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curious-wildflower · 3 years

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Mothman The Seconded Most American Cryptid Of All

Straight up first is bigfoot.

Anyhow, not here for him so let’s talk Mothman: calamity and capitalism. Everyone who knows anything about cryptids knows Mothman, people are very thirsty for him, he has that statue with the fine steel ass, have a festival for him the 3rd weekend of September, all over Point Pleasant you can find capitalism at it’s finest marketing everything for shirts to pizzas about Mothman.

Below I will be listing the Mothman sightings I know of before sharing my own thought upon it all, also to note I will not be including those that are about large birds which supposedly had wide wings (of which there are many) because I feel like that’s creeping into Thunderbird territory and I’m not looking at. You can also see where it went from your average small-town UFO/Creature sightings into well what it is today.

1960- Shirley Hensley and her family lived on the outskirts of Huntington, West Virginia. Their house was located on Crotty street also known as 31st Street Hill. Shirley said that she and her family would often hear odd noises and see "two big, red eyes….. You could hear the grunting noise as it bumped up against the house and the leaves crackling - [as it walked.] We could also hear a gargling type of sound, and then a very loud scream would come out...and it was a blood-curdling scream like nothing I had ever heard before or since."

Growing up as a poor child of nine "[they] all took turns getting the water [from the well], and [they] had a rule that [they] had to get the water in before dark - that is when this thing always came around. [They] never saw it in the daylight, so everyone knew that they had to bring in the water before dark. It would come around one or two nights for about three weeks, and then it would go away. This went on for about three years."

Her father once attempted shooting it once when it was digging around in the neighbour’s coal pile out front, “he shot at it and it let out a loud scream and started running towards the hill.” Her "dad was a little angry, because he had told [her] sister Mary to stay in the house, but she had witnessed the whole thing while standing behind him. She said it was a big, tall black shiny thing with big red eyes. [The] dad described it as at least 7ft [(2.1m)] tall, and that it had very long arms that went down past its knees and that when it ran up the hillside the arms stayed down at its side…it ran in an awkward manner.” And that it’s eyes “looked like red bicycle reflectors”

1961- A woman and her elderly father was driving on Route 2 along the Ohio River on the West Virginia side. As they passed through Chief Cornstalk Hunting Grounds, in the middle of the road suddenly she slowed as “A big grey figure. It stood in the middle of the road. Then a pair of wings unfolded from its back and they practically filled the whole road. It almost looked like a small airplane. Then it took off straight up...disappearing out of sight in seconds.” Terrifeid she stepped on the gas, and got out of there, and decided once having spoken with her father about it not to share the encounter out of fear of reticule.

1965 - A woman living on the Ohio River, was amused when her seven-year-old son ran into the house one day and excitedly told her that he had seen "An angel . . . A man with wings". She assumed it was just his imagination and thought no more about it, until the next year.

1966- Early summer the wife of a doctor in the Ohio valley, was in her backyard when a 6ft (1.8m) long thing soared past her very rapidly. She thought it resembled a "giant butterfly" and she dared to mention the incident to only a few people.

August Sometime, Jefferson Avenue Point Pleasant WV, Lawrence Gray was coming home from church when he got the strange sense that something was in his house as he approached the steps at around 9:30PM. He lived in a small white house on Jefferson Avenue across from Wesleyan Church. As he entered his house, the feeling of dread grew stronger but he didn’t find anything when he searched around other than the hook-style lock on his basement door being unlatched. Lawrence and his wife went to sleep around 10:30 or 11:00PM. At around 3AM, he found himself awake and looking out the window by his bedside as a car pulled into the nearby church and the bright streetlight illuminated the street below.

Lawrence turned his head to see a 6ft (1.8m) tall glowing figure with deep eyes and large wings standing with its shoulders arched and its head tilted. The figure was described as “lunar” in coloration meaning dirty grey and white like the surface of the moon. When Lawrence saw the being, he was paralysed. He was convinced that it was “the devil”. The encounter went on for about 45 seconds. Lawrence said that when he focused on Bible verses, the creature vanished.

