Cornstalk

And one more thing, because Point Pleasant already had a reputation, not for monsters, but for bad luck, and the town had a story it told to explain that.

In October of 1774, this was the site of the Battle of Point Pleasant, where a colonial militia fought a Shawnee force led by a man the settlers called Cornstalk.

His Shawnee name was Hokoleskwa.

He lost, but it's what he did afterward that got him killed.

And while Hokoleskwa was in their custody, a group of militiamen walked in and murdered him, along with his son and two other men.

Local legend says that before he died, Hokoleskwa laid a curse on this land.

And for 200 years, whenever something terrible happened around Point Pleasant, a mine disaster, a flood, a barge explosion, people said the same thing, "The Curse of Chief Cornstalk." And as for the Mothman, the sightings actually started three days before the night everyone remembers, and almost nobody noticed.

On November 12th, 1966, in Clendenin, West Virginia, five men were digging a grave.