The legend of Mothman is a part of West Virginia folklore. According to the story, Mothman is a creature, humanoid in nature, which was first spotted in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
On November 15th, 1966, two couples had gone out for an evening drive, in an area known then as the "TNT area", the site of a munitions plant during World War 2. During the trip, they encountered some kind of creature which, they would later report to police, was "a large flying man with ten-foot wings", having eyes which "glowed red" when their headlights shone on it.
Over the coming days, more sightings of this strange flying creature were reported by residents. Local volunteer firemen saw it and corroborated the harrowing tale originally reported by the the two couples. A local contractor, who said the creatures eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", blamed the creature for the disappearance of his dog and for poor television reception at his home.
In 1970, author Gray Barker wrote "The Silver Bridge", considered a classic in the world of UFO literature, which helped to bring the Mothman legend to a larger audience.
Collapse of The Silver Bridge and "The Mothman Prophecies"
On December 15th, 1967, the Silver Bridge, which connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia with Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed, tragically killing 46 people. In his 1975 book, "The Mothman Prophecies (An Investigation Into the Mysterious American Visits of the Infamous Feathery Garuda)", author John Keel wrote of a supernatural connection between the appearance of Mothman and the collapse of the Silver Bridge. In 2002, the major motion picture, The Mothman Prophecies, starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Will Patton, Debra Messing, Lucinda Jenney and Alan Bates was released.
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