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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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[air whooshes]

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[ominous music]

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[spooky ethereal music]

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- Fear is a funny thing.

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00:00:54,985 --> 00:00:58,092
Where it begins and where it
ends is never a certainty.

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00:01:02,027 --> 00:01:04,754
Fear can form seemingly out of
nowhere

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00:01:04,788 --> 00:01:07,032
and then disappear just as
quickly

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00:01:07,067 --> 00:01:08,896
and we might never really know
why.

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[somber violin music]

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00:01:19,182 --> 00:01:22,944
Some fears develop over
days, weeks, or years,

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sown from the time we're young,

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eventually bursting forth from
the seeds

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00:01:27,328 --> 00:01:29,986
that were planted when we were
children.

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[footsteps patter]

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00:01:31,367 --> 00:01:33,990
[door creaks]

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00:01:34,024 --> 00:01:36,026
[birds chirp]

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But where did the seeds come
from?

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00:01:38,167 --> 00:01:39,340
Who first planted them?

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[calming music]

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[spooky music]

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Were they simply groomed over
centuries,

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or are they unique to each
generation?

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A story is a powerful thing,

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it can move us in unexpected
ways.

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00:02:02,639 --> 00:02:05,401
It can inspire hope or
create a sense of longing.

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00:02:06,505 --> 00:02:09,681
[birds singing]

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00:02:09,715 --> 00:02:10,682
[light orchestral music]

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A story can manifest
sadness or depression,

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laughter or tears.

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00:02:15,928 --> 00:02:19,035
And yes, a story can instill
fear.

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[light foreboding music]

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[feet shuffling]

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The question we might
begin to ask ourselves

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is not who put the fear there orwhy,

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[birds chirp]
[tense music]

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but what if the stories

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that instilled it to begin withare true,

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not simply fables, but somethingmore,

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00:02:54,139 --> 00:02:58,626
something primal and ageless.
[water splashing]

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A something whose very survivaldepends

43
00:03:03,148 --> 00:03:05,564
on our telling of tales.

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00:03:06,565 --> 00:03:08,981
[soft music]

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00:03:18,232 --> 00:03:23,203
[feet shuffling]
[birds cawing]

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[soft ominous music]
[birds screeching]

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[thunder rumbles]

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[horse neighs]

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00:03:52,473 --> 00:03:57,478
[ground rumbles]
[suspenseful music]

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00:03:58,376 --> 00:04:02,690
[animal growls]
[air whooshes]

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00:04:02,725 --> 00:04:05,314
[person gasps]

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00:04:06,763 --> 00:04:07,557
[animal caws]

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00:04:07,592 --> 00:04:10,146
[person gasps]
[water splashes]

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00:04:10,180 --> 00:04:14,115
[animal growls]
[person screams]

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[ominous orchestral music]
[feet pounding]

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[person gasps]

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[dramatic music]

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[bird caws]
[foreboding music]

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[camera clicks]
[object hums]

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00:04:39,451 --> 00:04:41,798
[bird caws]

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00:04:43,075 --> 00:04:48,184
[camera clicking]
[suspenseful music]

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00:04:48,218 --> 00:04:49,841
[light bulb buzzes]

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00:04:49,875 --> 00:04:52,430
[somber music]

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[object squishes]

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[fan blades whapping]

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[camera clicking]

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[metal bangs]

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00:05:04,718 --> 00:05:07,686
[soft foreboding music]

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00:05:07,721 --> 00:05:10,551
[object squishes]

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00:05:13,451 --> 00:05:16,039
[clock chimes]

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00:05:21,079 --> 00:05:23,564
[tense music]

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00:05:30,122 --> 00:05:33,436
[spooky ethereal music]

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00:05:39,718 --> 00:05:42,790
[somber piano music]

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00:05:44,033 --> 00:05:47,347
[spooky ethereal music]

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[water sloshing]

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[birds cawing]

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[foreboding music]
[birds chirping]

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00:06:46,854 --> 00:06:49,443
[spooky ethereal music]

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[feet shuffling]

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- Well, when the Silver Bridge
collapsed

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00:06:53,413 --> 00:06:57,451
in December of 1967, everybody'sattention immediately went

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to the recovery effort, the
rescue effort.

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00:07:01,628 --> 00:07:04,458
People weren't really
interested in lookin' for UFOs

84
00:07:04,493 --> 00:07:06,909
or Mothman, even though they
did.

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[light foreboding music]

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00:07:13,433 --> 00:07:16,608
But it was such a horrible
tragedy

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00:07:16,643 --> 00:07:20,370
that the local population was
grieving

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and mourning the loss of, you
know,

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00:07:22,165 --> 00:07:24,340
family members and friends
and things like that.

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So the attention went from
the weird stuff in the sky

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00:07:28,758 --> 00:07:32,382
or the Mothman sightings to
recovering bodies and cars

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from the Ohio River.

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- You know Main Street used
to be very hustle and bustle.

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00:07:38,043 --> 00:07:41,426
And after the bridge fell in the'60s,

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that kind of broke off that
connection

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00:07:44,256 --> 00:07:47,777
and so a lot of businesses
started to close

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00:07:47,812 --> 00:07:50,780
and it became kind of a ghost
town

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until basically the museum
and the festival took off.

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And then, you know, during
the Mothman Festival

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you can't hardly move
there's so many people.

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You'd bring in like eight
to 10,000 people to a town

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00:08:06,002 --> 00:08:08,004
with a population of less than
5,000.

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- Between the years of 1966 and1967,

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00:08:14,252 --> 00:08:17,842
sightings of a red-eyed
monster, dubbed the Mothman,

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helped put the town of Point
Pleasant, West Virginia

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00:08:20,569 --> 00:08:21,949
on the map.

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00:08:21,984 --> 00:08:24,434
However, it was the collapse ofa bridge

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spanning the Ohio River
in December of 1967

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00:08:28,404 --> 00:08:31,718
that brought the town to a
tragic sort of prominence.

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Since that time,

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this sleepy hamlet on the
banks of the mighty Ohio

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and the Kanawha Rivers
has adopted a strange fame

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bolstered by their mostrenowned resident, the Mothman.

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Now over 50 years

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since the Silver Bridge
tumbled into the icy waters

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00:08:49,632 --> 00:08:52,048
and took with it 47 lives,

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Point Pleasant has begun to
rebuild.

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- Life here in Point
Pleasant is laid back.

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I mean, you know, it's not yourhustle bustle of a big city

120
00:09:03,163 --> 00:09:06,649
and I think that's why a lot
of people choose to stay here.

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- My dad is is Jeff Wamsley,

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00:09:08,617 --> 00:09:11,343
the owner of the Mothman Museum.

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00:09:11,378 --> 00:09:13,898
So basically from my young
adulthood up,

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00:09:13,932 --> 00:09:18,661
Mothman pretty much
surrounds a lot of my life.

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- You know, it's just a
little Main Street town

126
00:09:21,388 --> 00:09:25,461
that just happens to have
a monster in it's history

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and it's a nice calling card.

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00:09:28,913 --> 00:09:31,778
- Mothman became something
they fell in love with

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00:09:31,812 --> 00:09:34,435
and then it was the town they
really fell in love with.

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00:09:34,470 --> 00:09:37,577
And I ultimately believeMothman is what gets them here,

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00:09:37,611 --> 00:09:40,649
but it's Point Pleasant that
brings them back every time.

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[dog barking]
[spooky music]

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00:09:49,312 --> 00:09:50,555
[light upbeat music]

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00:09:50,590 --> 00:09:53,213
- West Virginia is a jewel in
the rough, I always thought,

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00:09:53,247 --> 00:09:56,216
because you know the
landscape and the beauty.

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You've got all kinds of
different areas

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00:09:59,633 --> 00:10:04,604
like the mountains, the
streams, the river towns,

138
00:10:04,811 --> 00:10:08,642
the ski lodges, all
kinds of different things

139
00:10:08,677 --> 00:10:10,092
and I think they've done a
pretty good job

140
00:10:10,126 --> 00:10:12,577
as far as capitalizing
on the tourism aspect.

141
00:10:12,612 --> 00:10:17,582
- West Virginia is rolling
hills and beautiful creeks

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00:10:18,583 --> 00:10:23,553
and green pastures and
football Friday night.

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00:10:24,693 --> 00:10:27,834
- Isolated, at times boring.
[laughs]

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00:10:27,868 --> 00:10:29,111
It's very beautiful.

145
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Not much happens,

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00:10:31,734 --> 00:10:35,427
which allows being tuned
into certain things

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00:10:35,462 --> 00:10:37,498
and also noticing things maybe

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00:10:37,533 --> 00:10:40,225
that people in other areas may
not notice.

149
00:10:40,260 --> 00:10:43,401
It's a quiet, placid kind of
upbringing.

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00:10:43,435 --> 00:10:46,715
Very beautiful, beautifulmountains and trees and streams.

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00:10:46,749 --> 00:10:49,165
So that part is of course,
excellent.

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00:10:50,097 --> 00:10:52,824
[birds singing]

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00:10:52,859 --> 00:10:53,687
[lively fiddle music]

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00:10:53,722 --> 00:10:55,068
- Point Pleasant sits on the
edge

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00:10:55,102 --> 00:10:57,346
of what is known as Appalachia.

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00:10:57,380 --> 00:10:59,210
The Appalachian Mountains are arange

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00:10:59,244 --> 00:11:02,869
that stretches from Canada,
all the way down to Alabama.

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00:11:02,903 --> 00:11:06,700
Rugged and rural, with a
landscape defined by jutting
rocks

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00:11:06,735 --> 00:11:08,288
and dense forestry.

160
00:11:08,322 --> 00:11:10,014
The mountains are an essential
part

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00:11:10,048 --> 00:11:11,843
of the Eastern United States.

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00:11:13,258 --> 00:11:16,330
Appalachia derives its name
from the local inhabitants,

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as well as the mountains.

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00:11:18,470 --> 00:11:19,989
It's a cultural statement

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00:11:20,024 --> 00:11:22,820
as much as it is a geographicalone.

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00:11:22,854 --> 00:11:24,131
A culture informed

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00:11:24,166 --> 00:11:26,547
by the people who journeyed
through these lands

168
00:11:26,582 --> 00:11:28,411
and who settled these lands,

169
00:11:28,446 --> 00:11:31,173
not to mention the lands
themselves,

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00:11:31,207 --> 00:11:34,590
from Scotch-Irish immigrants
to the First Nations tribes

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00:11:34,624 --> 00:11:35,833
who occasionally traveled

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00:11:35,867 --> 00:11:38,801
through what is now
known as West Virginia.

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00:11:38,836 --> 00:11:41,562
These places are still
alive with a history

174
00:11:41,597 --> 00:11:44,704
that is passed down from
generation to generation.

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00:11:44,738 --> 00:11:46,326
[water splashing]

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00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:48,846
- The Scots-Irish settled West
Virginia.

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00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:52,435
So about 250,000 of them

178
00:11:52,470 --> 00:11:53,540
got on a boat

179
00:11:53,574 --> 00:11:55,369
and came over to the United
States.

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00:11:55,404 --> 00:11:57,026
Once they got here,

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00:11:57,061 --> 00:11:59,132
the colonies were kind
of already established

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00:11:59,166 --> 00:12:01,272
and these were sort of
outsiders,

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00:12:01,306 --> 00:12:04,447
so they started to push them
closer to the mountains,

184
00:12:04,482 --> 00:12:06,829
the Appalachian Mountains.

185
00:12:06,864 --> 00:12:09,798
Technically the English
didn't want anybody

186
00:12:09,832 --> 00:12:11,420
moving past the mountains

187
00:12:11,454 --> 00:12:13,594
because there was an
agreement with the French.

188
00:12:13,629 --> 00:12:15,493
But we started chipping away atthat

189
00:12:15,527 --> 00:12:18,772
and that ultimately led to
the French and Indian War.

190
00:12:19,980 --> 00:12:21,879
- Well, the Natives
were kind of frightened

191
00:12:21,913 --> 00:12:23,294
of West Virginia.

192
00:12:23,328 --> 00:12:25,123
They thought West Virginia was
cursed

193
00:12:25,158 --> 00:12:28,748
and they only used West
Virginia mostly as hunting.

194
00:12:30,025 --> 00:12:32,475
So the Shawnee were here quite abit.

195
00:12:32,510 --> 00:12:35,133
The Saponi were kind of
like in the mountains

196
00:12:35,168 --> 00:12:38,585
is where the Blackfoot
Saponi Indians were all

197
00:12:38,619 --> 00:12:41,174
in the southern part of the
state, down into Virginia.

198
00:12:41,208 --> 00:12:42,313
[soft jaunty music]

199
00:12:42,347 --> 00:12:45,523
- When we started pushing into
the region

200
00:12:45,557 --> 00:12:46,869
across the Appalachians,

201
00:12:46,904 --> 00:12:51,322
the Natives chose to fight
on the side of the French.

202
00:12:51,356 --> 00:12:53,773
When the English colonists werecoming in, it was a threat,

203
00:12:53,807 --> 00:12:55,188
so the Native sided with French.

204
00:12:55,222 --> 00:12:57,811
Well, ultimately that did not gowell

205
00:12:57,846 --> 00:12:59,813
and the French left the region,

206
00:12:59,848 --> 00:13:01,366
[fighters shouting]
[weapons clanging]

207
00:13:01,401 --> 00:13:03,783
leaving the Natives kind of on
their own.

208
00:13:03,817 --> 00:13:05,819
The different tribes tried to
get together

209
00:13:05,854 --> 00:13:08,753
to form alliances to fightagainst the English if need be.

210
00:13:09,996 --> 00:13:15,104
- The Confederacy's made
up of many, many tribes

211
00:13:15,139 --> 00:13:17,624
and they were all in
and out of West Virginia

212
00:13:17,658 --> 00:13:19,729
throughout the years.

213
00:13:19,764 --> 00:13:22,387
The Shawnee were big here,
the Cherokee were here,

214
00:13:23,250 --> 00:13:24,596
Lenape, Ojibwe.

215
00:13:25,805 --> 00:13:27,841
There were many, 31 tribes.

216
00:13:27,876 --> 00:13:30,292
There were villages, there werefamilies.

217
00:13:30,326 --> 00:13:32,363
- Once the French left,

218
00:13:32,397 --> 00:13:34,779
they were really kind of left ontheir own

219
00:13:34,814 --> 00:13:36,401
and it ultimately was not
something

220
00:13:36,436 --> 00:13:38,541
that they could withstand

221
00:13:38,576 --> 00:13:41,613
and so they slowly got
pushed out of the area.

222
00:13:42,752 --> 00:13:45,686
- The traditions were extremelyimportant to pass down.

223
00:13:45,721 --> 00:13:47,688
Our elders' pasts

224
00:13:48,862 --> 00:13:49,932
were lost.

225
00:13:50,864 --> 00:13:54,557
It was extremely important to
listen and to pay attention

226
00:13:54,592 --> 00:13:56,490
and to follow the traditions.

227
00:13:56,525 --> 00:13:58,596
- We do hold onto our stories.

228
00:13:58,630 --> 00:14:00,874
You know it might be genetic aswell

229
00:14:00,909 --> 00:14:03,946
because if you look into the
Celts,

230
00:14:03,981 --> 00:14:05,879
West Virginia is mostly Celtic.

231
00:14:05,914 --> 00:14:09,469
We do have some Pennsylvania
Dutch Germans here as well,

232
00:14:09,503 --> 00:14:11,781
but that's like a natural
thing with the Celts

233
00:14:11,816 --> 00:14:14,301
and I think it's passed down
that way.

234
00:14:14,336 --> 00:14:17,511
Plus, that little bit of
Native American ancestry.

235
00:14:17,546 --> 00:14:21,274
- Well I mean there's, again
a love of music and singing

236
00:14:21,308 --> 00:14:23,207
and passing stories through thatway.

237
00:14:23,241 --> 00:14:26,037
It's more of a human
characteristic
to want to tell stories

238
00:14:26,072 --> 00:14:28,729
and make sure that your
legacy is passed on

239
00:14:28,764 --> 00:14:30,593
in one way or another.