September 1st, Mrs. James Ikart of Scott Mississippi was astonished to see a man flying around above the Pine Land Plantation. She telephoned the Delta Democrat Times, Greenville, Mississippi and a reporter armed with cameras was rushed to the scene, once arrived he found several people staring at the sky, all claiming that they had seen an object shaped like man manoeuvring overhead. "It got down pretty low and then would go up," Mrs. Ikart told him. "I have never seen anything like this before."

November 1st, Armory near Camp Conley Road, Point Pleasant WV, a national guardsman at the armoury near Camp Conley road in Pt Pleasant WV claimed to have seen a large brown humanoid figure perched on the limb of a tree.

November 12th, Reamer Hill Cemetery near Clendenin WV, Kenneth Duncan Robert “Bob” Lovejoy, William “Bill” Poole, Andrew Godby and Emil Gibson were digging a grave for Kenneth’s father-in-law, Homer Smith, in a cemetery near Clendenin, West Virginia. Claimed to see a man-like figure that flew out from some nearby trees and glided low over their heads, the creature was brown and in sight for about a minute and that it didn’t look like any kind of bird but seemed to be humanoid, like a man with wings.

November 15th, Abandoned North Power Plant building, TNT Area, Mason County WV & Route 62, Point Pleasant WV. Two young married couples Linda Scarberry, Roger Scarberry, Steve Mallette and Mary Mallette were joyriding around in a black ’57 Chevy to a hangout spot north of Point Pleasant known as The TNT Area. When they suddenly saw two circular fiery red eyes next to the abandoned North Power Plant. They said the grey man-like figure was 6 to 7ft (1.8 -2.1m) tall with folded wings behind it’s back. They quickly drove off on Route 62. The couples then saw the creature on a hill by a large billboard. It spread it’s 10ft (3m) wings, went straight up into the air and began gliding over the car.

When they got to a straight stretch of road, they were going about 100mph but the thing was still able to follow them. They were only able to get away from the creature when they reached the edge of Point Pleasant. The monster disappeared, veering off into a field as they entered town.

After stopping at the local Dairyland to discuss what to do next, the teens decided to head back onto Route 62 to see if it was still there before they drove back into town, stopped at the local Tiny’s Diner and contacted the police.

Deputy Millard Halstead accompanied them back The TNT Area but found no clear sign of the creature. The witnesses however claimed to see red eyes, shadows and dust being kicked up nearby. They also reportedly heard a strange noise that sounded like a squeak or a record being sped up. The Mallettes accompanied Linda and Roger back to the Scarberry home where they stayed awake all night from fear.

The next day, Sheriff George Johnson held a press conference and newspaper reports began being written. By that night, the TNT area was filled with cars of people looking for the monster. While the locals simply called it “The Bird”, the newspapers named the creature “Mothman”.

November 16th, Point Pleasant WV – Housing within the TNT Area. 21-year-old Marcella Bennett, her 2-year-old daughter Tina, her 19-year-old brother Raymond Wamsley and his 18-year-old wife Cathy Wamsley went to visit their relatives. Raymond and Marcella’s sister Virginia Thomas lived within the TNT Area with her husband Ralph Thomas.

When the group arrived at the residence, they found that the only ones home at the time were the Thomas children, 15-year-old Rickie and his two sisters Vickie and Connie. After exchanging a few words, the Bennetts and Wamsleys headed back to their car. It was about 9pm now and that’s when they spotted some strange lights in the sky hovering above the trees. Raymond stopped at the bottom of the steps and tried to get Marcella’s attention. She ignored him and began walking to the car, carrying her daughter.

She said she saw creature out of the corner of her eye as she was unlocking the car door and that it stood up from behind her parked vehicle. She first saw men’s legs which looked to be covered with grey feathers. It had wings drawn in toward the body and its head was tilted sideways and sunken into the shoulder area. Marcella described the creature as over 6ft tall, like a giant bird yet also a man. Raymond and his wife Cathy were both very frightened and kept yelling for Marcella to run, but she was paralysed by fear. When Marcella finally managed to turn she took only a few steps towards the house before falling to the ground in a state of shock on top of her daughter. She was unable to get up as if in a trance.

