What Is the Mothman and Why Are People Seeing It Around Chicago?
Is there any truth to this strange, urban legend?
The mythical winged man-creature was last sighted by a postal worker at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
“I saw that this was not some person but some red-eyed [creature], and what appeared to be a coat were actually wings which it spread out as it turned to look at me.”
That quote was taken from a witness statement given to the Singular Fortean Society. The witness was a 17-year veteran of the US Postal Service walking to her car after leaving work one night when she spotted a seven-foot-tall, red-eyed creature striding towards her.
She stated that the figure then flew above her emitting a screeching sound as she hurried to her car and drove away.
The anonymous postal employee is not the first person to have reported seeing a tall, winged man flying above. Sightings of this strange phenomenon have been documented all around the world.
The Mothman
The Mothman is one of those enduring American myths, that while not proven to be true, can’t be disproven either.
The first sighting was in a small West Virginia town in the 1960s. The latest reported sighting was from the postal worker in the fall of 2020 at Chicago O’Hare airport.
The Mothman has been spotted quite a bit around Chicago in the last few years. His first appearance in the Chicago area was in 2011. Since then, the sightings are mainly around the airport and Lake Michigan.
Physical characteristics
When you compile the sightings together, a common theme takes shape. He’s a tall figure, usually 6 to 10 feet, with red, glowing eyes. Although sometimes his eyes have been reported as green, yellow, or orange. He is a humanoid figure that reminds witnesses of a bat or an owl.
What is his behavior?
He is often seen flying near trees. Sometimes he chases people and makes hissing or clicking noises. In the latest Chicago sighting, the USPS employee reported that he made a “chirping sound,” and then a “screeching sound,” as he flew towards and above her.
Sometimes he screams, sometimes he stands and stares, sometimes he simply flies overhead.
He often leaves witnesses with an impending feeling of fear and doom. Which seems a reasonable reaction. If I thought a winged humanoid man was flying straight for me, screeching with his red eyes glowing, I’d feel fear and doom as well.
History of the Mothman
What is the myth behind this winged creature? He first appeared in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in November of 1966. The first time he was mentioned in the media was a headline in the local newspaper, “Couples See Man-Sized Bird… Creature… Something.”
The article described a story in which two young couples were chased by a dark figure with a 10-foot wingspan and red eyes. Three days before their sighting, five men reported a large, humanoid figure flying over their heads from a nearby tree.
The sightings came in fast and furious after that. An Ohio newspaper dubbed the figure the Moth Man, and the conspiracy theories began. Some believed he lived near a nuclear power plant and was the result of government weapons testing.
About one year after the first sighting, tragedy occurred when the Silver Bridge near Point Pleasant collapsed killing 46 people. Paranormal writer John Keel connected the sightings to the bridge collapse, and he wrote the book “The Mothman Prophesies,” which was made into a movie in 2002.
And though the reason for the bridge collapse was found to be due to shoddy maintenance, the sightings of the Mothman around Point Pleasant almost completely stopped after the tragedy.
An American myth was born.
Since then, Point Pleasant has made the best of things with an annual festival, a creepy 12-foot statue, and a Mothman museum.
Other sightings
Since the original West Virginia sightings, the Mothman has turned up in many places.
Some believe he was at Chernobyl before the explosion. Some say he was sighted before the terrorist attacks on 9/11. And beginning in 2011, over 55 Chicagoans have reported seeing the winged man. Most sightings are at dusk or nightfall.
Is there any real evidence?
In the 1960s people rarely happened to have cameras on them for no reason. But today, we all have smartphones with camera capabilities. So why haven’t any of these witnesses snapped a pic of this strange creature?
Well, for one thing, if a seven-foot-tall winged man was flying towards me, I don’t think I would stop to get a video on my iPhone. Most likely, I’d be too busy running and screaming.
Yet, there are some photos out there. When you search the depths of the internet you can find a lot of grainy-looking images of grayish bird-like shapes flying overhead.
However, there was one instance in 2016 where a man in Point Pleasant claimed to have caught an image of what appears to be a winged man flying above. It’s an odd-looking picture. You can make out wings and two obvious legs.
Possible explanations — it’s probably a bird
As much as I love a good paranormal story, I remain skeptical. There are plenty of possibilities as to what people are actually seeing when they think they’ve been visited by the Mothman.
It’s probably a bird. In 1966, a biologist suggested that the Mothman sightings in Point Pleasant were due to a sandhill crane that had wandered off from its usual migratory route.
Sandhill cranes are tall birds with six-foot wingspans. They migrate high in the sky, roost in ponds and lakes, and have red markings around their eyes. They’re also very noisy birds that make rattling cries.
Or it might be an owl. These nocturnal birds have glowing eyes, and some, like the great horned owl, can have wingspans of over four feet.
My money is on the sandhill crane. Common in the Chicago area, they are often sighted near bodies of water. And, get this, according to Wildlife Illinois:
“Because they are attracted to open areas, they can pose a nuisance near airports.”
Suddenly the O’Hare sightings make perfect sense.
The mystery endures
The Mothman is one of those great urban legends that we can’t completely disprove. And humans love a good urban legend.
Is it merely a large bird frightening people in the dark? Does a mild case of mass hysteria create clusters of sightings? Or could it be a mythical creature, a harbinger of doom sent to warn us of the next impending disaster?
I’m 99% sure people are seeing an owl or a sandhill crane. And yet, I live in the Chicago suburbs (near a body of water) and I have seen my share of cranes and owls, but I have never mistaken one for a seven-foot-tall winged man.
So could the myth be true? I’m 1% convinced it might be. And let’s be honest, doesn’t that 1% make life all the more interesting?
If I do spot the Mothman flying around in my area, I’ll be sure to tell you about it.
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