240
00:14:30,628 --> 00:14:33,665
- As Appalachia began to
see more and more settlers,

241
00:14:33,700 --> 00:14:36,461
traditions and stories started
to merge,

242
00:14:36,496 --> 00:14:39,154
just as the remaining
Natives begin to exist

243
00:14:39,188 --> 00:14:42,226
alongside the Scotch-Irish
settlers inhabiting a land

244
00:14:42,260 --> 00:14:43,952
they once called their own.

245
00:14:43,986 --> 00:14:47,369
So too, did stories and
cultures begin to meld

246
00:14:47,403 --> 00:14:51,545
and what was born of this blendwas something wholly unique,

247
00:14:51,580 --> 00:14:53,030
Appalachian culture.

248
00:14:53,996 --> 00:14:56,447
Folktales and lore were
absorbed and transmitted

249
00:14:56,481 --> 00:14:58,932
from one generation to the next.

250
00:14:58,967 --> 00:15:02,211
Now the region was defined
as much by tales of ghosts,

251
00:15:02,246 --> 00:15:04,317
witches and red-eyed banshees

252
00:15:04,351 --> 00:15:06,664
as it was the rugged wildernessbackdrop

253
00:15:06,698 --> 00:15:08,321
where they were told.
[haunting pipe music]

254
00:15:08,355 --> 00:15:11,703
When 1966 saw the rise of the
Mothman,

255
00:15:11,738 --> 00:15:15,397
it was strangely familiar
despite its unique appearance.

256
00:15:15,431 --> 00:15:19,435
After all, it was simply
one more tale to be told

257
00:15:19,470 --> 00:15:22,714
as if a new face had been
put on an old legend.

258
00:15:23,577 --> 00:15:26,926
[soft foreboding music]

259
00:15:29,652 --> 00:15:31,447
[animal hoots]
[object thuds]

260
00:15:31,482 --> 00:15:33,656
- I grew up in Southeastern Ohio

261
00:15:33,691 --> 00:15:37,798
and during the original
sightings of the Mothman,

262
00:15:37,833 --> 00:15:40,836
I was about 10 years old.

263
00:15:40,870 --> 00:15:43,597
[ethereal music]

264
00:15:47,808 --> 00:15:51,640
Whenever I first heard about
Mothman

265
00:15:51,674 --> 00:15:54,746
was through my older male
cousins.

266
00:15:54,781 --> 00:15:56,886
One night they came over to
visit my dad

267
00:15:56,921 --> 00:15:59,751
and wanted to have a private
conversation with him.

268
00:15:59,786 --> 00:16:02,858
And they seemed very concerned,

269
00:16:02,892 --> 00:16:07,345
so of course I needed to know
what they were talking about.

270
00:16:07,380 --> 00:16:11,798
My cousins were concerned
about going night fishing

271
00:16:11,832 --> 00:16:14,421
and they were afraid that if
they did,

272
00:16:14,456 --> 00:16:18,701
that they might see or
be taken by Mothman.

273
00:16:18,736 --> 00:16:21,325
So I listened in on the
conversation

274
00:16:21,359 --> 00:16:23,913
and that's how I first
heard about Mothman.

275
00:16:25,191 --> 00:16:29,022
[haunting music]
[frogs croaking]

276
00:16:29,057 --> 00:16:32,094
Later in the summer,

277
00:16:32,129 --> 00:16:34,545
I was asleep one night,

278
00:16:34,579 --> 00:16:36,064
I heard something outside.

279
00:16:36,098 --> 00:16:39,101
I woke up.
[wings fluttering]

280
00:16:39,136 --> 00:16:40,861
[animal screeches]
I went over to the window,

281
00:16:40,896 --> 00:16:45,418
looked out and I saw red eyes inthe yard.

282
00:16:45,452 --> 00:16:48,007
Whatever it was could
have been, I don't know,

283
00:16:48,041 --> 00:16:51,286
maybe six feet or more in
height.

284
00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:54,634
And so I ran to my parents'
bedroom.

285
00:16:54,668 --> 00:16:58,845
My dad, I told him, I
thought Mothman was outside

286
00:16:58,879 --> 00:17:01,951
and he tried to tell me he
didn't think

287
00:17:01,986 --> 00:17:03,712
that that was probably Mothman.

288
00:17:04,816 --> 00:17:07,095
Now, you know, like sometimes
they'll say

289
00:17:07,129 --> 00:17:11,306
that Mothman's there to
either mourn you or whatever.

290
00:17:11,340 --> 00:17:15,482
Like just a few months
after I saw those red eyes,

291
00:17:15,517 --> 00:17:18,106
my dad was in an airplane
accident.

292
00:17:18,140 --> 00:17:19,038
[film reel clicks]

293
00:17:19,072 --> 00:17:21,833
He was one of 16 people that
survived.

294
00:17:21,868 --> 00:17:24,319
It happened in Cincinnati.

295
00:17:24,353 --> 00:17:26,045
It was like TWA 128.

296
00:17:27,425 --> 00:17:31,326
It was a flight coming
from San Diego, California

297
00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:35,226
going to Boston, but it
stopped in Cincinnati

298
00:17:35,261 --> 00:17:38,988
and there wasn't enough
runway for the jet.

299
00:17:39,023 --> 00:17:44,097
And so it went on and went intoa orchard and caught on fire

300
00:17:44,132 --> 00:17:46,582
and just like threw
people out of the plane

301
00:17:46,617 --> 00:17:47,618
all over the place.

302
00:17:47,652 --> 00:17:50,552
My dad, the seat that he was in,

303
00:17:50,586 --> 00:17:53,244
the seat right beside him was onfire

304
00:17:53,279 --> 00:17:56,903
and there was a husband
and wife behind him.

305
00:17:56,937 --> 00:17:59,457
The wife was killed and
my dad turned around

306
00:17:59,492 --> 00:18:00,941
and grabbed this guy by the hand

307
00:18:00,976 --> 00:18:03,289
and said, "If you want
to live, come with me."

308
00:18:03,323 --> 00:18:08,328
[somber music]
[film reel clicks]

309
00:18:08,949 --> 00:18:11,952
- Flight TWA 128 crashed on
approach

310
00:18:11,987 --> 00:18:16,543
to the Cincinnati airport
on November 20th, 1967,

311
00:18:16,578 --> 00:18:18,511
just shy of one month prior

312
00:18:18,545 --> 00:18:20,306
to the collapse of the Silver
Bridge

313
00:18:20,340 --> 00:18:23,136
in nearby Point Pleasant, West
Virginia.

314
00:18:23,171 --> 00:18:25,311
If there was one overwhelming
takeaway

315
00:18:25,345 --> 00:18:26,967
from the activity running
rampant

316
00:18:27,002 --> 00:18:31,144
around Point Pleasant
during 1966 and 1967,

317
00:18:32,076 --> 00:18:35,355
it was the feeling that
everything was accelerating,

318
00:18:35,390 --> 00:18:37,909
heading towards some inevitableconclusion

319
00:18:37,944 --> 00:18:40,291
that couldn't be avoided.

320
00:18:40,326 --> 00:18:44,882
When the Silver Bridge collapsedon December 15th, 1967,

321
00:18:44,916 --> 00:18:48,437
it seemed that the unavoidable
collision had been reached

322
00:18:48,472 --> 00:18:52,269
and with it, the story
of the Mothman had ended.

323
00:18:52,303 --> 00:18:54,512
The book had closed.

324
00:18:54,547 --> 00:18:55,686
For the next few months,

325
00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:58,896
stories of encounters with
the creature were absent.

326
00:18:58,930 --> 00:19:00,967
It seemed that the bridge
collapse had led

327
00:19:01,001 --> 00:19:03,072
to the departure of the being.

328
00:19:03,107 --> 00:19:06,869
However, nothing could have
been further from the truth.

329
00:19:06,904 --> 00:19:08,940
The book had never closed

330
00:19:08,975 --> 00:19:13,186
and in some ways the Mothman
story was just beginning.

331
00:19:13,221 --> 00:19:16,465
- I've read and collected
several newspaper articles

332
00:19:16,500 --> 00:19:19,088
from the late '60s, early '70s.

333
00:19:19,123 --> 00:19:21,298
I've talked to people
that were still seeing

334
00:19:21,332 --> 00:19:24,128
whatever this thing was in the
TNT Area

335
00:19:24,163 --> 00:19:27,235
and it was well after 1966, '67.

336
00:19:27,269 --> 00:19:28,822
A lot of the people that I've
talked to,

337
00:19:28,857 --> 00:19:32,136
I will specifically ask
them what the timeframe was

338
00:19:32,171 --> 00:19:37,176
and you know, '71, '73, '75.
[film reel clicks]

339
00:19:37,555 --> 00:19:39,143
- The Mothman frenzy
went from 1966 into 1967,

340
00:19:41,628 --> 00:19:43,389
but the activity continued.

341
00:19:43,423 --> 00:19:45,667
We lived close to the
Scarberrys.

342
00:19:45,701 --> 00:19:49,912
I grew up on a hillside in WestUnion called Shannon's Knob

343
00:19:49,947 --> 00:19:51,224
and late at night,

344
00:19:51,259 --> 00:19:55,642
it would sound like someonehad jumped out of a helicopter.

345
00:19:55,677 --> 00:19:56,609
[dark tense music]

346
00:19:56,643 --> 00:19:59,163
The roof would go, boom, just
like that.

347
00:20:00,026 --> 00:20:01,372
[animal screeching]

348
00:20:01,407 --> 00:20:04,927
There would be a pause
and then these footsteps,

349
00:20:04,962 --> 00:20:07,654
somebody was walking on our
roof.

350
00:20:07,689 --> 00:20:11,244
[feet stomping]
[roof creaking]

351
00:20:11,279 --> 00:20:13,039
[foreboding music]

352
00:20:13,073 --> 00:20:18,078
[feet stomping]
[roof creaking]

353
00:20:19,666 --> 00:20:22,290
And they might be up
there at 10, 15 minutes

354
00:20:22,324 --> 00:20:25,845
and the footsteps would stopas if something had flown away.

355
00:20:25,879 --> 00:20:28,330
And of course my parents
did not believe me,

356
00:20:28,365 --> 00:20:30,401
you know, [laughs] when
I kept telling them

357
00:20:30,436 --> 00:20:31,782
about these footsteps.

358
00:20:31,816 --> 00:20:33,922
Until I woke up early one
morning

359
00:20:33,956 --> 00:20:36,476
and I heard them talking to eachother,

360
00:20:36,511 --> 00:20:39,583
saying, "Wonder what those
footsteps are on the roof?"

361
00:20:39,617 --> 00:20:43,034
And I was pretty small, Iwasn't even quite in school yet

362
00:20:43,069 --> 00:20:46,175
and I was thinking, "I want to
go outside.

363
00:20:46,210 --> 00:20:49,869
I want to go outside and,
you know, and hide the bushes

364
00:20:49,903 --> 00:20:52,492
and see if I can see the
Mothman."

365
00:20:52,527 --> 00:20:54,805
But I never developed
the courage to do that.

366
00:20:57,635 --> 00:21:01,294
[dark violin music]

367
00:21:01,329 --> 00:21:02,882
- I talked to one lady,

368
00:21:02,916 --> 00:21:05,643
and she specifically mentioned
early '70s,

369
00:21:05,678 --> 00:21:09,268
who had a morning paper
route in the Gallipolis area.

370
00:21:09,302 --> 00:21:11,856
She'd deliver papers
about five in the morning

371
00:21:11,891 --> 00:21:16,309
and she told me that as she
was coming down the street,

372
00:21:16,344 --> 00:21:18,622
on the other side of the
street was like a guard rail,

373
00:21:18,656 --> 00:21:20,727
right beside the Ohio River.

374
00:21:20,762 --> 00:21:23,351
There's a little island that's
right off of that guard rail

375
00:21:23,385 --> 00:21:25,422
that goes out into the Ohio
River

376
00:21:25,456 --> 00:21:26,940
and she said she looked up

377
00:21:26,975 --> 00:21:29,529
and saw the biggest bird that
she'd ever seen in her life,

378
00:21:29,564 --> 00:21:31,220
sittin' there starin' at her.

379
00:21:31,255 --> 00:21:34,638
And she said it scared
her and she turned to run

380
00:21:34,672 --> 00:21:37,468
and she said, the bird
raised up, flew across

381
00:21:37,503 --> 00:21:39,712
and landed in the trees
over on this island.

382
00:21:39,746 --> 00:21:41,300
She said it was enormous.

383
00:21:41,334 --> 00:21:43,060
She was very detailed about it.

384
00:21:43,094 --> 00:21:46,615
And I asked her specifically,
you know, when this happened

385
00:21:46,650 --> 00:21:50,447
and she said, it was the
late '60s, early '70s era.

386
00:21:50,481 --> 00:21:54,416
- In the 1970s, I met my
husband and married him

387
00:21:54,451 --> 00:21:56,349
and he is from Point Pleasant.

388
00:21:56,384 --> 00:21:59,559
He and his dad were
actually out in their car,

389
00:21:59,594 --> 00:22:01,768
driving around and looking for
Mothman.

390
00:22:02,666 --> 00:22:04,392
And he was camping out in his
backyard

391
00:22:04,426 --> 00:22:08,257
hoping to find Mothman,
where I was, you know,

392
00:22:08,292 --> 00:22:11,606
40 miles away, terrified at thesame time.

393
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:13,021
- You know there were sightingsin Ohio,

394
00:22:13,055 --> 00:22:14,919
there were sightings in West
Virginia,

395
00:22:14,954 --> 00:22:16,956
Pennsylvania, Kentucky.

396
00:22:16,990 --> 00:22:20,235
It's just that that rash
of sightings didn't last

397
00:22:20,269 --> 00:22:23,307
nearly as long as it did
here in Point Pleasant.

398
00:22:23,342 --> 00:22:25,344
- Major players in the Mothman
story

399
00:22:25,378 --> 00:22:28,795
during the 1960s and
'70s included the likes

400
00:22:28,830 --> 00:22:32,903
of West Virginia UFO author
and investigator, Gray Barker

401
00:22:32,937 --> 00:22:34,283
and a newspaper reporter

402
00:22:34,318 --> 00:22:37,356
and Point Pleasant local, Mary
Hyre.

403
00:22:37,390 --> 00:22:40,324
Hyre chronicled the ongoing
activity taking place

404
00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:42,913
following the collapse
of the Silver Bridge,

405
00:22:42,947 --> 00:22:45,916
relaying sightings of Mothman,
UFOs

406
00:22:45,950 --> 00:22:48,021
and the infamous Men in Black

407
00:22:48,056 --> 00:22:50,541
in her "Athens Messenger" columntitled,

408
00:22:50,576 --> 00:22:52,750
"Where the Waters Mingle."

409
00:22:52,785 --> 00:22:55,270
Hyre herself had a run-in
with a Man in Black

410
00:22:55,304 --> 00:22:57,790
in her Point Pleasant office
following the collapse

411
00:22:57,824 --> 00:23:01,552
of the Silver Bridge in Decemberof 1967.

412
00:23:01,587 --> 00:23:04,452
However, in February of 1970,

413
00:23:04,486 --> 00:23:08,110
Hyre would pass away
after an extended illness.

414
00:23:08,145 --> 00:23:09,491
Around Point Pleasant,

415
00:23:09,526 --> 00:23:12,460
the Mothman became less
of a talking point,

416
00:23:12,494 --> 00:23:14,082
although the UFO activity,

417
00:23:14,116 --> 00:23:16,912
which accompanied the
initial wave of strangeness,

418
00:23:16,947 --> 00:23:18,397
continued unabated.

419
00:23:20,019 --> 00:23:22,228
While Hyre was tracking ongoingreports

420
00:23:22,262 --> 00:23:24,920
during the late '60s and early
'70s,

421
00:23:24,955 --> 00:23:27,129
New York based author, John
Keel,

422
00:23:27,164 --> 00:23:29,166
was laboring over his own
recounting

423
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:32,272
of the 13-month-winged-creaturesiege.

424
00:23:32,307 --> 00:23:33,895
Keel would release his book,

425
00:23:33,929 --> 00:23:38,071
"The Mothman Prophecies" in
1975.

426
00:23:38,106 --> 00:23:40,902
The nonfiction saga
would become a bestseller

427
00:23:40,936 --> 00:23:43,663
and reignite an interest in thetopic.

428
00:23:43,698 --> 00:23:46,252
Keel continue to write about theMothman,

429
00:23:46,286 --> 00:23:49,082
but no longer made
trips to Point Pleasant.

