Point Pleasant, a quiet, unassuming town in West Virginia, is probably not one of the first towns you think of when you hear “unexplained supernatural events.” This town, however, seems to be the origin of one of the most enigmatic and intriguing cryptids: Mothman.

A cryptid describes any creature that may or may not exist like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Among the multitude of creatures that fall into this category of uncertainty is Mothman, a creature described as being extremely tall with large wings and glowing red eyes.

Five men digging a grave on November 12th claimed to have seen the massive man-moth hybrid flying above them. From this point on, sightings in Point Pleasant became more frequent and more terrifying. Couples claimed to have been followed in their cars by this daunting creature, and some say he even followed them to their house. Others who claimed to have encountered Mothman seemed to have a sort of eye irritation that was extremely slow to heal. The common description of Mothman is a huge, winged creature with red eyes, thus granting him his name.

Needless to say, in 1966, the citizens of Point Pleasant were terrified. Most were too scared to leave their homes at night and would not travel alone. There was no explanation for this creature who seemed to be terrorizing the town but was doing no direct harm to the people. The sightings kept happening and seemed fairly harmless until December 15 of 1967, when the town’s terror peaked.

On that day, the town’s largest bridge (the Silver Bridge) collapsed. Forty-six people died that day on the bridge, and suspicions rose immediately about how these sightings of Mothman could somehow be related. Many who claimed to have seen him recounted how they were oddly led away from the bridge that day. Others see Mothman as simply a bad omen of oncoming tragedy wherever he appears. Whatever the connection may be, a heartbreaking event occurred that day in the town he had been so closely monitoring.

Since then, Mothman’s fame has almost completely died out. There are still those that claim to have seen him, but there are no connections to great disasters. Perhaps he has been taking a break from his work. Maybe he realized he did not like all the attention he got and is trying to keep a low profile from now on. Whatever his motives may be, he may not be as obvious as before but he is out there. Mothman is real.