Status: Explained (probably) — a wildlife biologist at the time suggested a sandhill crane, and others suggest owls; the link to the bridge collapse is a later legend.
About the pin: Pinned in Point Pleasant; the first sightings were at a former munitions site just outside town.
Credit: Csassen13 / Wikimedia Commons · Licence: CC0 (public-domain dedication) · Source
On November 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, told police they had seen a large dark creature with glowing red eyes near “the TNT area,” a former munitions plant. The Point Pleasant Register ran the first story on November 16, and the national press soon picked it up. Over the following year there were many more reports.
A wildlife biologist at West Virginia University told reporters that the descriptions fit a sandhill crane, which stands nearly as tall as a person, has a wingspan of about seven feet and has reddish skin around its eyes. Other explanations include herons and barred owls.
On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge between Point Pleasant and Ohio collapsed in rush hour, killing 46 people. Investigators traced the failure to a single cracked eyebar. The idea that Mothman was connected came later, in John Keel's 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies and the 2002 film. Point Pleasant now has a Mothman statue and a festival.
Sources: Wikipedia: Mothman · Wikipedia: Silver Bridge
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