Luke's Mothman Sighting

Luke and Mothman

My son, Luke, has always had a connection to Pt. Pleasant and the Mothman story. Although I was living in Putnam County, Luke was actually conceived while on a weekend getaway to the haunted and historic Lowe Hotel, located just across the street from the infamous Mothman Statue. His Halloween due date was pushed up to September 21 when my stubborn lil' boy decided that he was ready to be born well before the customary 40 weeks. That date of September 21 means that his birthday weekend falls on the same weekend as the annual Mothman Festival. Obviously, he's been to almost every Mothman Festival that has occurred since his first birthday, but we also just love to take small day trips down to Pt. Pleasant---which as a small child, Luke referred to as 'Mothman City.' One of the highlights of every trip was stopping for lunch at Harris' Steakhouse and ordering a 'Mothman Hamburger' from Caroline. 

Despite that connection, I was still REALLY surprised when Luke told me that he thought he had his own Mothman sighting!

I'm not sure if there's much, if anything to this sighting, but I posted it to the Facebook group, Mothman Sightings, as a way to document it and see if anyone else had seen something similar, or could give me some ideas of what he may experienced. It happened on Friday, December 18th, 2020 when he was 11 years old. Luke's grandparents and great-aunt had picked him up for an evening of Christmas light viewing. They left Hurricane with the intent of seeing the lights in Pt. Pleasant and neighboring Gallipolis, Ohio. Sometime between 5:30pm and 6pm, they stopped in Eleanor to pick up dinner at Dairy Queen.

According to Luke, while they were waiting in the drive-thru line, he saw "a Mothman on the roof of the building beside Dairy Queen." His grandfather asked him what he wanted to eat, so he turned his head to talk to him, and by the time he turned back around, the Mothman was gone. Needless to say, I was super intrigued. However, when I tried to probe him for more information, Luke was uncharacteristically reluctant to talk. He did say it looked like a man with wings, crouched down. I asked if saw red eyes, and he said no, because whatever it was had its head tilted down. After that, he just kind of shut down, and refused to say anything else about what he saw.

I thought that was weird. I thought the whole thing was weird. I mean, he is MY kid, so he's well aware of the Mothman. However, he has never shown any interest in my paranormal work, and quite honestly, thinks I'm pretty weird for being so interested in all things strange and spooky. Further, this kid is super serious and can't tell a lie to save his life, so I believe he saw SOMETHING. I just don't know what it was or why he refused to discuss it with me further. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't get over to Eleanor right away, but within the next few days I drove over there. I'm assuming that the building he was talking about is the Putnam County Vocational School. The building DOES have stuff on its roof, but nothing I saw looked like it could have been mistaken for a Mothman figure that was there one minute, and gone the next. The only explanation I can think of would be that there was a worker on the roof wearing dark clothes. Perhaps he was crouched down, working, his elbows out to the side, resembling 'wings.' Then, he got up and walked out of view, or stepped behind something and could no longer be seen. I asked Luke's grandparents, and they didn't see anything out of the ordinary. They confirmed that Luke was wide awake at the time and didn't seem...off...or anything. 

So, who knows what he saw, if anything. I had totally forgotten about this experience until recently when I came across it while searching for something else I had posted on that same Facebook group. Luke never mentioned anything about the Mothman after that, and I never pushed him for more details since he was so reluctant to talk about it. But, I figured I'd also document here on Theresa's Haunted History blog in an effort to preserve his story and reach a wider audience on the chance that someone else has seen something similar in that area. If you have your own Mothman story you'd like to share, whether in Eleanor or anywhere else, I'd love to hear it! Please share it in the comments below, or find me over on Theresa's Haunted History Facebook and let me know. Stay spooky, y'all.