Marcella heard the flapping of wings as she was trying to run. After pulling herself together, she picked up her child and ran into the house. The family locked themselves inside. Marcella’s hands and knees were badly scrapped and bruised. She had been burned from her lit cigarette and the side of her face was bleeding from where she had fallen. The children inside were all screaming and crying in panic. Raymond Wamsley frantically phoned the sheriff’s department. By this time Marcella was lying on the sofa and could hear him telling them to get to The TNT Area because they’d seen the monster. He said they were locked in the house but that it was still outside.

The bird creature is said to have shuffled onto the porch, pushed on the door and peered into the windows. It took the police about 15 to 20 minutes to arrive but the creature was gone by the time they got there. They came with guns drawn and searched all around the property. The front yard was soon full of police cars and curious people. Raymond talked to the police and filled out a report.

November 17th Route 7 near Cheshire Ohio, a teenage boy driving on Route 7 reportedly saw a grey man-shaped bird creature with red eyes and 10ft (3m) wingspan. The creature pursued the witness’s automobile for about a mile.

November 18th TNT Area – Point Pleasant WV, Point Pleasant volunteer firemen Benjamin Enochs and Captain Paul Yoder supposedly sighted a huge bird-like creature with large red eyes while in the TNT area unlike anything they’d seen before.

November 20th Dixie, Nicholas County WV, Howard Miller reportedly saw a 4ft (1.4m) tall bird with red half-moons under the eyes which landed on a school bus shelter in Dixie, Nicholas County WV.

Same day near Campbell’s Creek WV six teenagers claimed to see a grey red-eyed man-sized creature. On that night, Brenda Jones and four other teenagers driving along Campbell’s Creek saw a man-sized bird-creature standing beside a rock quarry by view of their car’s headlights. It turned and ran into the woods.

November 21st, Charleston WV, Richard West phoned Charleston police and talked with Patrolman D.L Tucker. He reported that a 6ft (1.8m) tall man with red eyes and a 6 to 8ft wingspan was sitting on a roof near his home. West said that it flew like a helicopter straight up into the air.

November 24th, Point Pleasant WV two adults and their two children reported a giant red-eyed flying creature.

November 27th Route 33, near New Haven WV, 18-year-old Connie Carpenter was driving home at 10:30 AM passed the old Mason County Golf Course outside of New Haven WV when she saw a large grey 7ft tall man-like figure with glowing red hypnotic eyes which caused her to almost run her car off the road. The 10ft(3m) wings unfolded from the creatures back and it rose straight up into the air then headed toward Connie’s windshield. When she accelerated forward, the creature flew over the top of the car and Connie raced home. She developed conjunctivitis for over two weeks afterwards supposedly caused by staring into creature’s glowing red eyes.

On the same evening at Route 60 near St. Albans WV, 13-year-old Sheila Cain and her younger sister were walking home from the store in St. Albans WV when they saw a large 7ft (2.1m) grey and white creature with big red eyes standing next to the local junk yard. Shelia screamed and they ran away stating that the creature flew up into the air and pursued them. They ran into a neighbour’s house who confirmed their sighting.

November Sometime in the TNT Area, North Power Plant, Mason County WV, Bob Bosworth and his friend Alan Coates were riding around Alan’s motorcycle towards the TNT Area along Camp Conley Road. When they arrived at the abandoned North Power Plant they saw what appeared to be two red eyes looking at them from the roof of the old building. They thought perhaps someone had nailed some reflectors to a board. The two men tried to turn and the lift the front of the motorcycle to shine it’s headlight at the roof but it was too heavy. They decided to go up into the building to check it out. As they began entering, the red lights seemed to turn to watch them.

