The Creature on Washington Street
The first time I heard about Mothman was from a 1997 episode of the television show The X-Files. Entitled “Detour,” it was one of the series’s self-contained “monster of the week” storylines. Even though I preferred the show’s UFO/alien story arc, this episode was monumentally fantastic. It showed the quintessential odd couple in all their glory. The tale combined the perfect balance of humor and masterfully scary elements, and it remains one of my favorites to this day. The plot featured two terrifying monsters that could camouflage themselves, which allowed for them to hide in plain sight. Tension built throughout the episode, and there was just no way to prepare for the “jump scenes” even if you knew when they were about to occur. I remember reading an article somewhere that described the episode as if Stephen King had written a “made for TV” Predator movie.
Mothman Origins
The creatures from The X-Files episode bore no resemblance to the actual mysterious figure sighted in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, during a thirteen-month period that started in 1966. But in the show, Mulder mentioned that the creatures could be related to the Mothman because of their seemingly supernatural tendencies. It wasn’t until about five years after the episode aired that there was an explosion of Mothman popularity due to the release of the movie The Mothman Prophecies. The movie was based off John Keel’s book of the same name, and took numerous liberties in its vast discrepancies from the book. Regardless, the movie did manage to convey the whimsical, odd, and downright macabre atmosphere the book had created. Furthermore, while not the best representation of Keel’s work, the movie did bring many people, including myself, to the enigmatic, true-life events surrounding Mothman in West Virginia. I immediately rushed out to get Keel’s book, but found it had been out of print for quite some time. However, not long after the movie came out, a new edition was published using the movie’s art as its cover (I hate when that happens). No matter; I had to have it. I must have read that copy over one hundred times (not really, but a lot). Other publications about Mothman came out that year as well, including Loren Coleman’s Mothman and Other Curious Encounters. A British paranormal magazine called Fortean Times released a special Mothman edition. Again, I had to have both of these, and both I had. (Mr. Coleman signed my copy of his book when I first met him in Prospect, Maine, at the Paranormal Fair hosted by Friends of Fort Knox in 2009).
The story of Mothman and the townspeople of Point Pleasant is a measureless and complex series of otherworldly and cryptid events. The thirteen-month ordeal started in November of 1966 and culminated with the devastating collapse of the town’s main bridge, which resulted in the deaths of forty-six people. John Keel, along with his “Scully,” local journalist Mary Hyre, investigated encounters, interviewed witnesses, and experienced their own strange happenings throughout that time frame. Both journalists sighted UFOs, Mary had encounters with a “man in black,” and John received odd phone calls from a peculiar man who called himself Indrid Cold. The abstract of the book describes it this way: “A journalist recounts his investigation of a bizarre winged apparition, mysterious lights in the sky, mutilation deaths of domestic animals, and other eerie and unexplained events in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.” I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of Mothman in Point Pleasant, so I would encourage you to read Keel’s work on the events that transpired. You can find a copy in almost every mom-and-pop bookstore, and of course from online book sources as well.
One of the more famous encounters occurred on November 15, 1966. The story is of two young married couples who were driving in a part of Point Pleasant called “the TNT area.” The place was once used as a munitions plant during World War II but had since turned into the local teenage hangout. Mary Hyre posed the following question in her article about the incident: “What stands six feet tall, has wings, two big red eyes six inches apart, and glides along behind an auto at 100 miles an hour?” With this question, she referenced the description of the creature the witnesses had observed. They had certainly seen something odd that night.
Almost thirty-five years later to the month, a man saw something similar in October of 2001. He was not in West Virginia; he was living in the beautiful coastal town of Camden, Maine.
“What caught me was the wings … ”
Finding the full story of the Maine man’s encounter was difficult at first. Most of my research only unearthed short descriptions that lacked significant detail. Fellow author and friend Michelle Souliere helped out by tracking a bit more to the story and uncovering a name for the witness. I located the gentleman on Facebook in May of 2017 and contacted him about the encounter. He was open to sharing the entirety of the events; a pseudonym has been used by request.
The witness’s drawing of the creature. Courtesy of Robert Osbourne.
This incredible tale began when Camden resident Robert Osbourne walked down Washington Street at around 6:00 p.m. on an early evening in October of 2001. As he walked toward his apartment, he heard a squeaking sound coming from somewhere nearby. I asked him to elaborate, and he said, “I heard this very distinct squeak. I thought it was a rodent of some sort, but it surprised me because it was so loud and clear. I thought it must be right underfoot or in front of me.” As he looked for the source of the sound he was startled to see a large, humanoid shape fly above him. “It was a roundish body with long, translucent wings, and what I could have sworn was a funny-looking head (small and weird … like it was a nub with tubes on it?). I can’t say I got a good look at that. What caught me was the wings, which were very, very long. Even at that age (seventeen years old), I knew enough about the wildlife in the area and was not familiar with any local animals that had wings like that (outside of bats), but this was way too big for that.” Osbourne was wholly bewildered by the uncanny sight and watched as it flew low, near his home. “Its wings sort of … fluttered a little,” he told me. “But just sort of like it was moving the tips, and it tilted and flew over the house, into the woods and swamps out behind it. It passed right over the eaves, where my apartment was, so I got a perfect comparison for wing-span, and that thing stretched easily from edge to edge of the slant. Definitely over 24–25 feet.” The sighting confused Osbourne; he knew that it was clearly mammalian, but felt that it couldn’t be real. (I visited the location in June of 2017, and the eave was easily twenty-five feet across.)
