by Tyler Houck
Mrs. William Stallings also saw the bird that night. She described it as “bright, greenish-‐yellow, and as big as a house.”
Those were the last of the 1948 sightings in Illinois. Many Thunderbird sightings have come from that state, but they have emerged from others as well. Now I will relate a few from other states.
Two cowboys in Arizona supposedly killed a Thunderbird in 1890. They nailed the creature to a barn and its wings covered the entire length. They said it had smooth skin, wings like a bat, and a face like an alligator’s. This creature almost sounds like a pterosaur (a flying reptile that lived during the age of the dinosaurs that will be discussed later in this chapter) rather than a big bird.
Two children playing in their yard in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas saw a strange creature in 1976. They looked at it through binoculars while it stood in a nearby field. They described it as a large, black bird, five feet tall, with a six-‐inch beak and red eyes. They ran inside when it made a shrieking sound and started to approach them.
Alverico Guajardo from Brownsville, Texas, saw a creature that he said looked like a giant bat a short time later. He said he heard a sound like leathery wings, and then claws tore into the back of his shirt! He ran under a tree and the beast eventually left. He said its face looked like that of a monkey; it had no beak.
Marvin Shock and three others watched a quartet of thunderbirds for two hours in Lowell, Ohio, on November 26, 1966. The birds were described as “As big as a man; 4 to 5 feet tall, with beaks five to six inches long, and wingspans of ten feet.”
On December four of that same year, 5 pilots saw an even bigger bird by the Gallia-‐Meigs Regional Airport in Gallipolis, Ohio. They at first mistook it for an airplane. One of the men got in his plane with a camera to get a picture of the bird, but it was gone by the time he took off.
Ohio’s neighboring state of Pennsylvania has had its fair share of Thunderbird sightings. Robert Lyman saw a Thunderbird in this state around 1943. He said the wingspan was at least 20 feet! The creature flew off through the woods after he spotted it. There have been many more thunderbird sightings in the state, and I will list them here.
In 1892, Lumbermen saw a “flock” of the big birds. They had 16-‐foot wingspans.
Arch P. Akeley saw a bird that had been captured by a farmer in 1898. He said it was gray and over four feet tall.
In April 1922, Hiram M. Cranmer saw a creature he identified as a Thunderbird. He said it flew past his home at dusk and had a wingspan of 35 feet. He told no one of his sighting for 35 years.
Robert Lyman (who was mentioned above) saw a Thunderbird in 1940. It had a 20-‐foot wingspan, but its wings were no more than a foot wide.
A big bird was seen repeatedly around Kettle Creek for three weeks in 1957. Its wingspan was said to be 25 to 30 feet.
A big bird was seen by Hiram Cranmer and others on July 4, 1962.
Mr. and Mrs. John Boyle saw a Thunderbird in 1968 and 1969. The second time they saw it, it landed in a creek. Its wings appeared to extend for 75 feet.
Alvin Schoonover and two others saw a bird carrying a fawn in 1969.
Mrs. Judith Dingler saw a Thunderbird while driving on Route 220 on October 28, 1970. She said it reminded her of an airplane.
Clyde and Anna Mincer saw a Thunderbird on the 9th and 10th of November, 1970. They said it had a 22-‐ foot wingspan.
A bird with an 18-‐foot wingspan was seen eating a dead opossum on June 8, 1971.
Clair E. Koons and Wilson Frederick saw a giant bird flying over a creek in 1971.
The big birds were seen many more times over the next two decades. Mark A. Hall lists all these sightings in his book Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds.
Thunderbirds began being seen again in
Pennsylvania in 2001. Mike Felice claims to have seen a huge bird in South Greensburg on September 25, 2001. He saw it at about 7:30 PM. He was watching cars on Route 119 when he heard a sound like “flags flapping in a thunderstorm.” He then saw a huge black bird with a 10-‐15 foot wingspan. He said it flapped its wings very slowly.
A resident of Greensville, PA, saw a thunderbird on June 13, 2001. He said it was the size of a small plane. Another resident saw the bird on the 14th, and she described it as “the biggest bird I ever saw.”
Thunderbirds have also been seen in many other states, including Missouri, Kentucky, and Alaska.
No one really knows what Thunderbirds are. Some people say they are just turkey vultures, but would one of those birds be able to pick up a ten-‐year-‐old boy? Some people think they are surviving Teratorns. Teratorns lived in South America about 10,000 years ago, and had wingspans of about 23 feet. Is it possible they could have moved into North America and survived until the present day?
