The Route 2 Mothman Photographs

Point Pleasant is the county seat of Mason County, West Virginia. It sits on the Ohio River. On 15 November 1966 it recorded its first Mothman sighting, and a wave of reports followed through 1967. Local lore later tied the creature to the Silver Bridge collapse of 15 December 1967. Forty six people died.

By 2016 the legend had a festival, a museum and a diner. Half a century had passed. Then a stranger to the story pulled over on the side of the road.

Sunday evening, 20 November 2016. A man was driving along State Route 2 in Point Pleasant. He had recently moved there for work. By his own account, he didn't even know about the legend. Then he saw something jump from tree to tree.

He pulled off the road. He took several pictures. He never gave a fuller description. What remained was what the camera caught. A winged figure with long legs, crossing the gap between two trees near the treetops.

He gave the pictures to WCHS-TV in Charleston. Reporter Fallon Pierson's story ran on Monday, 21 November. It described wings with pointed tips and long legs, bent at an awkward angle. The man declined an on-camera interview. But he was adamant the pictures had not been doctored. He wished to remain anonymous, and he has stayed that way. At least two distinct frames circulated, and within days they had reached Cult of Weird, Dread Central, Snopes, Skeptophilia and PlanetSave.

WCHS took the photos to the keepers of the legend. Carolin Harris, owner of The Mothman Diner for 48 years and co-founder of the Mothman Festival, had no doubt. "I definitely know the Mothman is real." Karen Smith, a visitor from Florida, was hopeful. "You have eyewitnesses. It does have the potential to be real, and I want to believe." Jeff Wamsley, owner of the Mothman Museum, was more careful. With modern technology, Wamsley said, it is almost impossible to know for sure whether the photos are real.

The debate came quickly. Science writer Sharon A. Hill, founder of Doubtful News, suggested the image shows "a bird, perhaps an owl, carrying a frog or snake away." There was, Hill wrote, "zero reason to suspect it is the Mothman as described in legend." Dread Central independently floated an owl gripping a large frog, a toad or even a snake. In 2018 Theresa Racer found that the most sensible reading. The "legs," Racer argued, were a snake held in the bird's talons. A bald eagle flying upside down was also suggested.

Others looked at the calendar. PlanetSave called the image "fairly ambiguous and/or heavily manipulated." Skeptophilia wondered whether the anniversary, and the tourism around it, played a part. Yet no one has shown the photos to be faked. The photographer has never been identified or questioned on the record.

The 2016 photos now sit on the Mothman page of Wikipedia, a late chapter in a legend that runs from the 1966 reports through John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies. Theresa Racer came across them "no less than 5 times" in a single week of 2018. One driver. One roadside stop. A handful of frames. The shape between the trees has never been identified.