430
00:23:49,117 --> 00:23:51,050
And with Mary Hyre no longer
around

431
00:23:51,084 --> 00:23:53,190
to update Keel on the Mothman,

432
00:23:53,224 --> 00:23:55,606
no one was keeping tabs on the
creature,

433
00:23:55,641 --> 00:23:57,746
who was now making its presencefelt

434
00:23:57,781 --> 00:23:59,092
around much of Appalachia.

435
00:24:00,473 --> 00:24:02,751
- I think the planets kind of
aligned

436
00:24:02,786 --> 00:24:04,581
with the sightings in Point
Pleasant

437
00:24:04,615 --> 00:24:08,343
because number one, you had
all these people seeing UFOs,

438
00:24:08,377 --> 00:24:11,311
the Men in Black, the Mothman,
the Silver Bridge collapse.

439
00:24:11,346 --> 00:24:13,659
John Keel comes to town

440
00:24:13,693 --> 00:24:17,110
and it isolated the
Point Pleasant sightings.

441
00:24:17,145 --> 00:24:20,044
- I came across "The Mothman
Prophecies," the book,

442
00:24:20,079 --> 00:24:24,463
in the mid-'90s and it
immediately got my attention

443
00:24:24,497 --> 00:24:26,188
'cause it sort of was my sweet
spot

444
00:24:26,223 --> 00:24:27,845
in terms of my interest in the
paranormal,

445
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:30,330
which is, well it had
tons of phenomenon in it,

446
00:24:30,365 --> 00:24:33,748
UFOs, poltergeists, the Mothman.

447
00:24:33,782 --> 00:24:35,370
And at the same time,

448
00:24:35,404 --> 00:24:37,821
the story was told from the
point of view of John Keel,

449
00:24:37,855 --> 00:24:39,650
the guy who was there
investigating it,

450
00:24:39,685 --> 00:24:43,136
and it focused so much on his
interaction

451
00:24:43,171 --> 00:24:45,794
with the phenomenon and theway it affected him personally,

452
00:24:45,829 --> 00:24:47,244
which I found fascinating.

453
00:24:47,278 --> 00:24:50,489
- Well "The Mothman Prophecies"book didn't come together

454
00:24:50,523 --> 00:24:53,526
until about 10 years after the
events.

455
00:24:53,561 --> 00:24:55,701
He did do some, there was an
article

456
00:24:55,735 --> 00:24:59,187
in "The Flying Saucer Review"
and I think "Saga Magazine"

457
00:24:59,221 --> 00:25:00,706
where he did talk about it

458
00:25:00,740 --> 00:25:02,846
and he talked about
certain elements of it.

459
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:06,056
Apparently his publisher told
him, he said, "Hey, look,

460
00:25:06,090 --> 00:25:08,437
it's time we put together
a book on the Mothman."

461
00:25:08,472 --> 00:25:11,993
So Keel talks about how he
got his tattered briefcase out

462
00:25:12,027 --> 00:25:15,272
and went through all his notes
and articles and so forth

463
00:25:15,306 --> 00:25:17,619
and kind of pieced together a
book.

464
00:25:17,654 --> 00:25:19,552
- What was happening in Point
Pleasant

465
00:25:19,587 --> 00:25:21,692
felt extremely personal.

466
00:25:21,727 --> 00:25:22,935
And what was interesting to me

467
00:25:22,969 --> 00:25:24,971
was this sort of interactive
nature

468
00:25:25,006 --> 00:25:27,215
of his experience with the
phenomenon.

469
00:25:27,249 --> 00:25:28,423
The more he studied it

470
00:25:28,457 --> 00:25:31,771
and the more he tried
to really nail it down

471
00:25:31,806 --> 00:25:33,739
and be totally objective,

472
00:25:33,773 --> 00:25:38,778
the more the phenomenon seemed
to want to bring him on stage

473
00:25:39,089 --> 00:25:42,195
as it were and make his
experience less objective

474
00:25:42,230 --> 00:25:45,129
and more subjective and
that's exactly what happened.

475
00:25:46,545 --> 00:25:49,720
[rain patters]
[foreboding music]

476
00:25:49,755 --> 00:25:54,725
[bird calls]
[thunder crashes]

477
00:25:55,174 --> 00:25:57,279
- In November of 1966,

478
00:25:57,314 --> 00:26:00,559
Roger and Linda Scarberry
and Steve and Mary Mallette

479
00:26:00,593 --> 00:26:02,906
had the first
regionally-reported encounter

480
00:26:02,940 --> 00:26:04,424
with the Mothman.

481
00:26:04,459 --> 00:26:06,254
The incident took place in an
area

482
00:26:06,288 --> 00:26:08,567
frequently tied to Mothman lore,

483
00:26:08,601 --> 00:26:10,361
an abandoned munitions facility

484
00:26:10,396 --> 00:26:12,743
just outside of Point Pleasant.

485
00:26:12,778 --> 00:26:16,126
The area was known as the
McClintic Wildlife Management
Area

486
00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:20,579
or as locals referred to it, theTNT Area.

487
00:26:20,613 --> 00:26:23,616
While the bizarre entity would
become known as the Mothman

488
00:26:23,651 --> 00:26:25,066
a short time later,

489
00:26:25,100 --> 00:26:29,726
it was initially referred to
as the Bird or the Birdman.

490
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:30,692
[entity laughs]

491
00:26:30,727 --> 00:26:33,177
Its association with a known
avian animal

492
00:26:33,212 --> 00:26:35,628
was based in part on the
creature's wings,

493
00:26:35,663 --> 00:26:37,250
its ability to fly

494
00:26:37,285 --> 00:26:40,944
and its occasional
comparison to a large owl.

495
00:26:40,978 --> 00:26:43,740
In other words, many
encounters detailed a being

496
00:26:43,774 --> 00:26:45,880
that looked and behaved like a
bird.

497
00:26:45,914 --> 00:26:46,708
[entity caws]

498
00:26:46,743 --> 00:26:47,951
Despite stranger features

499
00:26:47,985 --> 00:26:50,470
described in later Mothman
reports,

500
00:26:50,505 --> 00:26:52,921
the ID of a man-sized winged
creature

501
00:26:52,956 --> 00:26:54,371
that descends from the sky

502
00:26:54,405 --> 00:26:57,063
to terrify people when
they least expect it

503
00:26:57,098 --> 00:27:00,791
is an ancient one and one foundworldwide.

504
00:27:02,137 --> 00:27:03,932
- John Keel, his original title,

505
00:27:03,967 --> 00:27:05,831
which never made it to press
obviously,

506
00:27:05,865 --> 00:27:07,349
was the "Year of the Garuda."

507
00:27:07,384 --> 00:27:09,489
He saw sort of a connection

508
00:27:09,524 --> 00:27:13,562
with the Hindu mythology ofthe Garuda, this winged entity.

509
00:27:13,597 --> 00:27:15,875
Of course he was knocked
down by the publisher.

510
00:27:15,910 --> 00:27:18,464
- But the Garuda is in
multiple traditions.

511
00:27:18,498 --> 00:27:22,641
In Hinduism, the Garuda
is a massive sun bird

512
00:27:22,675 --> 00:27:25,540
that ultimately becomes
the vehicle, the mount,

513
00:27:25,574 --> 00:27:26,714
for the god Vishnu.

514
00:27:26,748 --> 00:27:30,200
It is depicted as some human
features,

515
00:27:30,234 --> 00:27:32,374
sometimes two arms, sometimes
four arms,

516
00:27:32,409 --> 00:27:36,206
but the body of an eagle,
massive wings as well.

517
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:37,414
- And you know,

518
00:27:37,448 --> 00:27:39,209
when you read some aspects
of "The Mothman Prophecies,"

519
00:27:39,243 --> 00:27:41,590
"The year of the Garuda was at
hand.

520
00:27:41,625 --> 00:27:43,696
A shadow was passing over a
little town

521
00:27:43,731 --> 00:27:46,906
I had never even heard of,Point Pleasant, West Virginia."

522
00:27:46,941 --> 00:27:51,221
This winged apparition,
sometimes
winged-demon or whatever,

523
00:27:51,255 --> 00:27:54,534
I think it just lends it to theidea

524
00:27:54,569 --> 00:27:57,779
that whatever Mothman was,
it is kind of an archetype.

525
00:27:57,814 --> 00:28:01,162
[haunting violin music]

526
00:28:03,509 --> 00:28:04,752
- I remember back,

527
00:28:04,786 --> 00:28:08,169
and it started out they
didn't even call it Mothman.

528
00:28:08,203 --> 00:28:10,412
There for several months,
they called him Birdman.

529
00:28:10,447 --> 00:28:11,897
I do remember that.

530
00:28:11,931 --> 00:28:13,174
And then something went around

531
00:28:13,208 --> 00:28:17,005
that it was a sandhill
crane, the rather large crane

532
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:19,525
that had red feathers around itseyes.

533
00:28:19,559 --> 00:28:23,149
- The kind of explanations
that get talked about a lot,

534
00:28:23,184 --> 00:28:25,496
one of them is a sandhill crane.

535
00:28:25,531 --> 00:28:27,498
A friend of mine, Forrest
Burgess,

536
00:28:27,533 --> 00:28:30,847
once said that, "The
sandhill crane is to Mothman

537
00:28:30,881 --> 00:28:33,677
what swamp gas is to UFOs."

538
00:28:33,712 --> 00:28:35,852
You know, it's the go-to
explanation

539
00:28:35,886 --> 00:28:38,095
that makes absolutely no sense.

540
00:28:38,130 --> 00:28:40,753
- Other people thought, youknow, well, maybe it was a bird,

541
00:28:40,788 --> 00:28:42,893
but it was a mutated bird.

542
00:28:42,928 --> 00:28:45,240
You know, the TNT Area,
the waste in the TNT Area

543
00:28:45,275 --> 00:28:48,140
and the chemicals used in WorldWar II

544
00:28:48,174 --> 00:28:49,762
contaminated the ground.

545
00:28:49,797 --> 00:28:53,801
Which makes a perfect scenario
for a Boris Karloff movie.

546
00:28:53,835 --> 00:28:56,355
- I know that back in the
'80s, that they came in

547
00:28:58,322 --> 00:28:59,772
and it was an EPA disaster site

548
00:28:59,807 --> 00:29:02,430
and they had to shave two or
three inches of top soil off

549
00:29:02,464 --> 00:29:05,019
within an eight mile radius
just to clean the place up.

550
00:29:05,053 --> 00:29:07,331
- But that was maybe a way
for a lot of those people

551
00:29:07,366 --> 00:29:09,851
to validate, "Hey, yeah, it
was some sort of a monster

552
00:29:09,886 --> 00:29:12,785
because it got into this toxic
waste

553
00:29:12,820 --> 00:29:15,098
and it resembled a monster."

554
00:29:15,132 --> 00:29:16,789
It scared people, you know,

555
00:29:16,824 --> 00:29:19,930
and it's no secret that the
TNT Area was contaminated

556
00:29:19,965 --> 00:29:21,829
with a lot of stuff.

557
00:29:21,863 --> 00:29:22,899
[light haunting music]

558
00:29:22,933 --> 00:29:25,073
- It's not a natural
creature to this area.

559
00:29:25,108 --> 00:29:27,144
There wouldn't be anything
that would match that.

560
00:29:27,179 --> 00:29:30,389
There's no birds that would
have wings anywhere close

561
00:29:30,423 --> 00:29:33,323
to the size of Mothman,
you know, his wings.

562
00:29:33,357 --> 00:29:35,463
- Yes, there are many
researchers

563
00:29:35,497 --> 00:29:39,916
that look at the giant birds
as something very tangible.

564
00:29:39,950 --> 00:29:41,503
There have been a sightings

565
00:29:41,538 --> 00:29:43,643
that look like they were just
giant owls.

566
00:29:43,678 --> 00:29:46,301
and the Mothman, it's seen
in the dark sometimes,

567
00:29:46,336 --> 00:29:48,787
did look quite like kind of a
giant owl.

568
00:29:48,821 --> 00:29:49,822
[owl hoots]

569
00:29:49,857 --> 00:29:52,342
- It's common in folklore
for a screech owl.

570
00:29:52,376 --> 00:29:54,240
In Welsh there's the Corpse
Bird.

571
00:29:54,275 --> 00:29:57,071
It's a screech owl that
comes banging at the window

572
00:29:57,105 --> 00:29:59,211
of someone who's ill or sick.

573
00:29:59,245 --> 00:30:02,593
And then that motif follows
its way into Appalachia, too.

574
00:30:02,628 --> 00:30:04,664
If you see or hear an owl

575
00:30:04,699 --> 00:30:06,839
outside of your window
at night making a call,

576
00:30:06,874 --> 00:30:08,737
it's a sign that someone's goingto die.

577
00:30:08,772 --> 00:30:12,845
Likewise, if a bird flies in
your house,

578
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:14,260
that's really bad news.

579
00:30:14,295 --> 00:30:17,505
Someone is probably going
to get hurt or die as well.

580
00:30:17,539 --> 00:30:21,164
- The Native American of coursehave the Thunderbird legend,

581
00:30:21,198 --> 00:30:23,545
which some people
associate with the Mothman,

582
00:30:23,580 --> 00:30:25,754
I think maybe John Keel did
even.

583
00:30:25,789 --> 00:30:27,998
- The Thunder Bird is a
Southwest tribal,

584
00:30:28,033 --> 00:30:30,759
it is not Shawnee, it's
not Eastern Woodland.

585
00:30:30,794 --> 00:30:33,279
So it is said that the
Mothman could be tied

586
00:30:33,314 --> 00:30:36,835
to the Thunderbird, but wedidn't have a Thunderbird here.

587
00:30:37,801 --> 00:30:40,183
[foreboding music]
[object crashes]

588
00:30:40,217 --> 00:30:42,910
- Tom Ury, one of the Mothman
witnesses,

589
00:30:42,944 --> 00:30:45,774
that's really what he
saw was a giant bird,

590
00:30:45,809 --> 00:30:48,225
about a 10 to 12 foot wingspan.

591
00:30:48,260 --> 00:30:51,332
I was able to talk to him one
on one about his experience.

592
00:30:51,366 --> 00:30:53,196
In fact, Tom, for a while,

593
00:30:53,230 --> 00:30:55,888
thought that the other
people like Linda Scarberry

594
00:30:55,923 --> 00:30:57,959
and Marcella Bennett and so
forth,

595
00:30:57,994 --> 00:30:59,340
saw the same thing he did,

596
00:30:59,374 --> 00:31:01,756
but thought perhaps it was so
shocking

597
00:31:01,790 --> 00:31:04,414
that they've maybe added the
details.

598
00:31:04,448 --> 00:31:05,553
[feet stomping]

599
00:31:05,587 --> 00:31:07,279
But the thing is about the
Mothman,

600
00:31:07,313 --> 00:31:08,487
the Mothman was a paradox.

601
00:31:08,521 --> 00:31:10,075
Some people got a pretty good
look at it,

602
00:31:10,109 --> 00:31:13,354
and it was about seven feet,
tall, dark gray, or black,

603
00:31:13,388 --> 00:31:14,803
about a 10 foot wingspan.

604
00:31:14,838 --> 00:31:17,599
A 10 foot wingspan probably
isn't gonna lift something

605
00:31:17,634 --> 00:31:18,877
that's seven foot tall.

606
00:31:18,911 --> 00:31:22,018
Just biologically it didn'twork, but people kept seeing it.

607
00:31:23,882 --> 00:31:27,092
[ominous music]

608
00:31:27,126 --> 00:31:29,957
[birds cawing]

609
00:31:29,991 --> 00:31:33,098
- While the 1980s were a dead
zone for Mothman research,

610
00:31:33,132 --> 00:31:34,927
sightings of winged humanoids

611
00:31:34,962 --> 00:31:37,274
and giant birds continued
around Appalachia.

612
00:31:38,172 --> 00:31:39,587
In Northern Pennsylvania,

613
00:31:39,621 --> 00:31:42,141
a string of reports of a
pterosaur-like creature

614
00:31:42,176 --> 00:31:45,524
made regional headlines
during the early '80s.

615
00:31:45,558 --> 00:31:48,907
Meanwhile, around Point
Pleasant and West Virginia,

616
00:31:48,941 --> 00:31:51,185
the red-eyed creature
that dominated headlines

617
00:31:51,219 --> 00:31:56,017
during the late 1960s had
faded into relative obscurity.

