The Mothman is a frequently discussed cryptid in West Virginia, as is the annual festival, but you can learn everything there is to know about the creature and its history any time you want at the Mothman Museum. There you will find more artifacts on the phenomenon than you will ever find in books or on the Internet.
In 1966 and 1967, the residents of Point Pleasant were terrorized by a cryptid known as the Mothman, witnessed an uncountable number of UFOs, and threatened by mysterious men in black. The phenomenon gained worldwide attention, largely because it involved an entire town and hundreds of eyewitness accounts.
The Mothman Museum is the only place in the world that has documents, artwork and artifacts from those strange 13 months that came to a sudden and devastating end with the collapse of the Silver Bridge in December of 1967.
The museum has thousands of newspaper documents from the time period, including papers, essays and research on the strange occurrences from the time period. It also has displays that provide background on aspects of the phenomenon that you may not piece together from just the artifacts alone - at least not in a single visit.
The museum also includes artwork and other creative interpretations of the three phenomena: the creature, the UFOs, and the mysterious Men in Black, who often threatened people who reported sightings of of the first two. There is also movie memorabilia from "The Mothman Prophecies," the 2002 film starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney, loosely based on John Keel's book of the same name. You will also find displays focused on prominent people attached to the phenomenon.