(This is the first article of the first publicized sighting of the Mothman which was published on Wednesday, November 16th 1966)
“Couples See Man-Sized Bird…Creature…Something”.
“It was a bird…or something. It definitely wasn’t a flying saucer.”
Two Point Pleasant couples said today they encountered a man-sized, bird-like creature in the TNT area about midnight last night.
Sheriff’s deputies and City Police went to the scene about 2 o'clock this morning but were unable to spot anything.
But the two young men telling their story this morning were dead serious, and asserted they hadn’t been drinking.
Steve Mallette of 3305 Jackson Avenue and Roger Scarberry of 809 30th Street described the thing as being about six or seven feet tall, having a wing span of 10 feet and red eyes about two inches in diameter and six inches apart.
“It was like a man with wings,” Mallette said. “It wasn’t like anything you’d see on TV or in a monster movie..”
The men and their wives were in Scarberry’s car between 11:30 p.m. and midnight when they spotted the creature near the old power plant adjacent to the old National Guard Armory buildings.
The creature was seen standing on three occasions and was described as being extremely fast (“It flew about 100 miles an hour”) in flight but was a clumsey runner.
Deputy Millard Halstead said he had seen dust in the vicinity of a coal field. But “It could have been” caused by the bird, he said.
“I’m a hard guy to scare” Scarberry said, “but last night I was for getting out of there.”
They did just that but the “thing” followed them. They said it was hovering over the car, apparently gliding, until they reached the national Guard Armory on Route 62.
“We went downtown, turned around, and went back and there it was again,” Mallette said. “It seemed to be waiting on us”. He said the light-grey-creature then scurried through a field, It also had flown across the top of the car.
“It apparently is afraid of light,” Mallette reasoned, “and maybe it thought it was scaring us off.”
The young men said they saw the creature’s eyes, which glowed red, only when their lights shined on it. And it seemed to want to get away from the lights.
They said it looked like a “man with wings” but that its head was “not an outstanding characteristic.”
Both were slightly pale and tired from lack of sleep during the night following their harrowing experience. They speculated that the thing was living in the vacant power plant, possibly in one of the huge boilers. “There are pigeons in all the other buildings,” Mallette said, “but not in that one.”
“If I had seen it while by myself I wouldn’t have said anything,” Scarberry commented, “but there were four of us who saw it.”
They said it didn’t resemble a bat in any way but “maybe what you would visualize as an angel.”
The last time they saw it was at the gate of the C. C. Lewis farm on Route 62.
They heard a sound like wings flapping and they said the bird rose straight up, like a helicopter.
“This doesn’t have an explanation to it,” Mallette said, “It was an animal but nothing like I’ve seen before.”
Are they going back to look for the creature?
“Yes,” Mallette said, “this afternoon and again tonight.”
“Today,” Scarberry said, “but tonight, I don’t know!”
