This is from our hometown newspaper when we were all of 4 and 9 years old...My picture was on the front page of one of these newspapers along with my brothers and a couple of neighborhood friends. We had built a "scarecrow" of sorts to scare off the creature if it happened into our neighborhood.
The Athens Messenger
Athens, OH
Thursday, November 17, 1966
By Mary Hyre
Point Pleasant Correspondent
Point Pleasant - What stands six feet tall, has wings, two big red eyes six inches apart and glides along behind an auto at 100 miles an hour?
Don't know? Well, neither do four Point Pleasant residents who were chased by a weird "man-like thing" Tuesday night.
Two young Mason County married couples today told of being chased by the "strange creature" around midnight Tuesday.
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Mallette, 3505 Jackson Ave., and Mr. and Mrs. Roger Scarberry, 809-1/2 30th St., described their hair-raising experiences, which began in the TNT area.
The two couples were riding in a car and as the auto crested a hill, an object loomed in front of them. The object was in the form of a man, about six feet tall with wings on its back.
Becoming frightened, the couples drove away. As they approached a traffic circle near Route 62, they said the thing loomed in front of the car again.
Mallette, 20, said they drove toward Point Pleasant on Route 62 at 100 miles an hour, with the strange creature drifting along behind the car.
The couples said the thing seemed to avoid lights.
When they turned into the C. C. Lewis farm, the creature was again in front of the car. What appeared to be a large dead dog was lying on the road.
Later, the couples and police returned to the farm, but the dog had vanished. Deputy Sheriff Millard Halstead searched the TNT area. The deputy said the "thing" was gone, but he found "a strange pile of dust."
Scarberry, 18, said, "Believe me if you ever saw it, you'd be a believer." The men said they might go looking for the thing tonight, but indicated they were afraid they might find it.
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The Athens Messenger
Athens, OH
Friday, November 18, 1966
By Roger Bennett
Assistant News Editor
"They think it's a big joke. they think we can go out there and it'll come out for us.:
"It" is the red-eyed, winged-back, six-foot manlike thing which has turned a remote section of Mason County, W. Va., into a dusty, car-packed thrill show.
"They" are the hundreds of curious sightseers, who have jammed a 10,000-acre (sic) east of Point of Pleasant each night since the creature was sighted by two young married couples last Tuesday.
The sightseers know there isn't such a thing, but they aren't about to miss a chance seeing it.
The people who've seen it so far, especially Mr. and Mrs. Roger Scarberry and Mr. and Mrs. Steve Mallett (sic), are afraid they'll see it again. But they keep looking.
"I hope others do see it. I hope it scares them as much as it did us. Maybe then they'll believe the thing exists and we're not dreaming," Mrs. Mallette said.
The two couples first spotted the creature Tuesday in the sprawling - marshy area which contains the McClintic Wildlife Sanctuary and a huge abandoned TNT plant. Most of the property is government owned.
Thursday night the area was ablaze from the lights of cars and flashlights as the curious traveled up and down the maze of dirt roads. Police officials estimate more than 1,000 persons were searching the area prior to midnight.
Every intersection was jammed with parked cars and small clumps of laughing, jostling young adults. Huge abandoned powder plant buildings rang with the shrieks of youngsters, scaring themselves more in the pitch-black plants than the people standing in the narrow roadways.
Volunteer police officers and firemen - creeping through the crowds - have one major fear. They estimated that each car in the area had at least on gun. One officer hear and automatic rifle bark several times Thursday night behind one of the many buildings.
Early sightings - besides that of the two couples - have several things in common. The description includes two red eyes about six inches apart, wings with 10-foot span and always manlike, with stocky legs. These sightings came from Cheshire, Rutland, several persons at an isolated home near the TNT plant and one in Doddridge County, W. Va., east of Parkersburg.
The Scarberrys and the Mallettes said they believe the thing "didn't mean to harm us," even though Mrs. Scarberry had to be treated for shock, only to chase them away. At one time the creature came within 100 feet of their car.
In all they spotted it five times the first night. They've seen it twice since. The first night it chased their car at speeds up to 100, gliding above and behind the vehicle. It emitted a sound similar to a "record played at a high speed or squeak of a mouse."
What is it? They don't know but they're sure it _____.
One thing that b_____lette is the pigeons. _____ disappeared from t_____ed power plant bui_____ where the creature_____ spotted.
Pigeons can be s_____ other buildin_____ throughout the a_____ the huge double_____ power plant.
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The Athens Messenger
Athens, OH
Friday, November 18, 1966
By Mary Hyre
Point Pleasant Correspondent
POINT PLEASANT - Six - or maybe seven - more people became believers in the Mason County Monster Wednesday night.
What is it they saw? They don't know, but they have managed to convince a raft of people they saw something.