IMAGE 1: Teratorns were giant birds that lived about 10,000 years
Ago. Could they have survived until the present day? IMAGE 2: Drawing of the Piasa on a rock
Indians in Illinois connect Thunderbirds with their legend of a creature called the Piasa. The creature’s name means “bird that devours man.” They
said Piasas would eat villagers. According to Illini legend, the Piasa lived in a cave in a bluff. It coexisted
with the Illini at first, but during one battle, it took a man from each tribe and ate him, and developed a liking for human flesh. After that, the Illini lived in fear of the creature, until brave Massatoga came up with a plan. He stood out in the open and chanted, as bait for the Piasa, while 20 warriors hid in ambush. The Piasa came, and all the warriors shot their arrows. Massatoga’s plan worked, and the Piasa was killed.
The Thunderbird and Piasa legends may not talk about the same creature at all, but something that looks like a huge bird is still seen around the U.S. I think Thunderbirds are more rare than Bigfoot and creatures like it, and that is why they are not seen as frequently. If the species is ever proven to be real, and to be a new species, they should be put on the endangered species list, because they may already be facing extinction.
Mothman
The Mothman is probably the best known flying monster in the world. It would be put in the ranks of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Sea Serpents, and the Yeti. Many people probably know about Mothman just because they have heard of it, but others know of it because of the 2002 movie The Mothman Prophecies. Just like The Legend of Boggy Creek(see The Monster in Fouke, chapter 1), The Mothman Prophecies was based on true events.
The Mothman was first spotted in 1961 when a resident of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, saw a gray, winged figure on the road. The being may have been startled by the car lights, because it opened up its wings and flew away. But, it never flapped its wings; it just
went straight up.
RIGHT: The Mothman Prophecies
LEFT: What the woman and her father saw in 1961
Mothman
sightings really took off in November, 1966. They lasted a little over a year, until the Silver
Bridge collapse on December 15, 1967. The first 1966 sightings occurred on November 15, exactly 1 year and 1 month before the Silver Bridge collapse. Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette were joyriding through the TNT area. Explosives had been manufactured there during WWII. The two couples were driving down the mazes of dirt roads when they spotted a strange figure. They all said it had blood red, glowing eyes; that’s what got their attention in the first place.
The thing didn’t seem to notice the four people, and just walked off towards the generator plant. They didn’t care where it was headed; Roger turned around and sped out of there. But their encounter wasn’t over yet.
As they were leaving, they saw the thing standing on a hill by the road. They said it was 6 feet tall and had wings “like an angel.” “It was shaped like a man, but bigger.” Roger said. “It was about six and a half to seven feet tall, and its wings were folded against its back.”
The creature’s torso looked like a human’s, but it had no arms and its face was hard to distinguish; it may have been headless. It walked around clumsily, like a penguin, and had a ten-‐foot wingspan. The creature took off and followed the car. “We were driving 100 miles per hour,” Roger said “And that bird kept up with us, without flapping its wings.” The witnesses said it did make a noise, and it sounded like a “squeak” of a huge mouse.
Both of the women in the car were now crying, and the monster followed the four people all the way into Point Pleasant, still “squeaking.” At the town limits, the Mothman turned around and they did not see it again.
The couples stopped at a drive in and called the police. Officers came and they told them their story. The officers went to the TNT area, but did not find anything unusual. They did have scary experiences, though. The couples were there when an officer said he saw shadows circling the old power plant. Deputy Sheriff Mallard Halstead saw a cloud of dust kick up from a coal yard not far away, and he thought the Mothman might have caused it.
Steve Mallette, Roger Scarberry, and the deputies returned that Wednesday during the daylight hours and saw something fly up into a boiler when they kicked a door open. No one saw it long enough to determine what it was.
Linda Scarberry was so shaken by the encounter that she had to be taken to the hospital. After that, she and Roger moved back in with her parents.
Hundreds of people flocked to the TNT area after the Scarberry/Mallette sighting, hoping to get a glimpse of Mothman. Marcella Bunnett, her daughter Tina, and her brother, Raymond Wamsley, and his wife saw the Mothman. They saw lights in the sky at first, but they dismissed them off as a plane.
They approached the Thomas residence in the area to see Ralph Thomas, only to realize that he was not home. Marcella decided to get back in the car and wait until Raymond left, and saw something strange when she reached for the door handle.
She described what she saw as gray, 6 feet tall, and it had feathers. She said it looked like a man, but had wings. It had a bird’s head and just stood there. “It looked like he was relaxing,” She said. “To me it didn’t look like it was of this world.”
She turned to run, but her legs gave out and she fell on top of little Tina. She lay paralyzed until she heard the Mothman fly away.
They ran into the Thomas house and called the police. One of the Thomas kids looked out the window and saw the thing coming onto their porch. According to some accounts, the creature looked in the window. It was gone when police arrived at the scene.
Over the next several weeks, the Mothman was sighted many times. Roy Grose, a resident of Cheshire, a town not far from Point Pleasant, saw it hovering over a tree in a field across the road from her house. A teenager who was driving by her house that day said he saw a “huge bird”. The “bird” followed his car for about a mile.
