# Mothman/Owlman

The Mothman/Owlman story started with a November 1966 sighting in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, when two young couples reported a red-eyed winged creature chasing their car near an abandoned WWII munitions site[3]. The wave of sightings ended a year later, days after the Silver Bridge collapse killed 46 people, seeding decades of cryptid folklore that spawned a British cousin called the Owlman and a devoted online fan community[1].

## Origin
The first newspaper story ran in the Point Pleasant Register on November 16, 1966, under the headline "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something"[2]. Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette told police they saw a large white winged figure with glowing red eyes near the TNT area, an abandoned World War II munitions plant outside town[3]. More sightings followed over the next thirteen months, with witnesses including volunteer firemen and contractor Newell Partridge, whose German Shepherd went missing the same night[1].

- **Platform:** Local news (viral folklore)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 1966

## Overview
Mothman/Owlman works online as a cryptid pair that fans treat like a shared mythology rather than a single template. Discussion clusters around eyewitness accounts, disaster prophecies, and the visual shorthand of a tall figure with red eyes and huge wings[3]. Artists on DeviantArt built out a large body of fan illustrations[5], and the Point Pleasant Mothman Museum keeps the local tourist economy going with statues, festivals, and merchandise[1].

The Owlman side of the pair came out of a 1976 sighting in Mawnan, Cornwall, and is often paired with Mothman in cryptid roundups as a British counterpart[2]. Together they anchor jokes, artwork, and horror edits that frame winged humanoids as omens of disaster.

## How It Spread
Sightings tapered off after the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River collapsed on December 15, 1967, killing 46 people, and locals tied the two events together into a curse narrative traced back to the Shawnee chief Cornstalk[1]. Nine years later, Cornwall residents reported the winged Owlman near Mawnan church, giving the folklore an international sibling[2]. The story picked up mainstream reach through the 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies and a run of documentary videos, including archival footage still circulating on YouTube[4].

Online, the pair became a fixture on cryptid discussion boards and fan art communities, with the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant working as a real-world anchor for fan pilgrimages and an annual festival[1]. The KYM entry places Mothman above The Slenderman and The Rake in cryptid reputation, an unusual position for a legend that predates the internet by three decades[3].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Mothman/Owlman?
Mothman is the red-eyed winged cryptid first reported in Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1966, and Owlman is its British counterpart sighted in Cornwall a decade later[3].

### Where did Mothman/Owlman come from?
The Mothman story started with a November 15, 1966 sighting by two Point Pleasant couples near an abandoned munitions site called the TNT area[2]. Owlman came from 1976 sightings around Mawnan church in Cornwall[1].

### What does Mothman/Owlman mean?
The pair works as shorthand for winged humanoid cryptids that appear before disasters, tied especially to the Silver Bridge collapse of December 1967[1].

### How do you use Mothman/Owlman?
Fans use both figures in cryptid fan art, disaster prophecy jokes, and horror edits, often paired together as American and British cousins[5].

### Is Mothman/Owlman still popular?
Both figures still anchor cryptid communities online and support an annual Mothman Festival and museum in Point Pleasant[1].

## References
1. [https://mothmanmuseum.com/](<https://mothmanmuseum.com/>)
2. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mothman-owlman](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mothman-owlman>)
4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj1rk0E9JR8](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj1rk0E9JR8>)
5. [https://www.deviantart.com/](<https://www.deviantart.com/>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/mothmanowlman
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