Out Proctor: Where the Dark and Weird Things Go

Out Proctor exists near a small West Virginia town inhabited by members of my family--one of which even lives in Proctor, West Virginia itself. But this is not Out Proctor.

If you drive off the highway to Proctor, that is, for a few miles, Actual Proctor. But as you continue, should you be that foolish, up the road and into the deep holler, the environment begins to get strange. Light dims. People, if so they are, begin to range mysteriously about the landscape, and things are on the move.

Few people go Out Proctor and fewer want to. Those who have returned tell tales of the Flatwoods Monster being used as an over-sized vacuum cleaner in a home inhabited by Gray Barker. Mothman cowers in trees from the Proctor Predatory Parrot. Indrid Cold is just cool. Out Proctor is a 'pataphysical reality. ['pataphysics being a state of being as far beyond metaphysics as metaphysics is beyond physics---anyone beginning to understand and believe what I'm talking about here should consult a physician---not a 'pataphysician.] Out Proctor is strangely empowering to a blogger.

When Out Proctor, no one can tell whether the blog is serious or not, and well, the devil take the hindmost. I am certain that although you have always wanted to know where all these strange entities that we're interested in come from, all I can tell you is where they go. Today we'll go to the dim edge of Out Proctor, where Mothman keeps an alert watch on the dark within. 'pataphysics thy name is freedom.One of the world experts on Mothman is my buddy, Jerry Clark.

If he ever reads this blog, hopefully he will laugh at it rather than cringe. Jerry can tell you far more about Mothman than I--buy his books [shameless plug]. In them you will see that Mothman, although almost unique, is part of a class of mysterious flying impossibilities that date back far into the past. My favorite Jerry case is the giant bird with the metallic scales and burning-coal eyes from 1868 Chile. Our West Virginia Mothman is, mainly, the hero in a condensed drama or flap of sightings occurring in SW WVA in November of 1966.

There were some credible reports and a believable local newswoman, Mary Hyre, who bird-dogged the early investigations. Then of course in came world-class lunatics, Gray Barker and John Keel, and nothing more about the cases can be asserted with assurance again. Woody Derenberger and Indrid Cold [a brilliantly sinister name] were glued on to the flap by Keel, as well as the collapse of the Point Pleasant Silver Bridge [something that I and my family passed over dozens of times in our lives as Point Pleasant residents---just lucky I guess].

In some count, greater than 100 witnesses reported Mothman. Frankly the descriptions have a great deal of variance in them. Some are very impossibly-big and bird-like. Some are Out Proctor. Keel and Barker of course preferred the latter, and the composite description of Mothman became 5 to 7 foot tall, brown or gray, wings to 12-15 feet, human legs, shuffling walk, flies without flapping its wings, eyes in shoulders and often glowing red. Well, that's plenty Out Proctor for me. What worries me, mainly about my own sanity, is that there is just enough non-Barker/Keel testimony to make me think that this might have happened.I will proffer one Mothman tale that is probably out in the literature somewhere, but, as I didn't see it at quick glance, maybe it will be new to some of you.

I was listening to a UFO witness tape made by my Ohio buddy, Bill Jones. He was interviewing a colleague who worked at Battelle Memorial Institute, William Pickering, who had several UFO case involvements. Right in the middle of talking about one of them, Pickering said: you're not going to believe me about the bird I saw. The interview never could pin down the date, but Pickering said that it was before all the hullaballoo in Point Pleasant, but not hugely before [maybe 1965]. His family was native to West Virginia, and the family home was in Jackson County [see the map]. They had a hunting cabin there as well.

This was at the home, quite rural and largely unpopulated. He saw a large thing coming low over the rolling land at no more than twenty feet elevation. It had a 14 foot wingspan, a 3 1/2 foot thick body, 6 to 6 1/2 foot in length. The color was mainly dark brown, though lightening a bit behind the neck [although there wasn't much neck] and down at the lower breast. Sort of like wild turkey color. It was covered with feathers including the head. Its tail came to a point [i.e. was not fanned]. It had dirty orange clenched feet beneath of great size. It flew without effort, flapping very slowly as though this was nothing at all to move this bulk.

No sound was made even though the thing went directly over his head. As it did, it had its eyes turned and fixed on him. [scared the crap out of him]. The head was roundish like most birds, but the eyes were forward mounted as humans. They were 5 inches in diameter, and amber-colored. The beak began above these eyes and curved down close to the face, making an oddly flat countenance. Asked if he knew about big local birds like turkey buzzards, Pickering said that the thing could have eaten a buzzard in two bites.

Well, what do you do with that story? Pickering said that people around Jackson county had seen this sort of giant bird often in that era, and having nothing to do with the Point Pleasant sightings which came later. He appeared not to have known nor cared about Barker or Keel. You can see the relationship of the area Pickering's talking about [near as I can make it out from the tape] to the Mason County area around Point Pleasant and the TNT Area.

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