Mothman in Clendenin

Today marks the anniversary of a decades-old mystery.  On November 15, 1966 two couples from Point Pleasant, WV witnessed a startling winged humanoid creature which would chase their car at speeds of around 100mph. This strange sighting of the monster later dubbed ‘Mothman’ would kick off a 13 month period of high strangeness in Pt. Pleasant. People flocked to the former WW2 munitions plant where the creature was first seen, and many did in fact report seeing something.  Others began noticing UFOs in the skies above the region, having psychic experiences, seeing ghosts, or just experiencing any number of unexplained phenomenon.

But did the November 15th sighting really start things off?

According to newspaper articles that began appearing around the tri-state on November 18th, several days after the famous Pt. Pleasant sighting occurred, Mothman may have shown himself in a wooded area outside of Clendenin! 

On November 12, 1966, a man named Kenneth Duncan was  with a group of men in the Reamer Cemetery, located near Clendenin in Kanawha County. It was a Saturday, and Duncan was there to dig the grave of his father in law, Homer Smith, who would be buried the next day. Duncan claimed that something looking like a brown human being was gliding through the trees and only in sight for about a minute.  Unfortunately, the other men present (Robert Lovejoy, Bill Poole, Andrew Godby, and Emil Gibson) did not see the creature.

Being the only witness, Duncan initially didn’t say much about his experience until the news reports of the flying humanoid in Pt. Pleasant came out a few days later. 

As the crow (or Mothman) flies, the distance between Clendenin (in Kanawha County) and Pt. Pleasant is about 50 miles.  If traveled by established roads, that distance jumps to an average of 80 miles. Either way, an entity that can fly at speeds of upwards of 100mph would have no problems making the trip from Clendenin to Pt. Pleasant in three days.  But first…he’d make a stop in Doddridge County!  To find out why, please see the article:  What Happened to Bandit?