618
00:31:56,052 --> 00:31:58,847
Despite the Mothman's lack of
popularity,

619
00:31:58,882 --> 00:32:00,470
kids still warned one another

620
00:32:00,504 --> 00:32:03,956
about venturing into
the TNT Area after dark.

621
00:32:03,991 --> 00:32:06,614
Tales also circulated amongst
the locals,

622
00:32:06,648 --> 00:32:08,202
such as one in which hunters

623
00:32:08,236 --> 00:32:10,342
encountered a mysteriously largebird

624
00:32:10,376 --> 00:32:12,447
in the early morning hours.

625
00:32:12,482 --> 00:32:15,036
A group of teenagers even
claimed to have found a pile

626
00:32:15,071 --> 00:32:16,969
of abnormally large feathers

627
00:32:17,004 --> 00:32:19,351
in one of the abandoned TNT
bunkers.

628
00:32:20,455 --> 00:32:21,905
As the years tick by,

629
00:32:21,940 --> 00:32:24,563
the reality of what was
encountered began to fade

630
00:32:24,597 --> 00:32:26,875
and was replaced by something
else,

631
00:32:26,910 --> 00:32:29,361
a modern folktale in the making.

632
00:32:29,395 --> 00:32:31,397
Still, an absence of evidence

633
00:32:31,432 --> 00:32:34,642
doesn't necessarily indicate
evidence of absence,

634
00:32:34,676 --> 00:32:38,473
as Leah Wilson discovered
in the summer of 1987.

635
00:32:38,508 --> 00:32:40,820
- I was in Calhoun County, WestVirginia,

636
00:32:40,855 --> 00:32:44,169
Leading Creek Road, it's
outside of Grantsville,

637
00:32:44,203 --> 00:32:47,517
my aunt and uncle's old farm
house.

638
00:32:47,551 --> 00:32:49,450
A few months before
that, like in the spring,

639
00:32:49,484 --> 00:32:50,485
people were talkin' about,

640
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:53,937
like their chickens and
stuff coming up missing,

641
00:32:53,972 --> 00:32:55,145
you know overnight.

642
00:32:55,180 --> 00:32:57,389
But they would talk about weirdnoises,

643
00:32:57,423 --> 00:33:00,944
but no one had ever talkedabout actually seein' anything.

644
00:33:00,979 --> 00:33:03,360
The farmhouse, there's nothing
around it.

645
00:33:03,395 --> 00:33:05,949
So there's no other residents
for like a half a mile

646
00:33:05,984 --> 00:33:07,744
from the house that I was
stayin' in.

647
00:33:07,778 --> 00:33:11,023
And it was probably 1987, '88,

648
00:33:11,058 --> 00:33:12,818
somewhere around there,
summertime,

649
00:33:14,509 --> 00:33:16,028
it was like two o'clock in the
morning,

650
00:33:16,063 --> 00:33:17,098
I was just goin' to bed

651
00:33:17,133 --> 00:33:19,031
from after watching movies and
stuff.

652
00:33:20,101 --> 00:33:21,240
[voices murmuring]
[foreboding music]

653
00:33:21,275 --> 00:33:25,279
And across the street from
the farmhouse is a holler

654
00:33:25,313 --> 00:33:29,317
that goes up on the hill and
I started hearing this noise.

655
00:33:29,352 --> 00:33:31,802
[creature screeches]

656
00:33:31,837 --> 00:33:33,252
You could tell us some kind of,

657
00:33:33,287 --> 00:33:35,013
I thought it was kind
of a bird-type thing.

658
00:33:35,047 --> 00:33:37,463
I thought maybe it was
an owl or somethin',

659
00:33:37,498 --> 00:33:40,501
but it just kept getting closerand closer

660
00:33:40,535 --> 00:33:42,675
and louder and louder.

661
00:33:42,710 --> 00:33:43,918
[creature screeches]

662
00:33:43,952 --> 00:33:46,783
The only way I can describe
it is the Hollywood movies,

663
00:33:46,817 --> 00:33:48,543
the pterodactyl noises, you
know,

664
00:33:48,578 --> 00:33:49,786
that's the only way I can
describe it.

665
00:33:49,820 --> 00:33:54,687
It was that loud and that
piercing and it kind of had,

666
00:33:55,102 --> 00:33:57,069
I don't know, kind of a
giggling,

667
00:33:57,104 --> 00:33:59,071
loud giggling noise to it, too.

668
00:33:59,106 --> 00:34:00,935
I mean, it's really hard to
describe.

669
00:34:01,970 --> 00:34:05,077
By the time I sat up
to look out the window,

670
00:34:05,112 --> 00:34:07,079
'cause I thought whatever this
was

671
00:34:07,114 --> 00:34:09,737
was gonna fly right into the
window,

672
00:34:09,771 --> 00:34:13,879
the wingspan of this covered thewindows.

673
00:34:15,536 --> 00:34:18,090
[spooky music]

674
00:34:18,987 --> 00:34:21,921
And then when it got to
that part of the house

675
00:34:21,956 --> 00:34:24,752
and went up over the house,
you actually could hear it.

676
00:34:24,786 --> 00:34:28,100
You actually heard the whoosh
sound.

677
00:34:28,135 --> 00:34:31,724
Again, not sure what I wasgonna do or what I'd just seen.

678
00:34:31,759 --> 00:34:33,968
I turned around to the
back window of the bedroom

679
00:34:34,002 --> 00:34:36,350
and you could see the shadow
of whatever this was flyin'

680
00:34:36,384 --> 00:34:39,318
over the field to the back of
the house.

681
00:34:39,353 --> 00:34:41,251
I've never heard anything like
that.

682
00:34:41,286 --> 00:34:46,291
I have stayed at that country
house all my life, you know,

683
00:34:46,705 --> 00:34:49,052
never heard it, never seen
it, anything like that again.

684
00:34:49,087 --> 00:34:51,537
So not sure what it was,

685
00:34:51,572 --> 00:34:54,471
but it was something that was
very large

686
00:34:54,506 --> 00:34:56,749
and very loud and very fast.

687
00:34:56,784 --> 00:34:58,130
'Cause that holler that it cameout

688
00:34:58,165 --> 00:35:00,028
was probably about a mile long.

689
00:35:00,063 --> 00:35:03,342
You know, I was the first one
on that Leading Creek Road

690
00:35:03,377 --> 00:35:05,931
that actually seen somethin'.

691
00:35:07,001 --> 00:35:09,417
[bird screeches]

692
00:35:09,452 --> 00:35:11,316
- You know I think there
were things going on

693
00:35:11,350 --> 00:35:13,145
all the way through the '80s and'90s.

694
00:35:13,180 --> 00:35:15,699
It's real hard to validate
a lot of that stuff

695
00:35:15,734 --> 00:35:18,806
because sometimes it
comes from other states,

696
00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:20,739
but it's hard for me to pinpointand say,

697
00:35:20,773 --> 00:35:25,640
that's exactly what they were
seeing here in 1966, '67.

698
00:35:26,641 --> 00:35:28,850
[soft foreboding music]

699
00:35:28,885 --> 00:35:31,163
- We had that other
sighting in Parkersburg

700
00:35:31,198 --> 00:35:34,166
of the girl having seen it on
Quincy Hill.

701
00:35:34,201 --> 00:35:38,860
She said when she was
in high school in 1987,

702
00:35:38,895 --> 00:35:41,553
she and her boyfriend were
driving

703
00:35:41,587 --> 00:35:43,624
to the top of Quincy Hill,

704
00:35:43,658 --> 00:35:46,730
which is the highest
location in Parkersburg.

705
00:35:46,765 --> 00:35:48,007
Something very similar,

706
00:35:48,042 --> 00:35:51,114
they saw this huge creature
was walking across the street.

707
00:35:51,149 --> 00:35:54,600
She said, it looked like
six-and-a-half-foot insect.

708
00:35:54,635 --> 00:35:56,878
She said its knees were on
backwards,

709
00:35:56,913 --> 00:35:58,570
you know like an insect's leg

710
00:35:58,604 --> 00:35:59,433
[camera clicks]

711
00:35:59,467 --> 00:36:00,951
and had these huge wings as
well.

712
00:36:00,986 --> 00:36:04,472
But she said, the thing
that stood out to her was

713
00:36:04,507 --> 00:36:07,889
this creature had a shuffling
gait,

714
00:36:07,924 --> 00:36:11,445
like it was not used
to walking on its feet.

715
00:36:11,479 --> 00:36:14,068
That told me she was tellin' thetruth

716
00:36:14,102 --> 00:36:16,381
because I had read a lot
of the written accounts

717
00:36:16,415 --> 00:36:17,761
down a Point Pleasant,

718
00:36:17,796 --> 00:36:20,523
they all described the
Mothman as walking that way.

719
00:36:21,455 --> 00:36:23,008
- In the early 1990s,

720
00:36:23,042 --> 00:36:25,217
a Point Pleasant local named
Darren Hayes

721
00:36:25,252 --> 00:36:28,151
encountered the Mothman in the
TNT Area.

722
00:36:28,186 --> 00:36:31,223
While talking to Jeff Wamsley
in an interview for his book,

723
00:36:31,258 --> 00:36:33,777
"Mothman, Behind the Red Eyes,"

724
00:36:33,812 --> 00:36:36,159
Hayes recalled while
driving into the area,

725
00:36:36,194 --> 00:36:40,163
a massive winged humanoid-bird
appeared above the car.

726
00:36:40,198 --> 00:36:41,785
As Hayes stepped on the gas,

727
00:36:41,820 --> 00:36:44,685
the creature made five or
six passes over the car

728
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:46,963
before the vehicle eventually
outran it

729
00:36:46,997 --> 00:36:49,793
as the men headed back to PointPleasant.

730
00:36:49,828 --> 00:36:50,691
[creature caws]
[air whooshes]

731
00:36:50,725 --> 00:36:52,658
Darren's account wouldn't becomepublic

732
00:36:52,693 --> 00:36:54,867
until the publication of
Wamsley's book

733
00:36:54,902 --> 00:36:56,662
nearly a decade later.

734
00:36:56,697 --> 00:36:57,870
The story illustrates

735
00:36:57,905 --> 00:37:01,564
that the Mothman was still
making its presence felt.

736
00:37:01,598 --> 00:37:04,222
Perhaps no one felt the
creature's presence more

737
00:37:04,256 --> 00:37:05,982
than John Keel.

738
00:37:06,016 --> 00:37:08,053
Despite living states away

739
00:37:08,087 --> 00:37:10,055
and making an effort to distancehimself

740
00:37:10,089 --> 00:37:11,953
from "The Mothman Prophecies,"

741
00:37:11,988 --> 00:37:14,508
the author felt himself
pulled back to the story

742
00:37:14,542 --> 00:37:15,923
over the years.

743
00:37:15,957 --> 00:37:16,786
[birds chirping]
[somber music]

744
00:37:16,820 --> 00:37:18,443
- People thought he had the
answers

745
00:37:18,477 --> 00:37:20,928
because he had spent so
much time in Point Pleasant.

746
00:37:20,962 --> 00:37:23,724
He stayed with Linda's family,
Linda Scarberry's family.

747
00:37:23,758 --> 00:37:24,966
In "The Mothman Prophecies,"

748
00:37:25,001 --> 00:37:28,038
it talks about how his
life became intertwined

749
00:37:28,073 --> 00:37:29,730
with the people of the Ohio
Valley,

750
00:37:29,764 --> 00:37:31,835
especially in Point Pleasant.

751
00:37:31,870 --> 00:37:32,871
- Here's how it went.

752
00:37:32,905 --> 00:37:34,769
When John Keel was there,

753
00:37:34,804 --> 00:37:37,082
the entire town was sort of
haunted.

754
00:37:37,116 --> 00:37:40,982
The people that he was
speaking to were very scared

755
00:37:41,017 --> 00:37:42,052
about what was going on.

756
00:37:42,087 --> 00:37:43,882
There seemed to be a general
understanding

757
00:37:43,916 --> 00:37:46,816
that all of this was going
to lead to something bad,

758
00:37:46,850 --> 00:37:49,508
at least that's certainly
what John Keel felt.

759
00:37:49,543 --> 00:37:52,097
- He had proposed some
ideas for other books

760
00:37:52,131 --> 00:37:53,271
that never came about.

761
00:37:53,305 --> 00:37:56,343
He seemed to kind of move away
from it.

762
00:37:56,377 --> 00:37:58,862
I remember hearing people
that interviewed him,

763
00:37:58,897 --> 00:38:00,416
they want to talk about the
Mothman,

764
00:38:00,450 --> 00:38:01,900
he would change the subject,

765
00:38:01,934 --> 00:38:03,936
he would want to talk
about something else.

766
00:38:03,971 --> 00:38:05,317
- Because he was solving his ownmystery

767
00:38:05,352 --> 00:38:07,146
and he really wanted an answer.

768
00:38:07,181 --> 00:38:09,873
And like most of us do
when we first get involved

769
00:38:09,908 --> 00:38:12,359
in the paranormal,

770
00:38:12,393 --> 00:38:15,569
we think, on a certain level,
we're gonna figure it out.

771
00:38:15,603 --> 00:38:19,711
The experience typically
does not provide an answer

772
00:38:19,745 --> 00:38:21,540
and it certainly didn't for JohnKeel.

773
00:38:21,575 --> 00:38:24,647
- When people would ask
him, "What was the Mothman?

774
00:38:24,681 --> 00:38:25,682
What was it all about?"

775
00:38:25,717 --> 00:38:28,202
He'd have to be honest
and say he didn't know.

776
00:38:28,236 --> 00:38:29,514
I mean, he didn't have the
answers.

777
00:38:29,548 --> 00:38:32,344
He was someone that chronicled
the events.

778
00:38:32,379 --> 00:38:34,381
A very important thing about
Keel,

779
00:38:34,415 --> 00:38:38,143
he didn't reject stuff that
didn't fit a certain paradigm.

780
00:38:38,177 --> 00:38:42,285
And that's how he became towrite books like "Trojan Horse,"

781
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,460
because he began to see
the interconnectedness

782
00:38:44,494 --> 00:38:46,151
of all paranormal activity.

783
00:38:47,325 --> 00:38:50,466
[soft brooding music]

784
00:38:51,812 --> 00:38:54,366
[spooky music]

785
00:38:59,406 --> 00:39:02,374
[birds cawing]

786
00:39:02,409 --> 00:39:06,551
- So I grew up pretty much
right near the woodlot.

787
00:39:08,967 --> 00:39:10,451
We were the last house actually,

788
00:39:10,486 --> 00:39:12,039
before it turns into the woods

789
00:39:12,073 --> 00:39:14,213
and you know, a very small area.

790
00:39:14,248 --> 00:39:16,181
And there was a community area,

791
00:39:18,666 --> 00:39:20,427
an old community area

792
00:39:20,461 --> 00:39:23,464
and passed down, you
know, family to family,

793
00:39:23,499 --> 00:39:24,879
one of those kind of deals.

794
00:39:26,329 --> 00:39:27,572
I've been going over it in my
head

795
00:39:27,606 --> 00:39:28,918
and this is pretty much how it
went.

796
00:39:29,988 --> 00:39:32,611
We were comin' home, it
was either 1999 or 2000,

797
00:39:34,786 --> 00:39:35,787
[engine roars]
We were comin' home

798
00:39:35,821 --> 00:39:37,202
and it was late in the evening.

799
00:39:38,514 --> 00:39:40,032
We're coming around the first
curve

800
00:39:40,067 --> 00:39:43,242
and the first curve will be
near a graveyard actually,

801
00:39:43,277 --> 00:39:46,625
it's an old family graveyard,
it's up on a hill there.

802
00:39:46,660 --> 00:39:49,904
And as we go around the
curve, we slowed down

803
00:39:49,939 --> 00:39:53,632
and the headlights hit
somethin' in the road.

804
00:39:57,464 --> 00:39:59,397
What they hit was a form

805
00:40:00,570 --> 00:40:02,883
and for a split second, I
thought, "Oh, it's a large
bird,"

806
00:40:02,917 --> 00:40:04,056
and all that.

