Return of The Mothman

*The following is a Herald-Dispatch article by Paul Souhrada from February 2002 titled "Return of The Mothman" :*

## **Return of the Mothman**

### *Movie brings attention to small town*

**By Paul Souhrada**

*Dispatch Staff Reporter*

POINT PLEASANT, W.VA. - There are two kinds of people in Point Pleasant.

Those who *believe* in the Mothman.

And those who "believe" in the Mothman.

Marcella Bennett is without a doubt a charter member of the first group.

Now a gray-haired wisp of a woman, Bennett was 26 with a 4-year-old daughter in tow[n] when she came face to face with the winged, man-sized creature.

There has't been a Mothman sighting reported in Point Pleasant in more than 35 years, but a new generation of fans have been drawn to the Ohio River town after the release of a Hollywood feature purportedly based on "true events."

Bennett, who still is spooked by her encounter with the Mothman has come to embrace the renewed interest in her story and the spotlight now focused on her hometown.

On Nov. 16, 1966 Bennett was visiting her sister near what's known locally as the TNT area - a sprawling wooded preserve of dirt roads, man-made ponds and earth-covered concrete domes that once contained government high-explosive stockpiles.

"It was as close as you and I," she recalled, indicating a distance of about 3 feet. At first glance, it appeared to be a man in khaki work clothes standing by her car.

Then she noticed the feathers.

"I was just terrified," Bennett said, retelling the story first from her living room in Point Pleasant - a town of 4,637 about 9 miles southeast of Columbus - and then from the spot where the creature surprised her.

Dozens of Mothman sightings followed the first on Nov. 15, 1966 along with reports of strange lights in the sky and rumors of mysterious "men in black."

Then on Dec 15, 1967 - 13 months to the day from the first sighting - the Silver Bridge linking Point Pleasant to Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed. Forty-six people were killed.

Then the sightings simply stopped. A new phenomena, however, has recently appeared in town.

A horde of film crews, reporters, sightseers and buffs of the paranormal have discovered Point Pleasant following the release last month of The Mothman Prophecies, starring Richard Gere.

The movie, which is set in the 1990s and filmed near Pittsburgh has grossed $21.2 million in its first two weeks of release.

While some of the original witnesses shun their newfound celebrity, Bennett figures she might as well enjoy it.

She even agreed to serve as Moth Queen for the town's first Mothman Festival, tentatively scheduled for late April.

Recently, she served as a guide on a spur-of-the-moment Mothman tour.

"We've got to talk to this guy," she said, referring to Jeff Wamsley, owner of Criminal Records, a music store, and co-author of a locally produced Mothman biography, *Mothman: The Facts Behind The Legend.*

The two had never met, but Wamsely recognized her in an instant.

"I wish we could have got you in the book," he said, explaining that he and collaborator Donnie Sergent Jr. were under pressure to get the book out before the release of the movie.

Wamsley, who also owns Criminal Records stores in Gallipolis and Jackson, in southeast Ohio, said the Point Pleasant location was the smallest of the three - until the Mothman revival.

Now, enthusiasts stop in from as far away as Colorado and North Carolina and choose from several versions of $18.99 Mothman T-shirts.

Some stop in Point Pleasant when they notice the exit marked on Rts 2, 7 and 35. But for others, the town is the destination. One young couple drove six hours from Ashville N.C., after seeing the movie last weekend, Wamsley said.

The owners of the downtown Lowe Hotel, meanwhile, said they have bookings from this summer from as far as California. A web site Wamsley and Sergent created is receiving as many as 15,000 hits a day.

Their book, largely culled from newspaper clippings and interviews with local witnesses makes no effort to explain the Mothman.

"Hey, I was 5 years old at the time," Wamsley said. "But I think they saw something."

Some folks say the Mothman really was a large owl, or a sandhill crane. Others say it was a product of mass hysteria.

Violet Painter, who cut hair in Point Pleasant for 54 years (and proudly points to a proclamation from the state of West Virginia commemorating the fact), has heard the stories dozens of times.

Once a salon customer's husband told Painter about his contribution to Mothman lore.

He and some friends took two feather pillows, a flashlight and a shotgun - as well as fair amount of alcohol, she recalled - to the TNT site. Some local kids parked there and didn't stay long enough after the prank to investigate fully, she said.

Painter, chief cheerleader for the downtown business district, welcomes the renewed attention to the local legend.

Mothman teddy bears with holly berry eyes and plastic fern wings sit in the window of Vi's Creative Gifts, the craft and knickknack shop she opened after handing off Vi's Beauty Salon to her daughter, Fredda Kent.

"I didn't want to be left out," Painter said. "People were coming in asking what we had."

Just about every shop in town has some Mothman merchandise, though Christmas ornaments and beanies commissioned by the local chamber of commerce are on back order.

Painter worries, though that the buzz will wear off once the film moves on to discount movie houses and video stores. And she fears that the town doesn't offer enough to keep tourists coming back.

She'd like to see antique shops and restaurants and other businesses fill the empty storefronts of Point Pleasant's Main Street. Tour buses - like the those that ferry UFO hunters to Ro[s]well, N.M. - are the key to reviving the local economy, she said.

But for the time being, she'll take whatever business the Mothman brings her way.

"Do I believe?" Painter said, a smile forming as she repeated the question. "For business, yes.

"There's something here. A creature, a big bird . . . a bunch of drunks, I don't know."