Moonlight illuminated much of the power plant’s interior through the large industrial size windows. Within the shadowed section of the building, towards the back, a large 6’6″ to 7ft (1.8-2.1m) tall figure walked forward; stepping across the broken glass covered flooring. The figure in the dark had broad shoulders and its head appeared to be sitting on its shoulders with no visible neck like an upside down letter “U” which tapered to its body like a robin. It came within about 6 feet of Bob and Alan and just stood there. Bosworth, to see if it was a person, said aloud that he was going to shoot the creature. He put his hand in his coat as if to reach for something but the figure remained motionless and silent.

Eventually, the creature slowly turns it’s body towards the decaying metal grate catwalks within the power plant and began walking along them. Bosworth shouted out to the figure, still unsure if it was a person, saying not to go onto the catwalks because they were dangerous and led outside to a multiple story drop they then heard something that sounded like wings, frightened the two men took off and left on Alan’s motorcycle.

On a late fall evening in November, TNT Area, North Power Plant, Mason County at about 11PM, after seeing a movie in Ohio, Faye Dewitt’s 16-year-old brother Carlisle who went by Topper drove Faye (14) and her younger siblings Betty, Ray and Jack in his car to the TNT Area. He reportedly took them there to prove that the creature they’d heard about from the kids at school didn’t exist. As they drove at about 50mph, Faye turned to see something running beside the truck. It had a human-like head and was covered in feathers with large ruby red eyes that took up most of it’s face. The creature was described as over 5ft tall and white-ish and tan in coloration.

Her older brother Topper drove around a sharp turn in an attempt to try to lose the creature but it kept up with them and continued to follow. In a panic, Faye’s younger siblings were hiding by ducking down in the floor of the truck with Betty huddled over Ray and Jack. Topper went around another sharp turn and stopped his car sideways in the road by the abandoned North Power Plant. Faye said the creature got on the roof of the car and looked at them through the windshield. It then stood up, jumped down off the vehicle and ran towards the power plant, the creature then jumped up to the top of the old three-story-high power plant and crouched like a gargoyle. Faye’s brother got out and began throwing rocks and pieces of coal at the creature.

When he threw a larger chunk of coal that landed by it’s foot, the creature stood up, turned sideways to looked at him and jumped down from the roof. Topper rushed back to the vehicle and closed the door. The creature spread out a pair of 5 to 6ft (1.5-1.8m) wings and flew off into the darkness, they then drove to the Mason County courthouse and told the deputy what happened.

December 6th in the TNT Area, Mason County WV a couple spotted a huge man-like grey figure with glowing red eyes.

December 7th Route 33, Ohip, four women describe a man-shaped flying creature with glowing red eyes, brownish and silver in coloration. Same night in the TNT Area, Mason County WV author John Keel arrived in Point Pleasant WV. After talking to Deputy Millard Halstead at the Mason County courthouse, he met with Mabel McDaniel who was the mother of Mothman witness Linda Scarberry. Mabel made several phone calls and assembled the witnesses for Keel to talk to. This included Linda and Roger Scarberry, Steve and Mary Mallette as well as Connie Carpenter and her aunt Mary Hyre who was the local reporter. After recording statements from the witnesses with a tape-recorder, at about 9PM Keel and the group that consisted of John Keel, Mary Hyre, the Scarberry and Mallettes, Mabel McDaniel, Connie Carpenter and her boyfriend Keith Aeiker decided to go the sighting location at the TNT Area with a flashlight.

They went through the old gate at the abandoned North Power Plant where Keel, Connie and Keith went into the building. Keel climbed the steel ladders and walked along the catwalks. After not finding anything, the trio went for the exit. As they were leaving Connie suddenly saw two large red glowing eyes by the back wall and screamed. Connie and Keith left the building in a panic but Keel went back in, shining his flashlight around and searching for something that could’ve made the red lights she saw.

