Mothman Museum

The world's only museum dedicated to the Mothman legend, housing original witness statements, sketches, photographs, and props from the 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies. Located in the heart of Point Pleasant's historic district.

The Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, stands as the world's only dedicated repository for one of America's most enduring paranormal phenomena. The Mothman legend began on November 12, 1966, when gravediggers in nearby Clendenin spotted a massive brown-winged creature darting between trees, describing it as a huge, brown-winged human being. Three days later, on November 15, two young couples -- Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette -- reported a terrifying encounter near the abandoned TNT area outside Point Pleasant. They described a creature standing six to seven feet tall with a ten-foot wingspan and glowing red eyes that chased their car at speeds exceeding one hundred miles per hour to the town limits.

Over the following thirteen months, at least twenty-six sightings were reported across Mason County. Witnesses consistently described the same unnerving features: luminous red eyes, an absence of a discernible head, and a peculiar, bat-like flight that was strangely silent. But the Mothman sightings were only part of a broader paranormal wave that gripped Point Pleasant. Residents reported UFO sightings, strange lights in the sky, bizarre phantom phone calls, poltergeist activity, and encounters with mysterious men in black suits who questioned witnesses with unsettling intensity.

Journalist and paranormal researcher John Keel arrived in Point Pleasant in 1966 to investigate. His research, documented in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, connected the sightings to a wider pattern of high strangeness. Keel's work transformed the local legend into a national phenomenon, later adapted into a 2002 film starring Richard Gere. Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University offered a skeptical explanation, suggesting that descriptions matched the sandhill crane, a large bird almost as tall as a human with a seven-foot wingspan and reddish coloring around its eyes.

The sightings ceased abruptly on December 15, 1967, the day the Silver Bridge collapsed, killing forty-six people. Many locals came to believe the Mothman had been a harbinger of disaster, sent to warn the community of the impending tragedy. Others maintain the creature caused the catastrophe itself.

The Mothman Museum and Research Center opened in 2006 in the heart of Point Pleasant, housing an unparalleled collection of artifacts, eyewitness accounts, police reports, and historical documents chronicling the phenomenon. Outside, a twelve-foot-tall chrome statue of the creature, sculpted by artist Bob Roach and unveiled in 2003, has become one of the most photographed landmarks in West Virginia. The annual Mothman Festival, held every September, draws thousands of cryptid enthusiasts and paranormal researchers from around the world, cementing Point Pleasant's identity as America's cryptid capital.