Mothman Photographed?
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on November 23rd, 2016
A man driving along State Route 2 in Point Pleasant said he snapped these pictures of a creature jumping from tree to tree. Many locals in Point Pleasant believe it resembles the legendary Mothman — a red-eyed creature many believe is a bad omen. (Viewer submitted photo)
POINT PLEASANT, WV (WCHS/WVAH) — Hunters in Mason County may need to be on the lookout for something other than deer when they hit the woods this week.
The Point Pleasant Mothman is a local legend that over the years has gained worldwide fame.
There hadn’t been any recent sightings of the red-eyed creature recently, but that changed Sunday evening, when a man who says he was driving along State Route 2 saw something jump from tree to tree. He pulled off the road and snapped some pictures.
The man declined an on-camera interview, but was adamant the pictures had not been doctored. He said he recently moved to Point Pleasant for work and didn’t even know about the legend.
In the pictures, the creature appears to have wings with pointed tips and long legs, bent at an awkward angle.
Point Pleasant locals such as Carolin Harris believe the pictures could be real because there have been so many other sighting over the years.
“I definitely know the Mothman is real,” Harris said.
The Mothman was reportedly sighted in Point Pleasant by witnesses from Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, 1966. Author John Keel popularized local folklore about the creature with his 1975 book “The Mothman Prophecies.”
The book was later adapted into a 2002 feature film with the same title, starring Richard Gere.
Read the rest of the story here: Man photographs creature that resembles legendary ”Mothman” of Point Pleasant
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Its a large beetle flying from the left to the right. The “legs” are in fact the beetles antennae – or mandibles if it is some kind of stag beetle.
I tried to sketch what I mean….
Ingo;
Your Stag-horned Beetle idea is inspired but…True insect wings are transparent for the most part and would not photograph as a stationary dark mass. Add to this the high velocity wing motion when flying and it is plain that this is not a beetle or probably any other insect flying.
Moreover, beetles have a stiff outer covering for the wings called the elytra and these would show extended atop or along side the actual wings when flying. These are most likely images of a small model figure thrown in the air and photographed.
If you look at all three pics shown in the video, it to me becomes very evident that it is a beetle. And yes, I do see the elytrae and fast flying large beetles often have low amplitude but high frequency wing beet, which gives exactly the black silhouette seen in the pics.
The second and third pictures look like a bird of some sort–#3 could be an owl. Some of those things get pretty big.
On the other hand, what we really need is a more detailed account from our witness: his impressions, what he saw physically happening, any physical details and so on. He said it was jumping from tree to tree, so did he actually witness it “jump” or was that just an inference based on it’s perceived behavior?
The more we get out of the witness the more we’d be able to decide whether A) he was telling the truth and not just hoaxing something, and B) whether his descriptions could be attributed to something normal before going down the mothman route.
As with most of these stories with pictures, a pic is not enough…
I can view only the top picture, but I’m with cryptokellie on this one. It cannot be a beetle, based upon what I can see.
Craig: I get a box under the top photo that says: ERROR LOADING PLAYER: No playable sources found.
It occurs to me that it could possibly be an owl that has caught a snake or eel in its talons. But there are no snakes to be caught this time of year.