Mothman

What really happened in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966?

Four young people driving near an abandoned World War II ordnance complex reported encountering a towering winged figure with enormous wings and eyes that appeared fiery red in their headlights.

Within hours, police were involved.

Within days, other sightings followed.

And thirteen months later, the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River, killing forty-six people and permanently binding the name Mothman to one of America's most enduring paranormal legends.

But how much of the story is documented history, and how much came later?

Mothman: The Point Pleasant Archive returns to the original case and separates eyewitness testimony, contemporary reporting, official records, later recollections, folklore, and theory.

Inside, Elias Moorcroft examines:

• the November 15, 1966 encounter and the four original witnesses;
• the abandoned TNT Area and the real history of the West Virginia Ordnance Works;
• the wave of reported sightings that followed;
• the mystery surrounding Bandit, the missing German shepherd;
• the famous red-eye descriptions and the science of eyeshine;
• sandhill cranes, great blue herons, owls, misperception, and other possible explanations;
• the 1967 UFO wave over the Ohio Valley;
• John Keel and the creation of the larger Mothman mythology;
• Indrid Cold, the Grinning Man, and the Men in Black;
• the documented engineering cause of the Silver Bridge disaster;
• claims that Mothman was an omen or warning;
• Cornstalk's Curse and the folklore that existed long before Mothman;
• and how an uncertain gray winged figure became the black, red-eyed icon recognized around the world today.

The investigation does not ask you to believe.

It does not ask you to dismiss.

Instead, it follows the evidence as far as the historical record allows.

And when the documented case ends, the book crosses a clearly marked boundary into fiction.

Travel back to the final days of the wartime TNT plant. Drive Route 62 after midnight. Look through a nursery window where two red lights are waiting. Enter an abandoned concrete igloo that should be empty. Follow warnings that may arrive before disaster. And discover what happens when someone finally takes the perfect photograph of Mothman.

Part historical investigation.
Part folklore study.
Part supernatural anthology.

For readers fascinated by Mothman, cryptids, unexplained history, Appalachian folklore, paranormal mysteries, UFO lore, and atmospheric horror.

Return to Point Pleasant.

Read the evidence.

Then decide what you think was waiting beside the road that night.