The Mothman movie is a collage of many strange happenings in the Ohio Valley during that period. The movie reference to Indrid Cold is taken from an encounter with a UFO by Woodrow Derenberger, in Nov. 1966, some 50 miles north of Pt. Pleasant on I-77. This encounter was triangulated by other witnesses reporting sightings at the the same place and time. Here’s something I found in a search: “West Virginian Woodrow Derenberger tells of being stopped on Interstate Highway 77 by a flying saucer whose occupant reassured him that his country was “not nearly as powerful as yours.”

Woodrow Derenberger is a salesman working in Parkersburg, W.V. He lives in the nearby town of Mineral Wells, is the father of two small children, and attends church regularly.

Derenberger is one of those who firmly believes he saw a flying saucer and that he spoke with one of its occupants. He says it occurred on Nov. 2, 1966, about 7 p.m. when he was driving to Parkersburg on Interstate 77 from Marietta, Ohio.

A “dark, charcoal grey object apparently made of some kind of metal and shaped something like an old kerosene lamp globe, having a flat bottom and a dome light top” came along-side his panel truck traveling at about the same speed. Then it stopped on the highway in front of him and he halted.

A man stepped out. he says, approached his car and told him to roll down the window. They talked for five or 10 minutes. The man was wearing “a short topcoat with trousers visible below and a shirt buttoned at the neck.” His clothing was “blue and quite shiny, having a glistening effect.”

“Have no fear, we come from a country that is not nearly as powerful as yours,” the stranger said,” We mean you no harm.”

Derenberger said the saucer occupant communicated with him through “thought waves or mental telepathy.” His lips were closed and he smiled constantly. He was described as six feet tall, 35 to 40 years old, 185 pounds and of dark complexion. The man asked what the lights were in the distance and Derenberger told him it was the city of Parkersburg. The man said a similar place in his country was called a “gathering.”

Before parting, the man told Derenberger he would contact him again and suggested he notify the local authorities. The saucer, which Derenberger says had been hovering nearby, then returned to the ground and another occupant reached out the door to help his companion aboard.

“The door closed, sounding much like a car door.” Derenberger says. Then the saucer took off at tremendous speed.

Derenberger says he was shaken. When he got home he telephoned the Parkersburg police and told them his story. A representative of the Air Force local recruiting station also talked with him. One officer said it was apparent Derenberger “had some sort of experience.”"

As I said, there were many strange things that happened around here during those years, sightings of UFOs and other phenomena, the Kecksburg, Pa. incident, … simply burning a brush pile would get you a visit from military aircraft.

Mothman in particular seems to be of what he properly calls the “goblin universe”, which isn’t meant to disparage Mothman, which was indeed more of an ongoing paranormal event (of spectacular proportions, I might add!).

Chupacabras, I feel, is a flesh-and-blood cryptoid, possibly a manufactured, experimental one.