Osbourne thought about the encounter often, and shared his experience with some friends and family. Most dismissed the being he’d seen as a large bird, but he knew that what he saw was entirely different. “I’ve seen big birds,” he said. “I’ve seen huge turkey buzzards before, and since then I’ve seen all sorts of wildlife in this state and others, I’ve never seen anything like this.” He wanted to share his experience, or at the very least have it logged somehow. He reached out to Cryptozoology.com (the website is now revamped as a Facebook presence) to share his story. His post sat dormant for years. Various reports and webpages would cite the encounter as “Mothman seen in Camden, Maine” but lacked a connection back to Osbourne’s original story.
A few months later, Osbourne was again walking on Washington Street and saw the figure once more! It was much farther away this time. “I was walking up Washington Street from downtown,” he recalled, “and as I crested the top of the hill I looked down towards the house, [and] I saw the thing again! It did a near identical maneuver, sweeping across the street and pivoting up into the swamps and woods behind the houses. It didn’t fly as low as last time, and I didn’t hear it, but I saw it. Now, this was a distance away from the previous sighting, probably a good three hundred feet.” Osbourne doubted size in his first sighting, and now believed the large bird theory that others used to explain his first encounter. So during the second sighting, he thought, “Well, I probably just saw a big bird.”
He thought little of his most recent encounter, went on with life, and eventually enrolled into college. A couple of years went by without incident, and in the summer of 2003 he returned to Camden on a summer break from school. One midafternoon, he got together with an old friend and the pair drove around town. During their drive, an odd occurrence took place that reminded him of the creature he’d seen before. As Osbourne explained, “I’m driving through town with a friend, and we’re just enjoying the weather. We’re down in a section of town I don’t usually go to, and I didn’t mean to go out that way, we were just puttering around. Well, we’re driving along, when out of nowhere we hit something. It smacked into the windshield, and we came to a stop. Both of us thought it was a papier-mâché or something like that. It was sorta gray, lumpy, and vaguely translucent on the wings.” Stunned, the pair sat in the car and just stared at the oddity. It splayed across the windshield, seemingly deceased. As the car rolled to a stop the creature suddenly came to life and flew off! Osbourne and his friend were confounded, and both admitted to having an eerie feeling they couldn’t quite explain during the event. That feeling, coupled with the translucent wings, brought Osbourne back to that first encounter, and he was not as dismissive of the events any longer.
Also, a concurrent theme for Osbourne was a reoccurring dream he had. In the dream, he found himself back on Washington Street, in the same spot as his first encounter. While he stood on the street, he suddenly realized that an object was overhead, and he looked up to see a large UFO hovering silently. He told me, “I actually had a repetitive dream for a bit about walking back home at night across town, stopping at that stop, looking up, and realizing there was a floating house above me. Then it lights up suddenly and makes a horrible noise, and I wake up.” I expressed to Osbourne that it could simply be a UFO dream, but perhaps it was a repressed memory. He agreed with the latter.
Notably, Keel wrote about concurrent happenings in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, during the Mothman sightings. These included numerous reports of UFOs and men-in-black encounters.
About a year after his third encounter with the strange bird creature, Osbourne was back in Camden again visiting his girlfriend. One evening, they sat outside together and watched the sky, since the aurora borealis was visible on that rare night. Later, the pair heard squeak-like sounds that were all too familiar to Osbourne. The sounds emanated from the nearby woods that he’d seen the creature fly into that first time. His girlfriend mostly ignored the squeaks, but he knew better and looked toward the woods, knowing it was near. He said to me, “We both heard that high-pitched squeaking noise coming from the far woods across from the field. It would be the same patch of marshes and woods that ran behind my house where I kept seeing the thing. My girlfriend (now wife) is from Boston, so she just assumed it was bats or deer or whatever we have up here, but it sounded exactly like that damn thing again. We heard it a few different times that night.”
It’s been years since Osbourne has been witness to anything quite as strange as the winged figure. He lives in Wells, Maine, now, and oddly enough, right next to a marshy area. When I asked him if he still thinks about the creature, he said, “I can actually still picture it in my head perfectly.” He still wonders what the being could have been. I mentioned Mothman, and he said, “I’ve occasionally wondered if it was something like that. Keel used the term ‘ultraterrestrial,’ and I’m inclined to think it was that. I’ve often called it the ‘big birdie’ when I’ve thought about it, but I don’t think it was a bird or anything like one really.”
