The Jessie Canute

“For 13 months, the people of Point Pleasant were haunted by Mothman.”

When people hear “Point Pleasant, West Virginia,” one image flashes across the imagination, the Mothman, red eyes, dark wings, and a legend that still ripples through the Ohio Valley. I traveled there to see what remains, the eerie landscape of the old TNT Area, the shining Mothman statue downtown, and the memorial to one of America’s deadliest bridge disasters. What I found was a town that lives at the intersection of myth and history.

Where the Sightings Began

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Locals call it the TNT Area, but maps label it as McClintic Wildlife Management Area, a patchwork of woods, gravel roads, and rows of concrete igloos built during World War II to store TNT.

During the war, the West Virginia Ordnance Works was established near Point Pleasant to produce explosives for the U.S. military. The bunkers, or “igloos,” were constructed to safely store large amounts of TNT and other munitions, protecting workers and surrounding communities in case of accidental explosions. Their thick concrete walls were designed to contain blasts, and they were spaced apart to prevent a chain reaction if one bunker went off.

Point Pleasant itself was not producing explosives in town, but the nearby facility played a crucial role in wartime manufacturing. Over the years, contamination from explosives seeped into the land, and parts of the site were later listed as a high-level hazardous waste dump. One igloo even exploded in 2010, decades after the war had ended.

It was here, among the ruins of these wartime structures, that the first modern Mothman reports surfaced.

On November 15, 1966, two young couples told police they encountered a towering, winged figure with glowing red eyes near the concrete bunkers. Over the next 13 months, more than 20 sightings followed. Volunteer firemen described a “huge bird,” families said they saw glowing eyes rising straight into the night sky. One of the first witnesses, Linda Scarberry, later clarified that the eyes weren’t glowing on their own, they reflected light, like an animal caught in headlights,

“The eyes weren’t glowing on their own, they reflected light, like an animal caught in headlights,” — Linda Scarberry, original witness

A Town Haunted

For 13 months, the people of Point Pleasant were haunted by Mothman. Some said it was a devil. Others, a warning from another world. Whatever the explanation, it left the town anxious and uneasy. Some believed the creature was a mutated bird, twisted by chemicals from the TNT Area. Others thought the town was experiencing mass hallucinations.

Then, just days after the sightings stopped, the unthinkable happened.

The Silver Bridge Collapse

On December 15, 1967, during rush hour, the Silver Bridge connecting Point Pleasant, WV, to Gallipolis, OH, collapsed into the icy Ohio River. Forty-six people died as 31 vehicles plunged during rush hour. Investigators traced the disaster to a tiny fracture in one eyebar link, eyebar 330 at joint C13N. With no redundancy in the design, one hidden crack was enough to bring down the entire span in seconds.

The tragedy reshaped national engineering practices. Within a few years, Congress and the Federal Highway Administration created the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS), requiring regular inspections of every public bridge in the country. Inspectors now check bridges every 24 months, more often for older or fracture-critical structures. Training, qualifications, and uniform reporting are mandated nationwide.

Today, the Silver Memorial Bridge, opened in 1969, carries traffic just south of the original span. The Point Pleasant River Museum displays pieces of the old bridge, including the fatal eyebar design.

“Each theory reflects Point Pleasant itself, a town that has turned a frightening chapter into folklore, community pride, and a reminder of resilience.”

Mothman Theories

The overlap between Mothman sightings and the Silver Bridge collapse has fueled endless speculation:

• The Mutated Bird Theory — Contamination at the TNT Area may have warped an ordinary bird into something monstrous.
• A Misidentified Large Bird — Sandhill cranes or owls could account for the sightings.
• The Mass Hallucination Theory — Fear, Cold War anxiety, and the eerie ruins may have sparked a community wide story.
• The Omen Theory — Mothman as a harbinger of doom, his appearance ending just days before the bridge collapse.
• The Interdimensional Theory — Popularized by John Keel’s The Mothman Prophecies, Mothman as a paranormal or interdimensional being.

Hollywood would later bring Mothman to the big screen in 2002, starring Richard Gere, turning Point Pleasant’s eerie folklore into a story known around the world. Yet for those who lived through it, the red eyes, the wings, and the whispers of doom remain a chilling reminder that warnings sometimes come in forms too strange to ignore.

Visiting Today

Mothman Statue & Museum — 📍 201 4th St, Point Pleasant, WV 25550,

• TNT Area / McClintic WMA — Open for public exploration, stick to marked paths and respect safety signs.
• Riverfront Memorials — A quiet space honoring the 46 victims of the Silver Bridge disaster.
• Mothman Festival — Every September, the town celebrates its most famous legend with vendors, tours, and talks.

Mothman may never be proven real, but the fear people felt was. The Silver Bridge collapse was tragically real, and it reshaped national safety standards. In this corner of West Virginia, myth and memory walk hand in hand, a creature with red eyes haunting the night, and a bridge that fell into the river on a cold December day.