' an Appalachian folk lore story.

2. That he is a humanoid figure with wings and red eyes, and is said to be associated with death and tragedy, and that he is in Appalachia region.

3. He is a large winged cryptid, native to the Appalachian mountains. Most stories I believe come from Virginia and West Virginia.

4. I don't know much, but I have heard that Mothman is a cyptid in Appalachian folklore. He is depicted as a large black humanoid moth with red eyes.

5. I don't know a lot about Mothman...I just know he's an Appalachian urban legend

most accurate responses

1. I don't believe in him but I know he supposedly lives in Point Pleasant, West Virginia in the Appalachian mountains (many cryptids and creatures of folklore live in the appalachian mountains). He is apparently not aggressive but is a harbinger of doom that appears before great disasters. He doesn't cause these disasters, but simply warns of them. He has become a fan favorite in the cryptid community and Point Pleasant, I personally find him fascinating, and think he's pretty cool, even though I don't believe in him (nor any other cryptid, for that matter).

2. I know that the most famous sighting was in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. There is a statue of The Mothman that you can visit there to this day. Some think of The Mothman as a prophet of disaster. After one of the first Mothman sightings (by a couple in a car) a bridge nearby collapsed. It's alleged that The Mothman has the ability to predict disasters like this and a book was even written about it called, I believe, The Mothman Prophesies. Thats all I can remember off the top of my head.

3. In Point Pleasant he was seen about a year leading up to the collapse of there bridge. He is later seen at Chernobyl with these two main sittings he is seen as a warning of disaster to come.

4. I know just about anything or any beliefs people have about him. The Mothman, a West Virginian cryptid and urban legend (particularly around the Point Pleasant area) is a local celebrity, described as having the wings of a moth, as well as the grey, furry skin, on the form of a man. It’s often described as having two large, red, glowing eyes that shine in the dark. It was reported being seen on the Point Pleasant bridge shortly before it collapsed, and then again at a mine, seen shortly before it collapsed. After these incidents, it has been associated with incoming disaster. Some people believe that it’s a harbinger of these disasters, whereas others believe that it’s trying to warn people.

5. The moth-man was first reported in point pleasant west Virginia. As the story goes two couples were driving in their car together late at night when a giant winged man started chasing their car. Reportedly the Mothman kept up with the car going eighty to a hundred miles an hour. Later, the Mothman was spotted on a local bridge. That bridge would later collapse. People now believe that the Mothman is a warning of bad to come. Furthermore, before Chernobyl there was a black bird man spotted now dubbed The Black Bird of Chernobyl. Black birds have always been seen as harbingers of death or bad times and so was the Mothman.

A personal encounter...?

1. I saw him when I was looking for my cat at night, I saw red eyes and a large silhouette perched on top of the power line pole. I looked at it for a few seconds before running inside and telling my mom I was scared to go back outside because of it but she laughed at me and said I was foolish. I know that hes big, big red eyes like a moth, and wings, and scary, and originated in Virginia and is a story carried throughout the Appalachian mountains.