Mothman is described as a man-sized, or larger, creature with glowing red eyes and wings of a moth. It may have eyes set in his chest. It is described as a 7-foot-tall creature, with long wings and huge red eyes. It possesses an unusual shriek.

A plaque on the Mothman statue provides a version of the original legend: "On a chilly, fall night in November 1966, two young couples drove into the TNT factory area north of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, when they realized they were not alone.  Driving down the exit road, they saw the supposed creature standing on a nearby ridge. It spread its wings and flew alongside the vehicle up to the city limits. They drove to the courthouse to alert Deputy Millard Halstead, who later said, 'I've known these kids all their lives. They'd never been in any trouble and they were really scared that night. I took them seriously.' He then followed Roger Scarberry's car back to the old Ordnance Works and found no trace of the strange creature.  

The following night, on November 16, several armed townspeople combed the area around the TNT plant for signs of Mothman. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wamsley, and Mrs. Marcella Bennett, with her infant daughter Teena, were in a car en-route to visit their friends, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Thomas, who lived in a small house near the TNT plant. They were heading back to their car when a figure appeared behind their parked vehicle. Mrs. Bennett said that it seemed like it had been lying down, slowly rising up from the ground, large and gray, with glowing red eyes. While Wamsley phoned the police, the creature walked onto the porch and peered in at them through the window.

On November 24, four people allegedly saw the creature flying over the TNT area. On the morning of November 25, Thomas Ury, who was driving along Route 62 just north of the TNT, claimed to have seen the creature standing in a field, and then it spread it wings and flew away. Thomas sped toward the Point Pleasant sheriff's office. He then reported the incident that he had seen.

A Mothman sighting was again reported on January 11, 1967 hovering over the town's bridge, and several other times that same year. Fewer sightings of the Mothman were reported after the collapse of the town's bridge when 46 people died. the Silver Bridge was a suspension bridge that connected the cities of Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Gallipolis, Ohio over the Ohio river. The bridge was built in 1928, and it collapsed on December 15, 1967. Investigation of the bridge wreckage pointed to the failure of a single eye-bar in a suspension chain due to a small manufacturing flaw. There are rumors that the Mothman appears before upcoming disasters and seems to try to warn people of them. After that, Mothman was never again seen in Point Pleasant."