The latest observers of the red-eyed, wing-backed six-foot thing are Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wamsley; Ricky, Connie and Vickie Thomas and Marcella Bennett.
They spotted the monster around 9 p.m. Wednesday outside the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Thomas, in the TNT area, where the thing was sighted Tuesday night.
Observer number seven is reported to be a Cheshire area youth who allegedly was chased by a thing matching the description of the Mason County Monster. The chase took place on Route 7 in Ohio.
Wednesday night's sighting took place as the Wamsley's and the Thomas children were leaving the Thomas home. They said the red-eyed creature was lying on the road behind a car.
(missing some text)
the house and called police. Later they ventured outside and spotted the creature watching them while partially hidden behind a pile of bricks. They said the creature then flew away.
At the time of the spotting, officers and fire department volunteers were searching near an old power plant in the TNT area, where the monster was first spotted Tuesday night by two young couples.
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Mallette and Mr. and Mrs. Roger Scarberry said the thing chased their car at speeds up to 100 miles an hour around midnight Tuesday.
Officers said the TNT area was flooded with curious sightseers Wednesday night. One motorist reported his children "wanted to see it right now."
Several people reported they had to take their children out because "they about drove us mad wanting to see it."
One man contended it was something caused by the U.S. space program. He said, "You see, it's that talk of going to the moon and that stuff. It's hard to tell what they've caused to come back to earth."
Mrs. Thomas, who was at church during Wednesday night's sighting, said she had a vision Monday night that a creature would appear. In the vision, she said, the creature would frighten people, but not harm anyone.
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The Athens Messenger
Athens, OH
Sunday, November 26, 1966
Point Pleasant - Rumors are flying through Mason County faster than the "thing," which has been spoted by several people in various locations.
The "thing" is described as being six feet tall, soars with a pair of wings with a 10-foot span, has red eyes six inches apart and leaves a print like a hoof mark.
Two young married couples first spotted the "thing" Tuesday night in a 10,000-acre section east of Point Pleasant. The sector contains the McClintic Wildlife Sanctuary and and abandoned government TNT plant.
Since that time the flying creature has been seen in various parts of West Virginia and Ohio. Each description contains the phrase "red eyes, six inches apart."
The thing has caused a sudden interest in the remote TNT plant area and nightly motorists plow bumper-to-bumper over the dusty, dirt roads in hopes of spotting the creature.
Monday morning quarterbacks have taken three approaches to the sightings. They either laugh at the sighters, give theories about the creature or they contend they've seen it themselves.
The latest theory about the creature was advanced by Dr. Robert Smith, associate professor of biology at West Virginia University. Smith said the descriptions of the creature fit that of the huge sandhill crane.
Smith said the crane stands six feet or better, has a huge wing span and has red forehead feathers.
However, Ohio University Zoology department officials gave a different view concerning the sandhill crane theory.
Ohio U. officials said there has never been a known sighting of a sandhill crane in this part of the country.
In his book, "The Sandhill Cranes," Lawrence H. Walkinshaw, says the crane normally inhabits the plains of _____ and the flat country o_____ Michigan, Minnesota, _____sin and the Dakotas.
The birds migrate e_____ to the Gulf Coast, bu_____ grate down the Missippii Valley. Like some other birds, the crane migrates at night.
The sandhill drane is grey-brown in color and has a red forehead.
Members of the Proctorville-Fairland High School Science Interest Club have another theory. Students of the Lawrence County school say the creature could be one of the two gas filled balloons they've released to study air currents.
The 4 x 7 balloons were released about 30 miles west of (missing approximately 25 words)
poke," a member of the heron family.
Others contend the creature could be one of the wild geese, which live on the ponds of the wildlife sanctuary. The geese stand about two and a half to three feet tall.
One man said the description fit his "mother-in-law exactly, especially the red eyes, six-inches apart."
Another Point Pleasant man said the creature is something from the moon, chased down to earth by recent moon launch-_____
_____es who first _____Mr. and Mrs. _____nd Mr. and _____e, disagreed _____ theory about the sandhill crane.
After viewing a picture of the bird, one of them commented, "My God, that's not the thing we saw. This thing could never chase us as it did."
Mrs. Mallette said, "I just wish Dr. Smith could see the thing."
The "thing" appeared in a road near an abandoned power plant at the TNT facility. The four spotted the "thing" five different times as it chased them at speeds of 100 miles an hour toward Point Pleasant.
One thing for certain, the remote, lonely roads in the TNT area aren't suited for late night astronomy studies now and the sweethearts of the area are up in arms.
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MORE READING:
At IMDb
At UNEXPLAINED AMERICA
At Wikipedia
The Meaning Of INDRID COLD (more)
The Mothman File
The Mothman: A Critical Overview
Mothman
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