807
00:40:04,091 --> 00:40:06,438
And then, we're sitting there
you know,

808
00:40:06,473 --> 00:40:09,337
and this thing, whatever it was,

809
00:40:09,372 --> 00:40:11,236
you notice really quickly it's
not a bird

810
00:40:11,270 --> 00:40:13,100
because you can kinda
almost see through it.

811
00:40:13,134 --> 00:40:15,343
It has this weird, not
translucent,

812
00:40:15,378 --> 00:40:17,553
but almost like it was
phasing or shifting.

813
00:40:18,485 --> 00:40:20,763
It kinda stands up a little bit

814
00:40:20,797 --> 00:40:23,455
and puts out what I assume werewings,

815
00:40:23,490 --> 00:40:24,698
I mean, arms somethin'

816
00:40:24,732 --> 00:40:26,769
and they reached almost
to the sides of the road.

817
00:40:26,803 --> 00:40:30,600
But with just one movement,
it shot straight up.

818
00:40:30,635 --> 00:40:32,533
And as it's shootin'
straight up, you know,

819
00:40:32,568 --> 00:40:34,293
we're sitting there and you
could hear it

820
00:40:34,328 --> 00:40:35,467
and you can see it, too.

821
00:40:35,502 --> 00:40:37,573
There were twigs fallin', you
know?

822
00:40:37,607 --> 00:40:39,126
It made no sense.

823
00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:41,404
The speed at which it
moved, I have no idea.

824
00:40:41,439 --> 00:40:44,165
Now I never thought for one
second when this happened,

825
00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:45,753
by the way, you know,

826
00:40:45,788 --> 00:40:47,755
that was Mothman or that was
somethin'.

827
00:40:47,790 --> 00:40:52,070
Nope, what I felt was
absolute, 100% fear, terror.

828
00:40:52,104 --> 00:40:53,796
I hit the gas as hard as I
possibly could.

829
00:40:53,830 --> 00:40:56,661
I don't think I ever got
that car to go as fast

830
00:40:56,695 --> 00:40:57,938
as I did that night.

831
00:40:57,972 --> 00:40:59,042
And it weird about that,

832
00:40:59,077 --> 00:41:01,079
and I looked back at it to thisday,

833
00:41:01,113 --> 00:41:05,117
but something said, "Get
out," and I got out.

834
00:41:05,152 --> 00:41:05,946
[tires screeching]

835
00:41:05,980 --> 00:41:07,292
Yeah, it was pretty scary.

836
00:41:07,326 --> 00:41:10,260
[foreboding music]

837
00:41:14,713 --> 00:41:17,820
But what is really weird about
the story

838
00:41:17,854 --> 00:41:19,442
is not my sighting,

839
00:41:21,306 --> 00:41:23,515
the part that gets me is,

840
00:41:23,550 --> 00:41:25,586
where it happened is only about

841
00:41:26,518 --> 00:41:28,624
just maybe a couple hundred
yards

842
00:41:28,658 --> 00:41:31,834
from where my mom had a sighting

843
00:41:31,868 --> 00:41:34,699
and that would have been in the'50s.

844
00:41:34,733 --> 00:41:38,426
And her and four other people atthe time

845
00:41:38,461 --> 00:41:41,084
had seen what they
described as a gray ghost.

846
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:45,882
They were walking along
the ridge line at the time.

847
00:41:45,917 --> 00:41:49,541
They said that this gray thing
appeared near the graveyard

848
00:41:50,473 --> 00:41:51,888
and

849
00:41:51,923 --> 00:41:52,717
to them,

850
00:41:52,751 --> 00:41:53,718
it just

851
00:41:55,098 --> 00:41:56,099
went up in the air.

852
00:41:56,134 --> 00:41:58,377
That was their words.
"It went up in the air."

853
00:41:59,551 --> 00:42:00,725
I didn't even, you know,

854
00:42:00,759 --> 00:42:02,554
we've heard that story so much
growin' up

855
00:42:02,589 --> 00:42:05,246
and it's just like, you
know, it never really clicked

856
00:42:05,281 --> 00:42:06,420
until that night I saw that
thing.

857
00:42:06,454 --> 00:42:08,353
I'm like, "This is where they
saw it."

858
00:42:09,699 --> 00:42:13,358
[spooky music]
[birds calling]

859
00:42:13,392 --> 00:42:17,327
- From sandhill crane to
giant owl, to mythical birds,

860
00:42:17,362 --> 00:42:19,882
during the 1960s and up until
the release

861
00:42:19,916 --> 00:42:23,506
of John Keel's seminal book in
1975,

862
00:42:23,541 --> 00:42:26,578
the most common theories as
to what the creature might be

863
00:42:26,613 --> 00:42:30,340
all revolved around tangible
flesh and bone beings,

864
00:42:30,375 --> 00:42:33,343
animals that either existed
within known science

865
00:42:33,378 --> 00:42:35,138
or on its fringes.

866
00:42:35,173 --> 00:42:38,072
Yet with the release of
"The Mothman Prophecies,"

867
00:42:38,107 --> 00:42:39,971
something new is proposed.

868
00:42:40,005 --> 00:42:43,008
Suddenly, the answers as
to what the entity might be

869
00:42:43,043 --> 00:42:45,908
weren't being sought in
the pages of science,

870
00:42:45,942 --> 00:42:48,117
but in the realms of physics.

871
00:42:48,151 --> 00:42:51,569
As Keel put forth his own ideasabout alternate dimensions

872
00:42:51,603 --> 00:42:54,123
and realities to explain the
Mothman,

873
00:42:54,157 --> 00:42:58,023
similar theories were beingpresented for various phenomena.

874
00:42:58,058 --> 00:42:59,577
Could the Mothman be a visitor

875
00:42:59,611 --> 00:43:01,717
from another plane of existence,

876
00:43:01,751 --> 00:43:03,822
one beyond our own?

877
00:43:03,857 --> 00:43:06,825
If so, was there something
about Point Pleasant,

878
00:43:06,860 --> 00:43:08,447
or even all of Appalachia,

879
00:43:08,482 --> 00:43:12,037
that acted as a gateway
between these realities?

880
00:43:12,072 --> 00:43:14,074
Legends suggest that Native
Americans

881
00:43:14,108 --> 00:43:17,422
avoided much of the land
where West Virginia now sits,

882
00:43:17,456 --> 00:43:18,665
leading to speculation

883
00:43:18,699 --> 00:43:22,047
that the earth itself in
this place was cursed.

884
00:43:22,082 --> 00:43:24,394
In later years, an unfounded
story

885
00:43:24,429 --> 00:43:27,363
regarding a supposed curse
placed on Point Pleasant

886
00:43:27,397 --> 00:43:29,054
began to circulate.

887
00:43:29,089 --> 00:43:30,711
It involved the real life murder

888
00:43:30,746 --> 00:43:33,749
of a Native chief named
Cornstalk.

889
00:43:33,783 --> 00:43:36,648
Though likely having
little basis in reality,

890
00:43:36,683 --> 00:43:39,168
it is possible that some kernelof truth

891
00:43:39,202 --> 00:43:41,480
does exist in the story.

892
00:43:41,515 --> 00:43:44,967
Perhaps the curse in question
was simply a word ascribed

893
00:43:45,001 --> 00:43:48,626
to a location that seemed
to invite strangeness,

894
00:43:48,660 --> 00:43:49,937
if not tragedy.

895
00:43:52,215 --> 00:43:53,251
[animal whines]
[dark haunting music]

896
00:43:53,285 --> 00:43:55,460
[creature calls]

897
00:43:55,494 --> 00:43:58,566
[wings flapping]
[birds calling]

898
00:43:58,601 --> 00:43:59,844
- What I have gathered

899
00:43:59,878 --> 00:44:02,570
is that there are parts in the
Ohio Valley

900
00:44:02,605 --> 00:44:05,021
that are kind of believed to becursed.

901
00:44:05,056 --> 00:44:06,229
They're a land of the dead.

902
00:44:06,264 --> 00:44:09,163
It was common for people
to be buried closer

903
00:44:09,198 --> 00:44:10,061
to bodies of water.

904
00:44:10,095 --> 00:44:11,649
That's where we find some of themounds.

905
00:44:11,683 --> 00:44:13,133
It's a valley of the dead,

906
00:44:13,167 --> 00:44:16,861
so I would think that
any place along a river

907
00:44:16,895 --> 00:44:18,034
is kind of the same thing.

908
00:44:18,069 --> 00:44:19,622
There's probably a lot of
burials there.

909
00:44:19,657 --> 00:44:22,142
Different Native American
tribes believed so strongly

910
00:44:22,176 --> 00:44:23,661
that they wouldn't come at
night.

911
00:44:23,695 --> 00:44:24,558
They would not.

912
00:44:24,592 --> 00:44:25,766
- There's a lot of people that
believed

913
00:44:25,801 --> 00:44:27,665
the movement of water is
conducive

914
00:44:27,699 --> 00:44:31,772
to helping to produce
some of this activity.

915
00:44:31,807 --> 00:44:33,878
And yes, I find it easy to
believe

916
00:44:33,912 --> 00:44:35,914
that there is something
about the confluence

917
00:44:35,949 --> 00:44:38,192
of the rivers coming together.

918
00:44:38,227 --> 00:44:40,229
There's even the lore
about crossroads, you know,

919
00:44:40,263 --> 00:44:41,920
the Devil's Crossroads or
whatever,

920
00:44:41,955 --> 00:44:45,337
and that's where Indrid Cold
was supposed to have shown up

921
00:44:45,372 --> 00:44:47,132
along Route 77 there.

922
00:44:48,893 --> 00:44:51,516
- That's common in a lot
of different cultures.

923
00:44:51,550 --> 00:44:53,967
The idea that a river or a
confluence

924
00:44:54,001 --> 00:44:57,522
of bodies of water is a
gateway somewhere, yes.

925
00:44:57,556 --> 00:45:01,112
[somber ethereal music]

926
00:45:01,146 --> 00:45:02,182
- Keel did not believe

927
00:45:02,216 --> 00:45:04,667
that we were interacting
with extraterrestrials.

928
00:45:04,702 --> 00:45:06,531
He called them
ultra-terrestrials.

929
00:45:06,565 --> 00:45:08,775
In other words, something
that is earth bound,

930
00:45:08,809 --> 00:45:11,985
some sort of phenomenon
that originates on earth

931
00:45:12,019 --> 00:45:15,333
that we can sometimes
see and interact with.

932
00:45:15,367 --> 00:45:18,957
And it might be from another
dimension,

933
00:45:18,992 --> 00:45:22,133
or it might simply be a little
bit outside

934
00:45:22,167 --> 00:45:25,757
our normal perceptual abilities.

935
00:45:25,792 --> 00:45:28,139
- Keel used the term
ultra-terrestrial

936
00:45:28,173 --> 00:45:29,657
and he revealed in later years,

937
00:45:29,692 --> 00:45:31,556
he used it as a literary device.

938
00:45:32,799 --> 00:45:34,214
Again, he wasn't really fixed

939
00:45:34,248 --> 00:45:35,594
in his thinking about these
things.

940
00:45:35,629 --> 00:45:39,771
It was really a term used to
suggest that these entities,

941
00:45:39,806 --> 00:45:42,705
whatever they are, wherever
they actually come from,

942
00:45:42,740 --> 00:45:44,811
may be a natural condition of
the planets,

943
00:45:44,845 --> 00:45:47,952
suggesting that they're not
necessarily from off world

944
00:45:47,986 --> 00:45:50,299
or are even necessarily
from another dimension.

945
00:45:50,333 --> 00:45:53,992
- They're your radio
waves and ultraviolet rays

946
00:45:54,027 --> 00:45:56,857
and various things that
exist and we know they exist,

947
00:45:56,892 --> 00:45:58,031
but we can't see them.

948
00:45:58,065 --> 00:46:00,827
But what if under somecircumstances we could see them,

949
00:46:00,861 --> 00:46:02,552
what else would we see?

950
00:46:02,587 --> 00:46:04,623
And I think his notion was that

951
00:46:04,658 --> 00:46:09,249
what we might see is
Indrid Cold or the Mothman.

952
00:46:09,283 --> 00:46:10,491
- So the idea would be

953
00:46:10,526 --> 00:46:14,495
that perhaps we can't really
conceive of other dimensions

954
00:46:14,530 --> 00:46:18,499
and these creatures or whatever,while they exist with us,

955
00:46:18,534 --> 00:46:21,261
can hide or pass into
these other dimensions.

956
00:46:21,295 --> 00:46:24,471
People will use the
term vortex or a portal

957
00:46:24,505 --> 00:46:26,438
or a window area.

958
00:46:27,474 --> 00:46:31,409
- I do know that in the
1980s and even before,

959
00:46:31,443 --> 00:46:36,448
the TNT Area was a hub for a
lot of occult type activity,

960
00:46:36,828 --> 00:46:40,211
you know, the activity in the
TNT Area for all those years.

961
00:46:40,245 --> 00:46:42,765
Is it possible that maybe
somebody did something

962
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,941
to open up some kind of portal

963
00:46:45,975 --> 00:46:47,943
to let some kind of activity in?

964
00:46:47,977 --> 00:46:49,772
Why would it just choose Point
Pleasant?

965
00:46:49,807 --> 00:46:51,809
Or there's all kinds of
questions

966
00:46:51,843 --> 00:46:53,707
and even John Keel himself
thought

967
00:46:53,741 --> 00:46:56,020
that there was some kind
of portal in the TNT Area.

968
00:46:56,054 --> 00:46:58,160
And if you've ever been to the
TNT Area,

969
00:46:58,194 --> 00:47:00,610
there very well could
be, you'd never know it,

970
00:47:00,645 --> 00:47:03,786
if you believe in that kind
of thing because it's so vast.

971
00:47:03,821 --> 00:47:05,615
[mysterious music]

972
00:47:05,650 --> 00:47:07,341
I've talked to several people

973
00:47:07,376 --> 00:47:11,035
that have seen hooded figures upthere.

974
00:47:11,069 --> 00:47:12,174
When I was a kid,

975
00:47:12,208 --> 00:47:13,209
there was a rumor going around

976
00:47:13,244 --> 00:47:15,487
that the 13th gate to
hell was in the TNT area

977
00:47:15,522 --> 00:47:17,765
and that's what I remember
about my childhood.

978
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:19,595
Kind of makes you want to stay
away.

979
00:47:21,079 --> 00:47:23,150
My dad's sister, I'm gonna out
her,

980
00:47:23,185 --> 00:47:26,740
but she snuck out in highschool with a bunch of friends,

981
00:47:26,774 --> 00:47:28,052
went up to the TNT Area.

982
00:47:28,086 --> 00:47:29,087
That's not unusual,

983
00:47:29,122 --> 00:47:30,882
a lot of people used to
do that kind of thing.

984
00:47:30,917 --> 00:47:32,435
Inside the igloos that are up
there,

985
00:47:32,470 --> 00:47:35,300
there's like 100 of these
bunkers.

986
00:47:35,335 --> 00:47:38,062
Well, there's just a few of
those that are open today,

987
00:47:38,096 --> 00:47:40,512
but people like to go
up there and investigate

988
00:47:40,547 --> 00:47:41,997
and all that kind of stuff.

989
00:47:42,031 --> 00:47:43,861
Well, they had went into one

990
00:47:43,895 --> 00:47:45,932
and said that there was all
these symbols

991
00:47:45,966 --> 00:47:48,348
written all over the walls

992
00:47:48,382 --> 00:47:52,317
and there was a table with a
outline

993
00:47:52,352 --> 00:47:53,905
of a cat,

994
00:47:53,940 --> 00:47:55,873
where somebody had sacrificed acat.

995
00:47:55,907 --> 00:47:58,737
There was always stories
that, once a year,

996
00:47:58,772 --> 00:48:01,671
that there was a large group ofoccultists

997
00:48:01,706 --> 00:48:03,087
that would come and meet.

998
00:48:03,121 --> 00:48:05,261
I know another girl that
was one of my neighbors

999
00:48:05,296 --> 00:48:07,022
that lived up in that area

1000
00:48:07,056 --> 00:48:10,094
that said that she was
walking in the TNT Area

1001
00:48:10,128 --> 00:48:11,819
with her parents one day

1002
00:48:11,854 --> 00:48:13,373
and said that she'd looked over

1003
00:48:13,407 --> 00:48:16,169
and she'd seen this giant fire

1004
00:48:16,203 --> 00:48:18,136
and there was all these
people in these hoods

1005
00:48:18,171 --> 00:48:20,794
just like standing there aroundit.

