First Mothman Sighting at the TNT Area — Point Pleasant, West Virginia (1966)

On the night of November 15, 1966, two young couples — Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette — were driving near an abandoned World War II munitions plant outside Point Pleasant, West Virginia, known locally as the TNT Area. As they passed the old North Power Plant, they spotted a large, gray figure standing near the building's entrance. The creature was roughly six to seven feet tall, with a broad chest, large folded wings, and two enormous, glowing red eyes set in its head — or, as some witnesses described, seemingly set in its chest where a head should have been. When the couples fled in their car, the creature allegedly took flight and pursued them at speeds exceeding one hundred miles per hour along Route 62. The Scarberrys and Mallettes reported the encounter to the Mason County Sheriff's office, and Deputy Millard Halstead took the witnesses seriously enough to return to the TNT Area to investigate. The sighting was reported in the Point Pleasant Register the following day. Over the next thirteen months, more than one hundred additional witnesses would report seeing a similar winged creature in the Point Pleasant area — always near the TNT Area, along the Ohio River, or on the outskirts of town. The Mothman, as it was christened by a local newspaper editor, had arrived.