Finding nothing he walked out of the North Power Plant and saw Deputy Alva Sullivan had joined the group. Mary Hyre told Keel that they’d seen a tall running figure and asked if it was him but he told her that he’d been in the building the whole time. Mabel McDaniel added that while Keel was in there, they had heard a loud hollow metallic sound like something metal had fallen. The whole group, except for Keel, said they had heard this. Mary Mallette’s ear also began bleeding seemingly without reason. The group drove back to the McDaniel residence and Mary Mallete’s ear eventually stopped bleeding. Keel returned to The TNT Area alone at about midnight. There he found what he described as a “zone of fear”. It was a spot in the road that was mysteriously fear-inducing each time he passed it yet he couldn’t figure out why.

December 8th, Route 35, WV, two women sight a shadowy figure seen on hilltop with two glowing red eyes.

December 11th, TNT Area a man and his son spot a man-shaped grey figure which quickly flew overhead. Same day Kathryn Beaver on Route 35, WV, sees a very large grey creature with glowing red eyes, flew past her car.

December of 1966 13th Street in Point Pleasant WV, A month after the Linda Scaberry’s initial Mothman sighting, she had moved in with her parents, Linda reportedly looked out the window and saw the creature sitting on the roof of the house which slanted down from the upstairs bedroom window, the creature’s wings were folded around itself as if to keep warm in the cold weather. Its head was tilted, looking curiously through the window. Linda said she views the creature as lonely and thought it didn’t want to hurt her but to communicate.

1967- January 11th, Tiny’s Diner, Route 62 , Point Pleasant WV, Mabel McDaniel (mother os Lina Scarberry) was walking near Tiny’s Diner when she saw a large brown creature with a 10ft (3m) wingspan flying over Route 62. At first she thought it was an airplane but it was flying very low. The creature had “men’s legs” hanging down from it, she didn’t see a head or a neck. It glided silently without flapping it’s wings. It circled the restaurant and then flew away.

March 12th, Letart Falls, Ohio, a woman reports a large flying being with long white hair and a 10ft wingspan which passed directly in front of her car.

May 19th, Route 62 TNT Area Pt Pleasant WV at about 10:30PM, while driving past the area, Brenda Stone and another woman witnessed what looked like a winged creature fly up to meet a UFO. The women claimed that they had seen a shadowy form with bright red lights like glowing eyes in the top of a tree near the road. A large hovering red light which looked to be a luminous object then appeared and approached the tree. The shadowy figure flew towards the red glowing object and vanished the UFO then flew out of sight to the north.

November 2nd, TNT Area Igloos, Point Pleasant WV, Virginia Thomas (sister to Marcella Bennett) was in the kitchen of her house when she heard a loud squeaking sound, she said was similar to a bad fan belt. Virginia stepped out on her front porch to investigate the noise and saw a large shadow across the grass field and a tall grey man-shaped figure moving quickly among the TNT Area igloos. The figure walked upright like a man but was much larger and moved amazingly fast in a gliding motion. It then disappeared into some nearby trees. After that sighting, Mrs. Thomas had several nightmares. One of which featured strange people along the river and an invasion of some sort coming over The Silver Bridge in trucks and going into the TNT Area. In the dream, the Thomas’ grab the kids and run. She wasn’t sure what the dream meant.

November Sometime, Chief Cornstalk Park WV, four male Hunters encountered a large grey figure with red eyes they were so frightened that they didn’t think to use their rifles until after it was gone.

December 15- The Silver Bridge was built in 1928 and named for the colour of its aluminium paint. The bridge was meant to be built with suspension cables but wanting to cut costs was made with the cheaper ear-bar chain suspensions instead, it carried U.S. Route 35 over the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio.

December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed under the weight of rush-hour traffic, resulting in the deaths of 46 people. Analysis showed that the bridge was carrying much heavier loads than it had originally been designed for and had been poorly maintained.

Paranormal author Gray Baler made a Mothman theory especially popular in 1970 with his book ‘The Silver Bridge’ where he made links between the bridge collapse and the Mothman sights turning the Mothman into a harbour of death or an omen of bad things to come.