1006
00:48:20,828 --> 00:48:23,003
And she said she freaked out andran off.

1007
00:48:23,038 --> 00:48:25,937
[frantic music]
[cat screaming]

1008
00:48:25,972 --> 00:48:27,732
- You know, some of the
people that encountered this,

1009
00:48:27,766 --> 00:48:31,149
you know, Mothman,
giant bird-type creature

1010
00:48:31,184 --> 00:48:35,188
that said it was more on a
supernatural type of basis.

1011
00:48:35,222 --> 00:48:37,155
They felt that what they were
seeing

1012
00:48:37,190 --> 00:48:41,159
was not a tangible thing they
could reach out and touch,

1013
00:48:41,194 --> 00:48:43,817
but it was more of a vision of
evil.

1014
00:48:43,851 --> 00:48:44,852
They said, you know,

1015
00:48:44,887 --> 00:48:47,717
"This wasn't an animal
or anything like that,

1016
00:48:47,752 --> 00:48:50,720
it was more of somethin'
that just popped up

1017
00:48:50,755 --> 00:48:52,343
and I couldn't explain it."

1018
00:48:52,377 --> 00:48:53,620
[ominous music]

1019
00:48:53,654 --> 00:48:56,071
I think there's a lot of
people that tend to think

1020
00:48:56,105 --> 00:48:58,901
that it was more of a
vision or a spiritual thing.

1021
00:48:58,936 --> 00:49:00,420
- Well I think the Mothman is
some kind

1022
00:49:00,454 --> 00:49:02,111
of an inter-dimensional being

1023
00:49:02,146 --> 00:49:05,528
and I think it's very
odd that he is described

1024
00:49:05,563 --> 00:49:08,566
as being a flesh and blood
creature.

1025
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:12,052
Some people describe the wings
as looking like bat wings.

1026
00:49:12,087 --> 00:49:15,124
Some describe him as having
feathers.

1027
00:49:15,159 --> 00:49:16,884
He looked flesh and blood,

1028
00:49:16,919 --> 00:49:20,026
but yet his eyes looked
electrical.

1029
00:49:20,060 --> 00:49:23,684
I guess he could be from
either another planet

1030
00:49:23,719 --> 00:49:26,791
or another dimension that
sort of slipped through.

1031
00:49:26,825 --> 00:49:29,828
- There really is no
explanation as far as I know.

1032
00:49:29,863 --> 00:49:34,385
I don't know if there's aparticular unconscious archetype

1033
00:49:34,419 --> 00:49:36,490
that's being accessed.

1034
00:49:36,525 --> 00:49:39,666
I have a general theory of the
paranormal,

1035
00:49:39,700 --> 00:49:42,013
which is if it does exist,

1036
00:49:42,048 --> 00:49:44,257
if there is an exterior force atwork,

1037
00:49:44,291 --> 00:49:46,776
that it might be presenting
itself

1038
00:49:46,811 --> 00:49:50,263
as almost just as a sort of
incoet energy,

1039
00:49:50,297 --> 00:49:52,575
almost like snow on a TV.

1040
00:49:52,610 --> 00:49:54,888
And as people experience it,

1041
00:49:54,922 --> 00:49:57,995
whatever that energy is that
they're interacting with,

1042
00:49:58,029 --> 00:49:59,375
interacts with their mind

1043
00:49:59,410 --> 00:50:03,655
and as human beings we try
to unscramble the signal.

1044
00:50:03,690 --> 00:50:05,416
It's like a Rorschach test.

1045
00:50:05,450 --> 00:50:07,487
Here's this thing, but what do
you see?

1046
00:50:07,521 --> 00:50:08,936
Some people will see Mothman,

1047
00:50:08,971 --> 00:50:11,974
other people will maybe
see a dead relative,

1048
00:50:12,009 --> 00:50:13,389
other people will see aliens.

1049
00:50:13,424 --> 00:50:16,530
It's just sort of your mind
flipping through things,

1050
00:50:16,565 --> 00:50:18,394
trying to attach to something.

1051
00:50:18,429 --> 00:50:21,535
Maybe that exterior energy
is interacting with your mind

1052
00:50:21,570 --> 00:50:24,504
and helping you select
something that works for you

1053
00:50:24,538 --> 00:50:26,540
and then you move on to
phase two of the experience,

1054
00:50:26,575 --> 00:50:29,716
which is whatever the content
of the communication is.

1055
00:50:31,097 --> 00:50:32,443
- As decades passed,

1056
00:50:32,477 --> 00:50:34,928
the effects of the initial
events still lingered

1057
00:50:34,962 --> 00:50:36,964
with some of the original
witnesses.

1058
00:50:36,999 --> 00:50:40,037
Marcella Bennett and Linda
Scarberry were among those

1059
00:50:40,071 --> 00:50:41,900
who saw the Mothman for
themselves

1060
00:50:41,935 --> 00:50:45,973
during the 1966-67 wave of
sightings.

1061
00:50:46,008 --> 00:50:48,631
As time went on, their
recollections of who

1062
00:50:48,666 --> 00:50:50,702
or what the Mothman might have
been

1063
00:50:50,737 --> 00:50:53,188
couldn't have been further
apart.

1064
00:50:53,222 --> 00:50:54,085
[foreboding music]
[wings flapping]

1065
00:50:54,120 --> 00:50:55,949
Marcella Bennett encountered theMothman

1066
00:50:55,983 --> 00:50:58,745
outside the home of a
friend late one evening.

1067
00:50:58,779 --> 00:51:00,712
Her encounter took a turn for
the worst

1068
00:51:00,747 --> 00:51:02,266
when she dropped her infant
daughter

1069
00:51:02,300 --> 00:51:04,371
and fell on top of her in terror

1070
00:51:04,406 --> 00:51:07,719
as she claimed the Mothmanswooped toward them from above.

1071
00:51:07,754 --> 00:51:08,548
[baby cries]

1072
00:51:08,582 --> 00:51:09,721
Bennett, in later years,

1073
00:51:09,756 --> 00:51:12,103
would recall the creature
as looking every bit

1074
00:51:12,138 --> 00:51:14,174
like the devil himself.

1075
00:51:14,209 --> 00:51:17,004
Meanwhile, Linda Scarberry
would recount the being

1076
00:51:17,039 --> 00:51:20,077
in a way that painted it
in a sympathetic light,

1077
00:51:20,111 --> 00:51:23,459
as an entity lost in a
place it did not recognize

1078
00:51:23,494 --> 00:51:27,532
with no way to communicate
or relay a cry for help.

1079
00:51:27,567 --> 00:51:29,707
- After Linda Scarberry,

1080
00:51:29,741 --> 00:51:31,881
her initial sightings in '66,

1081
00:51:31,916 --> 00:51:36,231
you know for years after,
she told me and others that,

1082
00:51:36,265 --> 00:51:39,061
you know, weird things
happened in her house.

1083
00:51:39,096 --> 00:51:42,202
She always had this premonitionof somethin' watching her.

1084
00:51:42,237 --> 00:51:43,272
In later years,

1085
00:51:43,307 --> 00:51:46,033
she lived in the downtown
area in an apartment

1086
00:51:46,068 --> 00:51:48,553
above just a vacant building orwhatever.

1087
00:51:48,588 --> 00:51:49,968
- She said it was winter,

1088
00:51:50,003 --> 00:51:53,524
it was like really,
really cold, like January.

1089
00:51:53,558 --> 00:51:55,560
And she heard a thump
[object thumps]

1090
00:51:55,595 --> 00:51:57,044
and she had one of those roof
lines

1091
00:51:57,079 --> 00:52:00,082
like came right up to the
window, two story house.

1092
00:52:00,117 --> 00:52:02,326
And said she opened up
the window and she looked

1093
00:52:02,360 --> 00:52:04,017
and it was sittin' there.

1094
00:52:04,051 --> 00:52:06,088
And it was cold and it was
shivering.

1095
00:52:06,123 --> 00:52:09,436
and it had taken its wings
and wrapped around itself.

1096
00:52:09,471 --> 00:52:12,405
[wind howling]
[somber music]

1097
00:52:12,439 --> 00:52:13,406
- A few years after that,

1098
00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:15,718
I found the newspaper clipping

1099
00:52:15,753 --> 00:52:20,171
of a police officer in
Charleston, West Virginia,

1100
00:52:20,206 --> 00:52:23,588
who took a phone call from
someone

1101
00:52:23,623 --> 00:52:25,832
who was looking out their window

1102
00:52:25,866 --> 00:52:28,075
to the roof facade of their
house

1103
00:52:28,110 --> 00:52:30,423
and they described it the exactsame way.

1104
00:52:30,457 --> 00:52:33,564
And the police officer said,
you know, "What is it doing

1105
00:52:33,598 --> 00:52:34,392
and where's it at?"

1106
00:52:34,427 --> 00:52:35,669
And the person said,

1107
00:52:35,704 --> 00:52:38,879
"It's sitting on our roof, justright outside of our window

1108
00:52:38,914 --> 00:52:40,674
and I'm starin' at it."

1109
00:52:40,709 --> 00:52:43,643
[foreboding music]

1110
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:46,715
- You know, is it possible thatLinda,

1111
00:52:46,749 --> 00:52:48,682
I mean she had a traumatic
experience,

1112
00:52:48,717 --> 00:52:51,547
is it possible some of this wasimagined?

1113
00:52:51,582 --> 00:52:55,172
I've spoken to Linda
Scarberry, very credible lady,

1114
00:52:55,206 --> 00:52:57,139
and I don't think she made up
any of this.

1115
00:52:57,174 --> 00:52:58,589
Even I would have to wonder,

1116
00:52:58,623 --> 00:53:01,143
if I had that original
experience

1117
00:53:01,178 --> 00:53:04,215
and then saw it again
afterwards, am I really seeing
it

1118
00:53:04,250 --> 00:53:06,735
or is it something, a sort of
artifact

1119
00:53:06,769 --> 00:53:07,977
of what happened before?

1120
00:53:09,186 --> 00:53:11,222
- I think even up to when she
passed away,

1121
00:53:11,257 --> 00:53:13,776
she was always very wary

1122
00:53:15,295 --> 00:53:16,503
of things around her.

1123
00:53:16,538 --> 00:53:19,299
You know, she seemed like she
was always on the lookout.

1124
00:53:19,334 --> 00:53:22,026
[ominous music]

1125
00:53:26,617 --> 00:53:29,551
[mysterious music]

1126
00:53:33,934 --> 00:53:37,697
- I would say I was
probably 10, 11 at the time

1127
00:53:37,731 --> 00:53:39,837
and the holler that we lived in,

1128
00:53:39,871 --> 00:53:42,149
like the last street light was
probably,

1129
00:53:42,184 --> 00:53:44,807
I'd say 100 feet away
from where the house was

1130
00:53:44,842 --> 00:53:46,602
that I saw the Mothman.

1131
00:53:46,637 --> 00:53:47,603
[crickets chirping]
[foreboding music]

1132
00:53:47,638 --> 00:53:50,227
I knew to be home before
dark, but I wasn't.

1133
00:53:50,261 --> 00:53:53,264
So when I was pushin' my
bike up to the holler,

1134
00:53:53,299 --> 00:53:54,886
the asphalt ended, the gravel
started,

1135
00:53:54,921 --> 00:53:56,302
that's where that house was.

1136
00:53:56,336 --> 00:53:58,269
The house was abandoned.

1137
00:53:58,304 --> 00:54:00,409
The guy that lived there, he
got killed in the coal mines.

1138
00:54:01,410 --> 00:54:02,549
And I happened to hear a noise

1139
00:54:02,584 --> 00:54:03,826
and I just happened to look over

1140
00:54:03,861 --> 00:54:06,898
and I seen somethin' standing
doorway and it had red eyes.

1141
00:54:08,106 --> 00:54:08,900
[creature moans]

1142
00:54:08,935 --> 00:54:09,901
It was really tall.

1143
00:54:09,936 --> 00:54:11,696
I really remember the eyes,

1144
00:54:11,731 --> 00:54:14,112
like the reddest red you'd eversee.

1145
00:54:14,147 --> 00:54:15,942
He was at least seven foot tall.

1146
00:54:15,976 --> 00:54:18,082
[grasses rustling]

1147
00:54:18,116 --> 00:54:21,258
So I started cryin' and I
felt like I stood there cryin'

1148
00:54:21,292 --> 00:54:24,468
and lookin' at it for
like at least 15 minutes.

1149
00:54:24,502 --> 00:54:26,849
And here come my brother's
friend, actually,

1150
00:54:26,884 --> 00:54:29,127
out of the holler and he'd seenit, too.

1151
00:54:29,162 --> 00:54:31,716
He picked up a rock, threw it atit

1152
00:54:31,751 --> 00:54:34,271
[rock whooshes]
and it just kind of vanished.

1153
00:54:34,305 --> 00:54:36,963
[ominous music]

1154
00:54:37,895 --> 00:54:40,138
I would say probably, maybe a
year later,

1155
00:54:41,001 --> 00:54:43,349
that me and one of my
buddies went in that house

1156
00:54:44,384 --> 00:54:45,454
we went in the basement part

1157
00:54:45,489 --> 00:54:47,076
and there was these weird
footprints.

1158
00:54:47,111 --> 00:54:50,010
It looked like they was
burnt into the concrete.

1159
00:54:50,045 --> 00:54:52,634
The best I can describe
it, they was in a Y shape

1160
00:54:52,668 --> 00:54:56,879
and like, they had blackaround them, like they got hot.

1161
00:54:58,122 --> 00:54:58,985
[foreboding music]

1162
00:54:59,019 --> 00:55:00,676
Yeah, I've thought about it fora lot,

1163
00:55:02,299 --> 00:55:05,302
I never really did go out
into the bottom by myself,

1164
00:55:05,336 --> 00:55:07,787
I was always home before dark
after that.

1165
00:55:07,821 --> 00:55:09,133
I was scared of that house

1166
00:55:09,167 --> 00:55:11,515
and finally, when they tore
it down, I was pretty happy.

1167
00:55:11,549 --> 00:55:13,827
If somebody talks about the
Mothman,

1168
00:55:13,862 --> 00:55:15,726
I'll tell my story, you know?

1169
00:55:15,760 --> 00:55:18,625
I always tell everybody,
"Hey, I've seen that thing."

1170
00:55:18,660 --> 00:55:21,594
[mysterious music]

1171
00:55:21,628 --> 00:55:26,150
- If the 1980s and '90s were
a down time regarding Mothman,

1172
00:55:26,184 --> 00:55:29,429
then the 2000s were to be the
creature's come-back tour.

1173
00:55:29,464 --> 00:55:31,914
In the year 2000, Jeff Wamsley

1174
00:55:31,949 --> 00:55:34,917
and fellow Mothman
enthusiast, Donnie Sergeant,

1175
00:55:34,952 --> 00:55:38,680
started a website dedicated to
tracking the Mothman legend,

1176
00:55:38,714 --> 00:55:40,923
called "Mothman Lives."

1177
00:55:40,958 --> 00:55:43,029
The website served to answer
questions

1178
00:55:43,063 --> 00:55:46,101
regarding the initial
wave of Mothman sightings

1179
00:55:46,135 --> 00:55:49,898
and was as much about promotingthe town and the TNT Area

1180
00:55:49,932 --> 00:55:51,451
as it was the creature.

1181
00:55:52,418 --> 00:55:54,799
However, the Mothman's
popularity

1182
00:55:54,834 --> 00:55:56,767
was just beginning to grow.

1183
00:55:56,801 --> 00:55:59,770
In 2002, a feature film
adaptation

1184
00:55:59,804 --> 00:56:02,013
of "The Mothman Prophecies"
would see

1185
00:56:02,048 --> 00:56:05,465
a successful theatrical
launch in North America.

1186
00:56:05,500 --> 00:56:08,710
While the movie would bolster
the title character's stardom,

1187
00:56:08,744 --> 00:56:11,678
it would also serve to
enhance ongoing reports

1188
00:56:11,713 --> 00:56:13,162
of its presence.