After the events of November 15, 1966, other witnesses who had seen the Mothman before that spoke up. One was Kenneth Duncan, who said he saw it on November 12. He described it as a brown, human-‐like object gliding through the trees near Clendenin, West Virginia.
Common description of the Mothman
On November 20, a couple said they saw the “bird” near Ferry Branch. They said it had a wingspan wider than their truck. It flew across the road and into Ferry Branch Hollow. Howard Miller saw a bird “about four feet tall with red half moons under its eyes.” It landed
on a school bus shelter. Brenda Jones saw the creature beside a rock quarry near Campbell’s Creek. It then ran into the woods.
On the 25th, Thomas Ury saw a six-foot figure with a wingspan of 10 feet. He said it hovered over his car then flew towards the Ohio River.
Connie Jo Carpenter, a young woman who lived in New Haven, a town thirteen miles from Point Pleasant, had a strange encounter with the unknown on Sunday, November 27, 12 days after the Scarberry-Mallette encounter. She was driving home from church, alone, at 10:30 in the morning. As she was driving, she saw a strange figure adjacent to the Mason County Golf Course.
She described the thing as man-like and 7 feet tall. She then watched it as two huge wings sprouted from its back. It took off and flew straight towards her car. She said it had large red eyes and a tiny head.
Connie moved to Ohio the following February, and strange events continued. A man tried to abduct her one morning while she was going to school, and she later got a note saying “Watch yourself, girl. We can get you.”
On December 7, 1966, a car in Ohio nearly collided with a “gray, man-shaped creature with glowing red eyes and a ten foot wingspan.”
Katlyn Beaver saw something fly over her car on December 11.
A Point Pleasant businessman saw Mothman in his yard one night. He said it was over 6 feet tall, gray, and had flaming eyes. He said it flew off like something out of a B grade horror film.
Ruth Foster saw the Mothman on November 25 in St. Albans. She said it had large, red eyes and a “funny” face. She ran into the house and sent her brother-in-law to investigate. It was gone by the time he got to the porch.
The next day, Sheila Cane and her younger sister said that they were chased by the Mothman after they saw it at a St. Albans dumpsite. As Sheila described it:
“It was gray and white, probably about 7 feet tall, taller than a man. I screamed and we started to run home. This thing flew up in the air and chased us part of the way back home.” Faye DeWitt-Leport said she was also chased by Mothman. She had gone to the TNT area in Point Pleasant one night with her brother and two younger siblings to see if they could spot the creature. As they were approaching the area, her brother spotted the creature by the road. It was moving along beside the car, looking in the window. Her brother came to a quick stop, and then things really got scary. The monster proceeded to land on the hood of the car! It then shot back up into the air and landed on top of a four story building. The thing then “hissed” at them, and Faye’s brother threw a stone at it. He continued to throw stones until it seemed that the creature had assumed an aggressive posture, and then they all left the area quickly.
After the first Mothman reports hit the newspaper, other witnesses came forward. Kenneth Duncan said he and four other men saw a
brown creature fly past them while he was digging a grave. The other men did not see whatever it was.
On November 17, a boy from Cheshire, Ohio, said the Mothman chased his car.
Four boys exploring the TNT area on November 20 saw a gray, man sized creature with glowing red eyes. They tried to get closer to the creature before it flew off, but did not get too close before it did.
The following night, November 21st, police in Charleston, WV, received a call from Richard West at around 10 p.m. Mr. West said he saw a “batman” on the roof of a neighbor’s house. It had red eyes and shot off the roof like a helicopter.
The Mothman sightings continued into the next year. On January 11, 1967, Mabel McDaniel, who happened to be Linda Scarberry’s mother, saw a huge winged creature over Route 62, near Tiny’s drive-in restaurant, at 5 p.m. She at first thought it was an airplane, but then realized it was something much different. “It was brown and had a wingspan of at least ten feet,” She said. "I saw two legs dangling behind it…. It was flying above Tiny’s
restaurant… It didn’t seem to have a head or neck.” She never saw it flap its wings, and it made no noise.
Later the same day, Chester Leport and Stevie Pearson, Jr. were in the TNT area when they saw something shoot by above them. Both said the creature they saw made a strange sound. The said it came from the direction of the Ohio River.
The last notable Mothman sighting of 1967 occurred on November 2. Mrs. Ralph Thomas (you may remember the Thomases, Marcella Bennett was visiting on their property at the time of her encounter) heard a strange squeaking sound outside and went to investigate. She said she saw something tall and brown moving around in the concrete igloos in the TNT area.
The date was December 15, 1967, exactly 1 year and 1 month after the first Mothman encounter. It was 5:04 p.m., in the middle of rush hour. The Silver Bridge, which spanned across the Ohio River and connected Point Pleasant to the Buckeye State, was packed with cars. Suddenly, it began to creak, and then collapsed. Cars, shoppers, Christmas presents, and kids all fell into the river below. Forty-six lives were lost in the collapse, and 44 bodies were recovered.