Mothman’s origin story are said to be with Chief Hokoleskwa (spelled Colesqua in some accounts) also known as Keigh-tugh-qua and Wynepuechsika, "Cornstalk" by Anglo-Americans. Who lived 1720 – 1777 and was a prominent leader of the Shawnee nation just prior to the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783. When he along with other leaders of the seven nations of Indians in the area (the Shawnee, Delaware, Wyandot, Mingo, Miami, Ottawa and Illinois) formed a powerful confederacy to keep the white men from infringing on their territory opposed European settlement west of the Ohio river- where they wanted to take over 100,000 acres/156.25 square miles/4.05 square meters of Indian land, they attacked. Over the years of death in 1764, to assure that American Indians would sign a peace treaty ending the rebellion, they seized several hostages, including Hokolesqua. The Shawnee agreed not to take up arms against the English again.

During the next decade, fighting did occur between the British and the American Indians of the Ohio Country. Hokolesqua tried to peacefully ease the tensions, but the arrival of more white settlers placed him in the minority as to how to deal with the whites.

In August 1774, Pennsylvania militia entered the Ohio Country and quickly destroyed seven Ohio Seneca-Cayuga villages, which had been abandoned as the soldiers approached. At the same time, Lord Dunmore sent one thousand men to the Kanawha River in modern-day West Virginia to build a fort and attack the Shawnees. Cornstalk as the soldiers invaded the Ohio Country, dispatched nearly one thousand Shawnee warriors to drive Dunmore's force from the region. The forces met on October 10, 1774, at what became known as the Battle of Point Pleasant. After several hours of intense fighting, the English drove Hokolesqua's followers north of the Ohio River. Dunmore, with a separate force, followed the Shawnee across the river into the Ohio Country. Upon nearing the Shawnee villages on the Pickaway Plains, Dunmore stopped and asked that the Shawnee discuss a peace treaty with him. The Shawnee agreed, but while negotiations were under way, Colonel Andrew Lewis, and a detachment of Virginia militia that Dunmore had left behind at Point Pleasant, crossed the Ohio River and destroyed several Shawnee villages. Fearing that Dunmore intended to destroy them, the Shawnee immediately agreed to terms before more pointless blood was shed. They were forced to give up ownership to all lands east and south of the Ohio River. This was the first time that an American Indian group that lived in the Ohio Country were forced to relinquish their land. In addition, the Shawnees promised to return all white captives and to no longer attack English colonists traveling down the Ohio River.

Hokolesqua abided by this treaty of course angry most Shawnee did not. By 1777, the Shawnee Indians again planned to drive the white settlers from their region. This time they did so at the urging of British soldiers who sought assistance in defeating the colonists in the American Revolution. Hokolesqua and his son, Elinipsico seeking to maintain his faction's neutrality, went to Point Pleasant the site of an American fort, on a diplomatic visit to warn the whites of the impending attack and were taken hostage by them instead. Shortly thereafter, American militiaman stationed at the fort was killed by unknown Indians in the vicinity. Angry soldiers brutally murdered Cornstalk, his son Elinipsico, and two other Shawnees (Red Hawk and an unknown man) in American custody, even though the men had nothing to do with the crime, the Americans decided to execute the prisoners as revenge. Red Hawk and Elinipsico was shot where he had been sitting and the other unknown Indian was strangled to death. Hokolesqua was shot eight times upon his dying breath he was said to have pronounced his now legendary curse.

“I was the border man’s friend. Many times I have saved him and his people from harm. I never warred with you, but only to protect our wigwams and lands. I refused to join your paleface enemies with the red coats. I came to the fort as your friend and you murdered me. You have murdered by my side, my young son.... For this, may the curse of the Great Spirit rest upon this land. May it be blighted by nature. May it even be blighted in its hopes. May the strength of its peoples be paralysed by the stain of our blood.” And then he died.

The bodies of the other Indians and his son were then taken and dumped into the Kanawha River but Hokolesqua ‘s corpse was buried near the fort on Point Pleasant, overlooking the junction of the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers. The murderers were acquitted.

Local legends arose about his dying "curse" being the cause of misfortunes in the area. Any disaster that stuck the area was blamed upon this curse such as:

1880s: Fire destroyed an entire downtown city block.