1189
00:56:13,197 --> 00:56:15,786
- When I read the book,
"The Mothman Prophecies,"

1190
00:56:15,820 --> 00:56:19,272
I immediately knew that it
was addressing something

1191
00:56:19,306 --> 00:56:22,551
that had been brewing inside
me for a while, which was,

1192
00:56:22,586 --> 00:56:24,450
is there a way to write a movie

1193
00:56:24,484 --> 00:56:27,038
in which someone
experiences the paranormal,

1194
00:56:27,073 --> 00:56:31,698
but does not come away
solving a mystery or a crime?

1195
00:56:31,733 --> 00:56:35,633
Where they are left as
destabilized, to a certain
degree,

1196
00:56:35,668 --> 00:56:37,566
as real people are

1197
00:56:37,601 --> 00:56:39,499
when they typically
experienced the paranormal.

1198
00:56:39,534 --> 00:56:42,260
The arc of John Keel's
experience

1199
00:56:42,295 --> 00:56:45,712
and his trying to make senseof the events in Point Pleasant

1200
00:56:45,747 --> 00:56:48,335
and ultimately not being able
to,

1201
00:56:48,370 --> 00:56:52,443
and then having to
simply take a step back,

1202
00:56:52,478 --> 00:56:55,032
accept that there are things
he's not ever going to be able

1203
00:56:55,066 --> 00:56:56,758
to totally understand,

1204
00:56:56,792 --> 00:56:58,415
and then go on with the rest ofhis life,

1205
00:56:58,449 --> 00:57:00,451
which is essentially what he
did.

1206
00:57:00,486 --> 00:57:03,350
- When Keel first found
out about the screenplay

1207
00:57:03,385 --> 00:57:06,457
for the film that was actually
made, he was actually giddy.

1208
00:57:06,492 --> 00:57:08,252
He had held off for a long time.

1209
00:57:09,771 --> 00:57:13,533
He felt that finally somebody
was kind of getting the,

1210
00:57:13,568 --> 00:57:15,742
sort of the underlying ideas orthemes

1211
00:57:15,777 --> 00:57:17,054
of "The Mothman Prophecies."

1212
00:57:17,088 --> 00:57:19,919
- I mean it was not a huge hit
when it came out by any means

1213
00:57:19,953 --> 00:57:22,715
and yet I do hear from
people who have seen it

1214
00:57:22,749 --> 00:57:25,269
and the ones who saw it

1215
00:57:25,303 --> 00:57:26,132
and

1216
00:57:26,995 --> 00:57:27,858
"liked it,"

1217
00:57:27,892 --> 00:57:29,135
They had a reaction to it.

1218
00:57:29,169 --> 00:57:32,587
The reaction, the one
I hear most often is,

1219
00:57:32,621 --> 00:57:37,626
"That was so scary and
I don't even know why."

1220
00:57:38,178 --> 00:57:40,802
- Following the release of
"The Mothman Prophecies,"

1221
00:57:40,836 --> 00:57:42,769
Point Pleasant found itself at
the center

1222
00:57:42,804 --> 00:57:45,496
of a second wave of Mothman
sightings.

1223
00:57:45,531 --> 00:57:46,601
As new encounters

1224
00:57:46,635 --> 00:57:49,500
with Appalachia's infamous
legend came to light,

1225
00:57:49,535 --> 00:57:52,503
Jeff Wamsley set aboutdocumenting as much information

1226
00:57:52,538 --> 00:57:56,921
about the 1966 and '67
sightings as possible.

1227
00:57:56,956 --> 00:58:00,200
He interviewed witnesses and
unraveled long-buried accounts

1228
00:58:00,235 --> 00:58:03,583
for publication in two books
he would eventually publish,

1229
00:58:03,618 --> 00:58:06,517
"Mothman, The Facts Behind the
Legend,"

1230
00:58:06,552 --> 00:58:09,037
and "Behind the Red Eyes."

1231
00:58:09,071 --> 00:58:12,799
He also compiled physical
artifacts relating to the
Mothman

1232
00:58:12,834 --> 00:58:16,009
and in 2005, he opened his
collection to the public

1233
00:58:16,044 --> 00:58:19,288
inside the walls of what
would auspiciously become

1234
00:58:19,323 --> 00:58:22,533
the world's only Mothman Museum.

1235
00:58:22,568 --> 00:58:23,465
[haunting music]

1236
00:58:23,500 --> 00:58:25,709
Meanwhile, the TNT Area itself

1237
00:58:25,743 --> 00:58:28,263
became a hub of activity once
again,

1238
00:58:28,297 --> 00:58:29,471
whether through chance

1239
00:58:29,506 --> 00:58:31,680
or due to the new found
attention brought on

1240
00:58:31,715 --> 00:58:33,061
by the release of the film.

1241
00:58:34,234 --> 00:58:36,789
In 2001, a paramedic driving

1242
00:58:36,823 --> 00:58:38,860
along the Kanawha River near
Leon

1243
00:58:38,894 --> 00:58:40,827
sighted a large winged creature

1244
00:58:40,862 --> 00:58:42,657
following the path of the water.

1245
00:58:43,589 --> 00:58:44,762
[wind whistling]
[mysterious music]

1246
00:58:44,797 --> 00:58:48,041
Four years later, a structural
engineer saw a creature

1247
00:58:48,076 --> 00:58:50,354
he described as having no arms,

1248
00:58:50,388 --> 00:58:52,805
but wings that bent and folded
inward

1249
00:58:52,839 --> 00:58:55,842
with a gray skin stretched overthe bone.

1250
00:58:55,877 --> 00:58:57,326
He claimed the creature
attempted

1251
00:58:57,361 --> 00:58:59,466
to communicate telepathically
with him

1252
00:58:59,501 --> 00:59:03,091
before taking to the sky at
a speed he estimated to be

1253
00:59:03,125 --> 00:59:05,300
over 50 miles per hour.

1254
00:59:06,715 --> 00:59:08,786
Hunter Bellamy, a Point Pleasantlocal,

1255
00:59:08,821 --> 00:59:10,995
recalled seeing red eyes in a
tree

1256
00:59:11,030 --> 00:59:13,584
as he drove within the TNT Area.

1257
00:59:13,619 --> 00:59:16,276
Eventually, a shadowy being
could be seen

1258
00:59:16,311 --> 00:59:18,555
as it took to the skies.

1259
00:59:18,589 --> 00:59:20,384
Two reports from hunters came in

1260
00:59:20,418 --> 00:59:24,181
during the years of 2009 and
2013.

1261
00:59:24,215 --> 00:59:27,805
They both claimed to have seen
a creature in the TNT Area.

1262
00:59:27,840 --> 00:59:30,428
In one case, it was
spotted directly behind

1263
00:59:30,463 --> 00:59:32,672
one of the abandoned munitions
bunkers.

1264
00:59:33,570 --> 00:59:35,433
As the 2000s ticked by,

1265
00:59:35,468 --> 00:59:38,195
a new element was added
to the Mothman lore,

1266
00:59:38,229 --> 00:59:41,819
one that was as rooted in
the original 1960 sightings

1267
00:59:41,854 --> 00:59:44,546
as it was in the current
activity.

1268
00:59:44,581 --> 00:59:46,479
A piece of the legend that had
been added

1269
00:59:46,513 --> 00:59:49,344
by none other than John Keel.

1270
00:59:49,378 --> 00:59:51,795
[somber music]
[clock chimes]

1271
00:59:51,829 --> 00:59:53,831
[air whooshes]

1272
00:59:53,866 --> 00:59:55,902
[clock chimes]

1273
00:59:55,937 --> 00:59:58,491
- There's the idea that
Mothman was a harbinger

1274
00:59:58,525 --> 01:00:01,011
and that it culminated

1275
01:00:01,045 --> 01:00:04,428
with the collapse of the SilverBridge in December of '67.

1276
01:00:04,462 --> 01:00:07,673
- Over the years, you
know, the Mothman sightings

1277
01:00:07,707 --> 01:00:10,641
and the Mothman activity has
brought up the subject of,

1278
01:00:10,676 --> 01:00:12,332
was it a harbinger of doom?

1279
01:00:12,367 --> 01:00:15,957
Was it here to warn people of
the Silver Bridge collapse?

1280
01:00:15,991 --> 01:00:17,752
Honestly, a lot of the people,
you know,

1281
01:00:17,786 --> 01:00:19,201
when the bridge fell,

1282
01:00:19,236 --> 01:00:21,445
nobody really talked
about that a whole lot.

1283
01:00:21,479 --> 01:00:23,723
They were shocked the
bridge had collapsed,

1284
01:00:23,758 --> 01:00:26,484
but then, you know, the
movies were comin' out,

1285
01:00:26,519 --> 01:00:28,038
John Keel's book

1286
01:00:28,072 --> 01:00:30,385
and different little things
were poppin' up sayin',

1287
01:00:30,419 --> 01:00:32,905
hey, you know, every time
somethin' bad happens,

1288
01:00:32,939 --> 01:00:34,941
you know, there's a
sighting of this creature.

1289
01:00:34,976 --> 01:00:37,806
- The idea that it was a
harbinger of doom

1290
01:00:37,841 --> 01:00:39,912
was sort of baked into the book.

1291
01:00:39,946 --> 01:00:44,502
And then as I was
adapting it for the movie,

1292
01:00:44,537 --> 01:00:47,402
that also seemed a link I wantedto make,

1293
01:00:47,436 --> 01:00:49,507
that there was, you know,
I mean, obviously that

1294
01:00:49,542 --> 01:00:52,372
that sort of gives the story
the propulsion that it had,

1295
01:00:52,407 --> 01:00:55,893
the feeling that all of thisstuff was leading to something.

1296
01:00:55,928 --> 01:01:00,760
- Because of circumstantial
events that happened,

1297
01:01:00,795 --> 01:01:04,453
Mothman has been kind of labeledas this harbinger of doom.

1298
01:01:04,488 --> 01:01:07,284
You know, he's been allegedly
sighted

1299
01:01:07,318 --> 01:01:11,322
before Chernobyl happened
and I've heard 9/11,

1300
01:01:11,357 --> 01:01:12,461
[creature moans]
[static hisses]

1301
01:01:12,496 --> 01:01:14,360
you know, and of course
that here in Point Pleasant

1302
01:01:14,394 --> 01:01:15,844
before the bridge collapsed.

1303
01:01:15,879 --> 01:01:17,674
- I've talked to some of
the original witnesses

1304
01:01:17,708 --> 01:01:20,677
and some of them firmly
believe that that's true.

1305
01:01:20,711 --> 01:01:24,784
Some people believe that
it created the disaster.

1306
01:01:24,819 --> 01:01:27,097
Others say, no, it just
coincided with it.

1307
01:01:27,131 --> 01:01:29,478
- The notion that the Mothman isseen

1308
01:01:29,513 --> 01:01:33,068
at the site of later
disasters is something

1309
01:01:33,103 --> 01:01:34,863
that I'm pretty sure I made up.

1310
01:01:34,898 --> 01:01:38,315
But again, because it was
part of the original story,

1311
01:01:38,349 --> 01:01:41,007
it felt like let's
extrapolate this outward.

1312
01:01:41,042 --> 01:01:43,113
I almost get the feeling
that once it was suggested

1313
01:01:43,147 --> 01:01:46,703
in the movie that people had
seen the Mothman at Chernobyl,

1314
01:01:46,737 --> 01:01:50,361
I think it became sort
of part of urban legend

1315
01:01:50,396 --> 01:01:51,811
because then I began to hear

1316
01:01:51,846 --> 01:01:54,745
that story being reported
back to me from other sources.

1317
01:01:54,780 --> 01:01:56,126
- People will compare it to,

1318
01:01:56,160 --> 01:01:59,854
obviously the banshee wailing
before someone's about to die

1319
01:01:59,888 --> 01:02:02,235
and there are several
traditions like that.

1320
01:02:02,270 --> 01:02:05,480
- The banshees are part of Irishfolklore.

1321
01:02:05,514 --> 01:02:08,759
They're women that
appear and scream, weep,

1322
01:02:08,794 --> 01:02:10,002
whenever someone,

1323
01:02:10,036 --> 01:02:14,040
that is part of the familyline that they're connected to,

1324
01:02:14,075 --> 01:02:15,801
is doomed to die.

1325
01:02:15,835 --> 01:02:18,389
It's kind of not the thing
that you want to hear.

1326
01:02:18,424 --> 01:02:22,117
- A banshee is an
Irish-Scottish death fairy.

1327
01:02:22,152 --> 01:02:24,913
And even though she
does not cause a death,

1328
01:02:24,948 --> 01:02:26,777
she will announce the death

1329
01:02:26,812 --> 01:02:29,918
with her high-pitched wailing
cries.

1330
01:02:29,953 --> 01:02:32,162
And we've got a banshee
in the Parkersburg area

1331
01:02:32,196 --> 01:02:34,095
called the Banshee of Marrtown

1332
01:02:34,129 --> 01:02:36,269
and I consider that folklore ofcourse.

1333
01:02:36,304 --> 01:02:39,548
Something happened, it's
been added onto over time,

1334
01:02:39,583 --> 01:02:41,723
but it's interesting that
she does have red eyes

1335
01:02:41,758 --> 01:02:44,277
and she is a harbinger of doom,

1336
01:02:44,312 --> 01:02:46,210
they say much like the Mothman.

1337
01:02:46,245 --> 01:02:48,626
[wind howls]

1338
01:02:48,661 --> 01:02:50,939
- The key to the Mothman's
origins may be found

1339
01:02:50,974 --> 01:02:54,011
in the Native American or
Scotch-Irish oral traditions

1340
01:02:54,046 --> 01:02:56,186
of those that first inhabited
Appalachia.

1341
01:02:57,359 --> 01:02:59,810
Stories of banshees, enormous
owls,

1342
01:02:59,845 --> 01:03:03,055
and even the Garuda all
have ancient origins.

1343
01:03:03,089 --> 01:03:05,402
Passed from generation to
generation,

1344
01:03:05,436 --> 01:03:09,371
these tales bear a startling
similarity to one another.

1345
01:03:09,406 --> 01:03:11,304
Their central character arrives,

1346
01:03:11,339 --> 01:03:14,791
carried on the wind by its
wings to offer a warning,

1347
01:03:14,825 --> 01:03:18,415
a warning of death,
destruction and tragedy.

1348
01:03:18,449 --> 01:03:21,694
Behind the red eyes of a new
figure, like the Mothman,

1349
01:03:21,728 --> 01:03:24,248
might lie an ancient secret,

1350
01:03:24,283 --> 01:03:27,113
one which can still be found
today,

1351
01:03:27,148 --> 01:03:31,359
though seeking it might be the
last thing we should attempt.

1352
01:03:31,393 --> 01:03:34,120
[haunting music]

1353
01:03:37,503 --> 01:03:39,574
- Well, five years ago,

1354
01:03:39,608 --> 01:03:43,681
my dad was diagnosed with heart
disease

1355
01:03:43,716 --> 01:03:44,855
and was goin' through heart
failure.

1356
01:03:44,890 --> 01:03:48,652
Then finally, the doctors got
him stable.

1357
01:03:48,686 --> 01:03:52,242
It went on and then this year,
Father's Day of this year,

1358
01:03:52,276 --> 01:03:54,071
we all went to the mountains.

1359
01:03:54,106 --> 01:03:55,866
The following weekend, he callsme

1360
01:03:55,901 --> 01:04:00,319
and said, "Hey, I've fallin'
and I can't get back up."

1361
01:04:00,353 --> 01:04:05,013
So I go to his house and he
was unable to feel his legs.

1362
01:04:05,048 --> 01:04:07,464
He spent some time in the
hospital.

1363
01:04:07,498 --> 01:04:09,121
He didn't want nothin' else
to do with the hospital,

1364
01:04:09,155 --> 01:04:10,501
so we brought him home.

1365
01:04:11,571 --> 01:04:13,573
We had to have two people
with him at all times.

1366
01:04:13,608 --> 01:04:17,267
I was there most days and
I was actually sleeping

1367
01:04:17,301 --> 01:04:19,510
on the dining room
floor on an air mattress

1368
01:04:19,545 --> 01:04:20,891
and my brother was sleeping

1369
01:04:23,652 --> 01:04:26,000
on the couch beside the hospitalbed.

1370
01:04:26,034 --> 01:04:28,692
As a laid on the mattress, I'd
dozed off,

1371
01:04:28,726 --> 01:04:31,971
I immediately started
feeling like I was dreaming.

