Mothman: Myth or Reality?

By Amber Davison
WTAP News
9-18-05

     Standing at seven feet tall, the Mothman was first sighted in the TNT area of Mason County in November of 1966.

     The story goes: Two couples were chased by the Mothman to their car. There were numerous sightings after that and also several UFO sightings.

     On December 15, 1967, the most devastating disaster this small community has ever seen: The Silver Bridge collapse, where 46 people lost their lives.

     After that, the Mothman sightings stopped in Mason County, and many believe the creature had something to do with the bridge tragedy.

     Be it legend or reality, thousands of curious travelers came to Point Pleasant this weekend for the 4th Annual Mothman Festival.

     "It's a big weekend. It brings in a lot of money; it fills up the hotels in Point and Gallipolis. The restaurants do great business, the gift shops. We even had a river boat in today too," Denny Bellamy, Mason County Tourism Director, says.

     Organizers say the event gets bigger every year.

     And much of the interest can be accredited to the 2002 movie "Mothman Prophecies" starring Richard Gere.

     The city of Point Pleasant has received many of the props from the movie: including the telephone in Gere's hotel room, the bridge cable from the Silver Bridge scene, and a menu from the diner in the movie modeled after a real downtown restaurant.

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