1907: The worst coal mine disaster in American history took place in Monongah, West Virginia on December 6, when 310 miners were killed.

1913- 1937: Point Pleasant was almost obliterated in floods.

1944: In June of this year, 150 people were killed when a tornado ripped through the tri-state triangular area.

1953: Barge explosion killed six men from Point Pleasant just before Christmas.

1967: The devastating Silver Bridge disaster that sent 46 people hurtling to their death in the Ohio River on December 15. Many have also connected this tragedy to the eerie sightings of the Mothman, strange lights in the sky and odd paranormal happenings.

1968: August, A Piedmont Airlines plane crashed near the Kanawha Airport, killing 35 people on board.

1970: On November 14, a Southern Airways DC-10 crashed into a mountain near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75 people on board.

1970 – 1984: The Minden-based Shaffer Equipment Company built electrical equipment for the coal industry from 1970 to 1984 and used the oil in transformers and other hardware, which was common at the time. The United States banned the manufacture of products containing oil with polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs in 1979, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies the group of chemicals as a “probable human carcinogen.”

1972: February 26, a sludge dam on the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek in Logan County gave way, loosening a torrent of thick, murky water that promptly wiped out the small community of Saunders, and sixteen more Buffalo Creek Valley communities--Pardee, Lorado, Craneco, Lundale, Stowe, Crites, Latrobe, Robinette, Amherstdale, Becco, Fanco, Riley, Braeholm, Accoville, Crown, and Kistler--were either partially or totally destroyed claimed at least 118 death with an additional 1000 injured, 507 houses were lost or demolished; 44 mobile homes were destroyed; another 273 houses were severely damaged; while nearly 663 more houses suffered damage to varying degrees and a total of 4000 people were thus left homeless by this flood.

1976: March 2, housed in the Mason County Jail was a woman named Harriet Sisk, who had been arrested for the murder of her infant daughter, her husband came to the jail with a suitcase full of explosives to kill himself and his wife and to destroy the building. Both of the Sisk’s were killed, along with three law enforcement officers.

1978: In January, a freight train derailed at Point Pleasant and dumped thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals. The chemicals contaminated the town’s water supply and the wells had to be abandoned.

1978: In April of that same year, the town of St. Mary’s (north of Point Pleasant) 51 men who were working on the Willow Island power plant were killed when their construction scaffolding collapsed.

1979 – 1989: Released in July by the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, due to past PCB dumping suggest that the rate of cancer deaths in Minden could have been twice as high as for the rest of Fayette County.

1990 – 1999: Due to PCB dumping the Minden cancer death-rate spiked to four times higher than that of the rest of the county before dipping in 2000 to a rate that was nearly equal to the rest of the county.

2010: Upper Big Branch Mine disaster occurred on April 5 in Raleigh County, West Virginia at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine blew up, twenty-nine out of thirty-one miners at the site were killed.

2016: A flood hit areas of the U.S. state of West Virginia and nearby parts of Virginia, resulting in 23 deaths.

Any and everything that could go wrong can get pointed back to this curse and Mothman who since the bridge collapse has been tied to it all as well. Amazing how Mothman’s popularity is based on American racism blaming a murdered man’s curse, capitalism being happier for people to blame that then any of their lax government regulations, economic pressure and cut corners, because in America who cares what’s risked for a small profit? And my now they can market and sell it all for more profit. The Mothman is a symbol of calamity and capitalism as American as can be.

For like newspaper clippings go look out at: https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mothman_Timeline

Sources:

The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel 1975

Mothman and Other Curious Encounters by Loren L. Coleman (2002)

Strange Creatures From Time And Space by John Keel (1970)

Mothman- Behind the Red Eyes : the Complete Investigative Library by Jeff Wamsley (2005)

https://www.aaanativearts.com/shawnee-chief-cornstalk

http://www.wvculture.org/history/disasters/buffcreekgovreport.html

#Mothman #Cryptids #Long rant #mothman says fuck racism #cornstalk

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