1372
01:04:32,006 --> 01:04:37,011
[wings whapping]
[ethereal music]

1373
01:04:38,426 --> 01:04:42,292
I had a dream that my son
was standin' beside my bed.

1374
01:04:42,326 --> 01:04:43,120
- Daddy.

1375
01:04:43,155 --> 01:04:44,259
- There beside the bed

1376
01:04:44,294 --> 01:04:47,124
and I remember in the
dream asking him, you know,

1377
01:04:47,159 --> 01:04:49,713
why he was there, who brought
him there

1378
01:04:49,747 --> 01:04:50,887
and how'd he get there.

1379
01:04:51,818 --> 01:04:54,062
And I guess I had enough
consciousness to know

1380
01:04:54,097 --> 01:04:55,995
he shouldn't be there.

1381
01:04:56,030 --> 01:04:57,238
So I immediately woke up

1382
01:04:59,240 --> 01:05:01,242
and when I did there was this,

1383
01:05:02,208 --> 01:05:05,694
the figure standing beside
the bed had long arms,

1384
01:05:05,729 --> 01:05:07,489
skinny, like fingers, skinny
arms,

1385
01:05:08,594 --> 01:05:12,149
skinny legs with kind
of bulky lookin' feet,

1386
01:05:13,116 --> 01:05:16,567
wings above his shoulders and
its face,

1387
01:05:16,602 --> 01:05:21,607
I could see like dark largecircles where its eyes would be.

1388
01:05:22,504 --> 01:05:25,093
I stared at it for
probably five seconds or so

1389
01:05:25,128 --> 01:05:25,956
and then it just,

1390
01:05:27,889 --> 01:05:29,511
I don't want to say walk
'cause it didn't walk,

1391
01:05:29,546 --> 01:05:33,343
it glided quickly across
the top of my feet

1392
01:05:33,377 --> 01:05:34,482
and into another room.

1393
01:05:35,517 --> 01:05:36,760
[mysterious music]
[object rustling]

1394
01:05:36,794 --> 01:05:38,589
I laid there for a second,

1395
01:05:38,624 --> 01:05:41,247
tryin' to figure out what I wasseein'.

1396
01:05:41,282 --> 01:05:43,111
I got up later that morning,

1397
01:05:46,252 --> 01:05:47,391
Dad was doin' pretty good.

1398
01:05:47,426 --> 01:05:49,462
Sat there with him with my
brother.

1399
01:05:49,497 --> 01:05:52,741
We got up early on the 14th,

1400
01:05:52,776 --> 01:05:54,364
or about nine o'clock on the
14th,

1401
01:05:54,398 --> 01:05:56,504
hospice called and said they
were comin'.

1402
01:05:56,538 --> 01:05:58,299
I said, "Okay, he's not doin' sowell.

1403
01:05:58,333 --> 01:05:59,645
I'll see you in a little bit."

1404
01:05:59,679 --> 01:06:01,716
As soon as I hung up the phone,

1405
01:06:01,750 --> 01:06:04,339
I noticed him gaspin' for air.

1406
01:06:04,374 --> 01:06:07,515
I went in, helped him lay down
on his bed,

1407
01:06:07,549 --> 01:06:09,206
held his hand and he passed
away.

1408
01:06:10,276 --> 01:06:13,072
So
[somber music]

1409
01:06:13,107 --> 01:06:14,660
that's when I, you know,

1410
01:06:14,694 --> 01:06:18,112
we called everybody and
my brothers come over.

1411
01:06:18,146 --> 01:06:19,423
I would draw all this,

1412
01:06:19,458 --> 01:06:22,495
I kept drawin' this figure thatI'd seen.

1413
01:06:22,530 --> 01:06:23,876
I couldn't figure out
what it was, you know,

1414
01:06:23,910 --> 01:06:25,015
or I was tryin' to figure out itwas

1415
01:06:25,050 --> 01:06:26,637
and drawin' it was kind of
helping me

1416
01:06:26,672 --> 01:06:28,846
trying to figure it out, I
guess.

1417
01:06:28,881 --> 01:06:31,194
We're sitting at the
table, my brothers and I,

1418
01:06:31,228 --> 01:06:34,576
and I explained to 'em what I
saw

1419
01:06:34,611 --> 01:06:36,406
and my middle brother looks at
me

1420
01:06:36,440 --> 01:06:39,547
and goes, "Do you remember whatdad told us five years ago?

1421
01:06:39,581 --> 01:06:40,997
You know when he was going
through heart failure

1422
01:06:41,031 --> 01:06:41,859
the first time?"

1423
01:06:43,240 --> 01:06:45,484
[pencil scratching]

1424
01:06:45,518 --> 01:06:48,832
And it was a dark figure
stood in a corner.

1425
01:06:48,866 --> 01:06:52,732
[thunder rumbling]
[foreboding music]

1426
01:06:52,767 --> 01:06:55,459
- The Mothman and other
strange winged creatures

1427
01:06:55,494 --> 01:06:58,566
are still seen around Appalachiatoday.

1428
01:06:58,600 --> 01:07:01,189
Jeff Wamsley's Mothman Museum
continues

1429
01:07:01,224 --> 01:07:03,985
to document the original
rash of sightings,

1430
01:07:04,020 --> 01:07:06,953
as well as the more modern day
accounts.

1431
01:07:06,988 --> 01:07:09,853
John Keel passed away in 2009,

1432
01:07:09,887 --> 01:07:11,924
but not before he finally made areturn

1433
01:07:11,958 --> 01:07:13,615
to the town of Point Pleasant,

1434
01:07:13,650 --> 01:07:15,583
where he was able to see what
had become

1435
01:07:15,617 --> 01:07:18,517
of one of the more prominent
pieces of his legacy.

1436
01:07:18,551 --> 01:07:20,312
- I think John Keel was very
pleased

1437
01:07:20,346 --> 01:07:21,520
with what Jeff had done.

1438
01:07:21,554 --> 01:07:25,420
He had seen the original
incarnation of the museum.

1439
01:07:25,455 --> 01:07:28,251
It's there because of him,
because of his efforts.

1440
01:07:28,285 --> 01:07:31,944
Something he did years ago is
finally coming to fruition.

1441
01:07:31,978 --> 01:07:34,153
So I think that he was very
pleased.

1442
01:07:34,188 --> 01:07:36,880
He warned the people of
Point Pleasant early on

1443
01:07:36,914 --> 01:07:40,125
about this idea that this
is folklore in the making

1444
01:07:40,159 --> 01:07:42,920
and this little town may
not be prepared for it.

1445
01:07:42,955 --> 01:07:45,923
And he gave the warning
again when the film came out,

1446
01:07:45,958 --> 01:07:49,030
to just a small town of
just several thousand,

1447
01:07:49,065 --> 01:07:53,172
and the film may be bringing
a lot more people in droves

1448
01:07:53,207 --> 01:07:54,277
than they're used to.

1449
01:07:55,968 --> 01:07:56,796
[water rushing]

1450
01:07:56,831 --> 01:07:59,937
- It is a very personal movie tome,

1451
01:07:59,972 --> 01:08:01,215
but what's odd about it

1452
01:08:01,249 --> 01:08:05,736
is that I have never experiencedanything.

1453
01:08:05,771 --> 01:08:07,945
I've never seen a UFO,
I've never seen a ghost,

1454
01:08:07,980 --> 01:08:10,500
I've never had a weird phone
call, I mean, none of it.

1455
01:08:10,534 --> 01:08:12,191
When I talk about the
supernatural,

1456
01:08:12,226 --> 01:08:15,401
I say, "You've got the
Mozarts and the Salieris.

1457
01:08:15,436 --> 01:08:17,576
You know, the guys who
actually experience it

1458
01:08:17,610 --> 01:08:20,406
and the guys that wish
they could, but haven't

1459
01:08:20,441 --> 01:08:22,132
and can only stare at those

1460
01:08:22,167 --> 01:08:25,031
who have seen behind the veil ofreality

1461
01:08:25,066 --> 01:08:26,757
and look upon them with envy."

1462
01:08:26,792 --> 01:08:28,863
And I used to look upon them
with envy and I used to think,

1463
01:08:28,897 --> 01:08:31,486
"Wow, as soon as have a
few bucks in my pocket,

1464
01:08:31,521 --> 01:08:34,696
I'm gonna give it all,
you know, get out of LA,

1465
01:08:34,731 --> 01:08:37,906
go investigate the hauntedhouses and the haunted places,"

1466
01:08:37,941 --> 01:08:40,944
and now I don't feel
that way anymore at all.

1467
01:08:40,978 --> 01:08:44,913
I say, let the Mozart's
deal with their experiences,

1468
01:08:44,948 --> 01:08:47,157
I'm happy to be a Salieri.

1469
01:08:47,192 --> 01:08:50,056
- Like Keel, Jeff Wamsley's
research continues

1470
01:08:50,091 --> 01:08:53,059
to keep Point Pleasant on
the international stage.

1471
01:08:53,094 --> 01:08:56,132
Thousands attend the
Mothman Festival each year,

1472
01:08:56,166 --> 01:08:58,444
making it one of the
two best attended events

1473
01:08:58,479 --> 01:09:00,688
in the state of West Virginia.

1474
01:09:00,722 --> 01:09:02,276
The museum, meanwhile,

1475
01:09:02,310 --> 01:09:05,348
continues to grow,
attracting scores of people

1476
01:09:05,382 --> 01:09:08,213
to a town they might
never have even heard of

1477
01:09:08,247 --> 01:09:10,007
were it not for the Mothman.

1478
01:09:10,905 --> 01:09:13,597
The museum acts as a sort of
living story,

1479
01:09:13,632 --> 01:09:16,428
part of a tradition of
storytelling come to life

1480
01:09:16,462 --> 01:09:19,776
that is rooted in the cultural
heritage of the region.

1481
01:09:19,810 --> 01:09:23,228
A tradition that stretches
back far beyond North America

1482
01:09:23,262 --> 01:09:25,333
and helps to highlight today,

1483
01:09:25,368 --> 01:09:29,372
this lone page among the
centuries of Appalachian
history.

1484
01:09:29,406 --> 01:09:31,822
- What Jeff did was he went back

1485
01:09:31,857 --> 01:09:34,239
and he interviewed some
of the original witnesses.

1486
01:09:34,273 --> 01:09:36,793
And the thing is that it had
been, at that point in time,

1487
01:09:36,827 --> 01:09:39,968
it had been 35, 40 years after
the events

1488
01:09:40,003 --> 01:09:41,522
and he corrected some of the
things

1489
01:09:41,556 --> 01:09:44,939
that were not quite right
in "The Mothman Prophecies."

1490
01:09:44,973 --> 01:09:47,286
That was so, so valuable.

1491
01:09:47,321 --> 01:09:49,564
[bright hopeful music]

1492
01:09:49,599 --> 01:09:52,326
- Dad's legacy, [sighs]

1493
01:09:52,360 --> 01:09:55,743
I just, I would say it's gotta
be Mothman.

1494
01:09:55,777 --> 01:09:57,952
I mean, it is bigger than that
though.

1495
01:09:57,986 --> 01:10:00,610
Whether locals or whatever
want to admit it or not,

1496
01:10:00,644 --> 01:10:04,407
Mothman has really reversed
a lot of the negative stuff

1497
01:10:04,441 --> 01:10:05,339
of Point Pleasant.

1498
01:10:05,373 --> 01:10:07,617
What I mean is lack of business,

1499
01:10:07,651 --> 01:10:09,929
lack of interest, lack of
opportunity.

1500
01:10:11,276 --> 01:10:15,245
It's kind of just blossomed overtime.

1501
01:10:15,280 --> 01:10:17,143
That in itself is major.

1502
01:10:20,146 --> 01:10:24,220
- I'm a grandfather now,
so I think, you know,

1503
01:10:24,254 --> 01:10:26,705
if I left a legacy, it would be,

1504
01:10:26,739 --> 01:10:30,156
be motivated, go out
and chase your dreams.

1505
01:10:30,191 --> 01:10:32,124
I mean, you know, I've
done that all my life

1506
01:10:32,158 --> 01:10:34,920
and some have come true
and some you know have not.

1507
01:10:34,954 --> 01:10:37,992
But you know, be creative
and be nice to other people.

1508
01:10:38,026 --> 01:10:39,856
That's probably the
bottom line is, you know,

1509
01:10:39,890 --> 01:10:41,409
be nice to other people.

1510
01:10:41,444 --> 01:10:43,342
I learned that from my parents
though.

1511
01:10:44,999 --> 01:10:47,001
Well, my daughter, Ashley, you
know,

1512
01:10:47,035 --> 01:10:50,004
from a young age was brought
up a lot differently probably

1513
01:10:50,038 --> 01:10:51,177
than most kids.

1514
01:10:51,212 --> 01:10:52,455
I always tell her, I'll say, youknow,

1515
01:10:52,489 --> 01:10:55,527
"I'm retirin' here in a
year, you can have all this

1516
01:10:55,561 --> 01:10:57,598
and take care of all the museum

1517
01:10:57,632 --> 01:11:00,048
and the festival and all that,"you know.

1518
01:11:01,049 --> 01:11:04,329
[light uplifting music]

1519
01:11:06,434 --> 01:11:10,956
- It's very important to hold
onto these old tales, legends.

1520
01:11:10,990 --> 01:11:15,788
I think Mothman has kinda movedinto the area of folklore,

1521
01:11:15,823 --> 01:11:19,205
where people are continuing
to add to the story.

1522
01:11:19,240 --> 01:11:23,279
The folktales tell us who we
are.

1523
01:11:23,313 --> 01:11:26,074
It helps us remember who we are.

1524
01:11:26,109 --> 01:11:28,939
It helps us remember those
Celtic roots,

1525
01:11:28,974 --> 01:11:33,979
those Native American roots,
so we know who we are.

1526
01:11:34,013 --> 01:11:36,844
And really, that's an importantthing for every person

1527
01:11:36,878 --> 01:11:40,744
is to know who you are, to
know what your talents are.

1528
01:11:40,779 --> 01:11:41,987
That's very important

1529
01:11:42,021 --> 01:11:45,887
and I think it's a good reason
to remember these stories.

1530
01:11:45,922 --> 01:11:47,751
[crickets chirping]

1531
01:11:47,786 --> 01:11:52,756
[water splashes]
[dark foreboding music]

1532
01:11:54,517 --> 01:11:56,519
- Fear is a funny thing.

1533
01:11:56,553 --> 01:11:59,694
In the end, it's part of our
life.

1534
01:11:59,729 --> 01:12:02,697
You can't outrun it or hide fromit.

1535
01:12:02,732 --> 01:12:07,012
All we can do is name it,
embrace it and learn from it.

1536
01:12:08,185 --> 01:12:11,016
Maybe the true power of an
event isn't fully realized

1537
01:12:11,050 --> 01:12:12,845
until it's retold.

1538
01:12:12,880 --> 01:12:15,917
Until we can put into
words our own experiences

1539
01:12:15,952 --> 01:12:17,333
and share them with others.

1540
01:12:18,299 --> 01:12:22,579
What we share might be laughteror tears, joy or sorrow.

1541
01:12:23,615 --> 01:12:25,271
Occasionally though,

1542
01:12:25,306 --> 01:12:30,173
it's something more,
something primal and ageless.

1543
01:12:30,207 --> 01:12:33,625
[suspenseful music]

1544
01:12:33,659 --> 01:12:37,939
Sometimes what we share is
nothing more than our fear,

1545
01:12:39,009 --> 01:12:42,323
but at least for a moment, we
are together

1546
01:12:43,738 --> 01:12:45,084
in the dark.

1547
01:12:45,119 --> 01:12:47,777
[ominous music]

1548
01:12:50,366 --> 01:12:53,196
[thunder crashes]

1549
01:13:01,377 --> 01:13:04,518
[soft haunting music]

1550
01:13:52,911 --> 01:13:55,983
[gentle flute music]

1551
01:14:01,298 --> 01:14:04,440
[somber violin music]

1552
01:14:18,384 --> 01:14:21,491
[soft haunting music]

1553
01:14:35,091 --> 01:14:38,508
[light foreboding music]

1554
01:15:14,924 --> 01:15:18,203
[bright hopeful music]

1555
01:15:43,124 --> 01:15:45,713
[somber music]

1556
01:15:55,481 --> 01:15:58,864
[light foreboding music]