POINT PLEASANT - Although nearly 40 years have passed since the first sightings of the Mothman took place in West Virginia, Point Pleasant has embraced the legend of the mythical creature.
Mothman is such a part of the city's history that one day each year is dedicated to the cryptozoological mystery.
Saturday's 14th-annual Mothman Festival drew more than 5,000 people from around the world. The festival features vendors, entertainment and plenty of Mothman-themed merchandise and foods from Point
Pleasant restaurants and businesses.
Festival organizer Jeff Wamsley, who also owns the Mothman Museum in downtown Point Pleasant, said the festival started small in 2002 but has grown each year as more people learn about the legend of Mothman.
"I was born and raised here, and I think it's a thrill to see people showing up and exploring the town I grew up in for all the history," Wamsley said. "People are friendly here. A lot of big-city people come here to the festival, and they really like it."
The festival is about as quirky as any in West Virginia. People dressed in Mothman suits, hats and sunglasses walk down Main Street and pose for photos with the Mothman Statue, a 7-foot-tall metal figure with red eyes and spread wings that towers over the heart of the festival.
Even "Ghostbusters" groups from West Virginia and Ohio come out for the festival, complete with their full-body khaki jumpsuits and hulking proton packs.
Veronica Victor and Joshua Smith, members of the West Virginia Ghostbusters, said the festival is a "small way to be a hero" to the kids attending the festival. The group also raises funds for the American Heart Association and the Children's Home Society of West Virginia.
"There's so many kids out here and having fun," Smith said. "It's really cool that there's something here in West Virginia that can draw this many people and is so family friendly. It's definitely part of West Virginia culture."
Hundreds of Mothman sightings were reported in and around Mason County between 1966 and 1967. Unverified sightings continue to this day and are posted at mothman lives.com, which is operated by the Mothman Museum.
Elvis Current, 58, of Wellston, Ohio, began attending the Mothman Festival several years ago because he was enthralled by the mystery and wanted to know more about it. He attended this year's festival with his granddaughter and drove in his 1988 Lincoln hearse, which he bought from a funeral home about nine years ago "fairly cheap."
Current admits it's unusual, but so is the Mothman legend.
"It's just something we enjoy coming to. You meet a lot of different people and see a lot of different things you wouldn't see, like this," Current said, looking back at his hearse. He said he and his granddaughter might decorate the hearse with a Mothman theme for next year's festival.
Although the day was mostly festive, a bizarre scene unfolded at the city's amphitheater as a man reportedly drowned in the Ohio River around 11 a.m. Search and rescue boats located the deceased man's body as Miss Mothman Festival contestants competed on stage about 300 feet away.
Two Mason County deputies walked onstage shortly after Darian Miller, of Gallipolis, was crowned Miss Queen Mothman Festival and asked the hundreds of spectators to evacuate back into the city as first responders removed the body from the river. The young ladies who had just been crowned Mothman royalty held caution tape in front of the flood wall for about two hours, turning festival attendees away from the riverfront.
Point Pleasant Fire Chief Jeremy Bryant said details are scant in the drowning of the man, who was identified Saturday evening as James Grueser, 59, of Letart.
He said the Grueser's shoes and ball cap were found on the shore of the Ohio River as if he had just gone for a swim. A pageant organizer, who asked not to be named, said she had spoken to the man earlier in the day and saw him sunbathing on the concrete, as if he had just come out of the water.
"It looks to me like, from the reports, he actually jumped into the river - for what reason, we don't know - he jumped into the river and didn't come back up," Bryant said.
Police took statements from witnesses, and investigators do not believe foul play was involved, Bryant said.
The state Medical Examiner's Office will conduct an autopsy to determine an official cause of death.
"From all the statements and all the witnesses, they're advising he willingly jumped in," Bryant said.
The festival continued despite the tragic event, although the riverfront was closed for about an hour.
Wamsley said next year's festival will be a "big one" because it will mark the 50th anniversary of the first reported Mothman sighting, and it will mark the 15th consecutive year of the Mothman Festival. He said he hopes even more vendors and activities will be on hand for next year's event.
Victor and Smith said they and the other Ghostbusters weren't able to find the Mothman at the city's abandoned TNT plant, where one of the first Mothman sightings took place, but they said the lack of photographic evidence of Mothman's existence is what makes the creature's story especially unique and interesting to people around the world.
"This is a supernatural creature that is unique to West Virginia, and that's really cool," Victor said.
Smith added, "It's like our Area 51."
Reach Marcus Constantino at marcus.c@dailymailwv.com, 304-348-1796 or follow @amtino on Twitter.