And what about the dreams of the UFOs? Osbourne did mention that reoccurring dreams had recently started up again. He stated, “I did have a series of weird repeating dreams last year about walking into my bathroom, looking out the window, and seeing a disc just over the tree line. Then I’d wake up. I really didn’t give it much thought for some reason … we had just moved into the new house, and we had so much on our plates, I guess I just put it aside.”
Could Osbourne be a beacon for such strange phenomena? Maybe it was just a large bird he saw; the sandhill crane is large and seen in parts of the state. Or perhaps he was at the right place at the right time when he sighted the creature on Washington Street. And the UFO dreams—well maybe that is all they are. Despite this, he is adamant that he saw something peculiar during those encounters. I’d like to think that a version of the Mothman occasionally enjoys the salty air of Camden, Maine.
Investigating the Mothman of Knox County
On June 22, 2017, I accompanied my lovely family to the beautiful Camden Riverhouse Motel. It is situated right in the heart of downtown Camden and is approximately a two-minute drive from where the creature was sighted. On our first day in town, we enjoyed a walk around the grounds of the library, we took the kiddo to the high school so he could skateboard, and we went for a swim in the hotel’s indoor pool (rain was in the forecast). As night fell, I quietly planned for my evening investigation. I went to the car to check my gear, which included a flashlight and night vision camera. What? I’ve never investigated Mothman before, what else would I need?
Anyway, I kissed my goodbyes and drove to the police station. I explained to a friendly officer my intentions to look for the elusive beast in the areas off Washington Street. Some of the areas do not allow visitors after 10:00 p.m., and I wanted to make sure I had their blessing. He granted me permission, and I was off. First stop: Shirt Tail Point Park. Time: 11:30 p.m. By day, Shirt Tail is a small but gorgeous family swimming area with picnic tables, one rustic hibachi grill, and shallow waters. By night, the area changes into a creep-filled breeding ground for unnamed ghouls.
Washington Street sign in Camden, Maine.
Shirt Tail Point area of Camden, Maine.
Oh, is that just me? Well, I’m never one to shy away from an investigation, so I parked my car, shut off the lights, and stepped outside. A bench sat about ten feet in front of the water on a grassy area. I sat quietly and listened. From time to time, I would do a scan of the area with my night vision camera but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
After about an hour, I decided to take a drive up Washington Street. I drove in silence while I waited for the Mothman to dive-bomb my car like in that scene from The Mothman Prophecies when Debra Messing crashes her car.
The marshy area behind the apartment near the sighting.
It never happened, so back to Shirt Tail I went. I sat once more on the bench and observed some mist rolling in as the weather started to turn. After about three hours, I called it a night and headed back to the quaint hotel room that housed my loves. Time: 2:30 a.m.
After arriving back to the room, I went through the pictures I’d taken and continued working on this book. I had one more night in the area, so I planned another outing. This time, I had a guest investigator with me—my son! This eleven-year-old (at the time) boy is the kindest soul you’d ever meet, and he went with me in the afternoon to scout for a new location. I found a marshy area situated roughly behind the apartment of the first sighting, and saw that it had ample parking away from the sights and sounds of the main road. At around 10:30 p.m., the crypto-kid and I headed out again and drove to the location. We sat in the dark as the kiddo munched on some Sour Patch Kids. I explained the story of the Point Pleasant Mothman to him, he asked some great questions about its authenticity, and we watched a trailer to the movie.
After a little while, we both got out of the car to listen for anything walking in the marshy area or the woods beyond it. We heard a lot. Most likely deer (there’s a ton in the area); however, the kiddo did see some odd movement and a glowing red light from deep within the woods. He said, “It’s like its watching us. I can see it come and go. See!” Just then he pointed out a glowing red light (for about the fifth time or so), but I finally saw it for myself this time. It was fleeting, but certainly out of place in relation to the area that we were in. With that said, it truly could have been the glow of brake lights from a car, given that we are not familiar with the area and an unknown road could have been closer than we thought. We took pictures, and pareidolia (when the mind makes familiar patterns when nothing is there) was on max—we saw faces and shapes in the pixilation.
After a time, I took him over to Shirt Tail and we sat in the car with the lights off and the windows down. We kept hearing something walking in the water; it was just far off enough in the darkness that we were unable to see it. I did turn on the headlights a few times, but the source of the phantom walker eluded us. It was probably a deer.
After a couple of hours, tired and ready for bed, we headed back to the hotel room. The kiddo fell fast asleep as I went through the pictures again with The Golden Girls television show on in the background. I yawned loudly, and my eyes watered afterwards. I took that as my cue to turn in. Despite a valiant effort, and some excellent company on my second night, the Creature from Washington Street remained hidden. Rest well, old boy. I’ll be back.