(From The Point Pleasant Register, dated Wednesday, 16th November 1966)
COUPLES SEE MAN-SIZED BIRD...CREATURE...SOMETHING
"It was a bird...or something. It definitely wasn't a flying saucer."
Two Point Pleasant couples said today they encountered a man-sized, bird-like creature in the TNT area about midnight last night. Sheriff's deputies and City Police went to the scene about 2 o'clock this morning but were unable to spot anything.
But the two young men telling their story this morning were dead serious, and asserted they hadn't been drinking. Steve Mallette of 3305 Jackson Avenue and Roger Scarberry of 809 30th Street described the thing as being about six or seven feet tall, having a wing span of 10 feet and red eyes about two inches in diameter and six inches apart.
"It was like a man with wings," Mallette said. "It wasn't like anything you'd see on TV or in a monster movie.."
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| Eyewitness Sketch |
The men and their wives were in Scarberry's car between 11:30 p.m. and midnight when they spotted the creature near the old power plant adjacent to the old National Guard Armory buildings. The creature was seen standing on three occasions and was described as being extremely fast ("It flew about 100 miles an hour") in flight but was a clumsey runner.
Deputy Millard Halstead said he had seen dust in the vicinity of a coal field. But "It could have been" caused by the bird, he said. "I'm a hard guy to scare" Scarberry said, "but last night I was for getting out of there."
They did just that but the "thing" followed them. They said it was hovering over the car, apparently gliding, until they reached the national Guard Armory on Route 62.
"We went downtown, turned around, and went back and there it was again," Mallette said. "It seemed to be waiting on us". He said the light-grey-creature then scurried through a field, It also had flown across the top of the car.
"It apparently is afraid of light," Mallette reasoned, "and maybe it thought it was scaring us off."
The young men said they saw the creature's eyes, which glowed red, only when their lights shined on it. And it seemed to want to get away from the lights. They said it looked like a "man with wings" but that its head was "not an outstanding characteristic."
Both were slightly pale and tired from lack of sleep during the night following their harrowing experience. They speculated that the thing was living in the vacant power plant, possibly in one of the huge boilers. "There are pigeons in all the other buildings," Mallette said, "but not in that one."
"If I had seen it while by myself I wouldn't have said anything," Scarberry commented, "but there were four of us who saw it. They said it didn't resemble a bat in any way but "maybe what you would visualize as an angel." The last time they saw it was at the gate of the C. C. Lewis farm on Route 62.
They heard a sound like wings flapping and they said the bird rose straight up, like a helicopter.
"This doesn't have an explanation to it," Mallette said, "It was an animal but nothing like I've seen before."
Are they going back to look for the creature?
"Yes," Mallette said, "this afternoon and again tonight."
"Today," Scarberry said, "but tonight, I don't know!"
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(From The Huntington Herald Dispatch, dated Thursday, November 17th 1966)
BIRD,PLANE or BATMAN?
MASON COUNTIANS HUNT 'MOTHMAN'
POINT PLEASANT - Sightseers clogged the roads north of here Wednesday night as Mason Countians flocked to the desolate TNT area to join in a search for the "Monster Moth Man."
Sheriff's deputies reported that two couples told them that they had sighted the "creature" Tuesday night near the old powerhouse, five miles from Point Pleasant.
It has been variously described as a flying man with a 10-foot wingspread capable of pursuing cars at 100 miles per hour, and as a huge gray and white bird "with wings like an angel and legs like a man, seven feet tall with two large, red eyes about six inches apart." Officials at the McClintic Wildlife Station said no such description can be found in any of their fowl manuals. They did suggest, however, that it is geese migrating time, and that flights have been sighted in the area.
But Mr. and Mrs. Roger Scarberry, and Mr. and Mrs. Steve Mallette maintain that the "thing" followed their car Tuesday night, zig-zagging in front of the auto as it speeded along W. Va. 62. The men told deputies the creature veered away as the car approached the Point Pleasant city limits.
The volunteer fire department was called to assist Wednesday night in traffic duty at the scene of the "flyover."
One fireman commented, "It looks like Mason County fair time."
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(From The Williamson Daily News, dated Friday, November 18th 1966)
EIGHT PEOPLE SAY THEY SAW 'CREATURE'
POINT PLEASANT, W. Va. (UPI) - Eight people say they saw a flying creature near this Ohio River Community, a dog could have fallen victim to "it." and now a Kanawha County gravedigger saw "brown man" fly past him last weekend. Kenneth Duncan of Blue Creek near Charleston said he and some other men digging his brother-in-law's grave on Saturday when something that "looked like a brown human being" buzzed past.
"It was gliding through the trees and was in sight for about a minute," Duncan said. Four other men helping to dig the grave didn't see it.
The "thing" described as a huge bird - like creature with eyes like "red reflectors" and a wing span of 10 feet, first was reported to police by Steve Mallette and Roger Scarberry and their wives who said they saw it three times last Tuesday and early Wednesday about five miles north of here. Four other persons also told Mason County Sheriff George Johnson they saw it in the same general area.
And a contractor, Newell Partridge , who lives 100 miles to the north, said he feels it may have had something to do with the disappearance of his $350 German shepherd dog, Bandit. Partridge said he sighted the "thing" in a meadow near his home in Doddridge County about 50 minutes before the Point Pleasant sightings.
Partridge said his television set "began acting like a generator" and Bandit "started carrying on something terrible." Partridge said he shined a flashlight into the field and saw something with eyes like "red reflectors." The dog's hair stood straight up, he said and the animal went into the field. The dog never returned. Partridge said and there was no trace of it in the morning.
Johnson said he was not discounting the stories he was told but said he feels what was seen was nothing more than a "freak shitepoke." a large bird of the heron family. The shitepoke, sometimes called a shag, is the smallest heron in the Western Hemisphere. Officials were at a loss. however, to explain how a shag could fly at 100 miles per hour as Scarberry and Mallette said the creature did.
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(From The Charleston Gazette, dated Friday November 18th, 1966)
'FLYING MAN' SEEN HERE, MAN CLAIMS
A Kanawha Countian said Thursday that he saw a "flying man" similar to that reported Wednesday by residents of Mason County:
Kenneth Duncan of Blue Creek said he saw something that "looked like a brown human being" Saturday in a wooded area at Reamer near Clendenin. "It was gliding through the trees and was in sight for about a minute," Duncan recalled.
At the time, he said, he and four other men were digging the grave of his father-in-law, Homer Smith of Blue Creek, who was buried Sunday.
The object disappeared before others in the group saw it, Duncan said. Others were Robert (Bob) Lovejoy of Allen, Mich., formerly of Campbells Creek, William (Bill) Poole of Allen, Mich., Andrew Godby of Blue Creek and Emil Gibson of Quincy. Mason County residents reported seing the "flying man" at night. They described him as being 6 feet tall with a 10-foot wingspan.
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Hope you've enjoyed this look at the start of the Mothman legends in newspaper form! We'll be seeing how the story progresses in a few days...I'd also just like to acknowledge both Newspapers.com and themothman.fandom.com for helping with my research!
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