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Spring Break 2018: Adventure in Point Pleasant, West Virginia

amberwallace0520
Mar 28, 2018
6 min read

So, this week is my spring break, unfortunately since I’m going to the SAAs next month then to Cahokia I didn’t get to some exotic beach location, not that I have ever done that for spring break. But, I didn’t want to sit around and waste my very needed downtime so its’ all about the little adventures and this is one of them.

Point Pleasant, West Virginia is a tiny little town that sits that the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers. Its about two hours south east of Columbus and 2 and a half hours from Cincinnati. There is a goo

d chance that you are thinking, “That name it sounds familiar,” and for good reason, one of the most interesting and perplexing series of paranormal events in America and maybe the world occurred in this region during the 13 months between November 1966 and December 1967. What I’m talking about of course is the Mothman.

If your not familiar with this legend allow me to give you’re the abridged version for now. A more in depth look at The Mothman will be the first in a series I am planning about legends of North America including the Goatman and Flatwoods Monster. Anyway, a car full of young adults were parked at the TNT Area which was lovers lane in November of 1966. They report seeing a very tall winged human like creature with horrible glowing red eyes. The story goes on that as they sped toward town the creature gave chase flying over the car going at least 90mph. This is what began a series of strange events. Many well respected and reputable members of the community that reported seeing a similar creature, which to me at least is one of the most compelling facts about this, it wasn’t the town nut or the town drunk these were upstanding citizens who were not in an altered state of mind at the time. People also began receiving strange phone calls, the was a number of UFO sightings, the Men in Black came to town and there were reports of encounters with a mysterious individual calling himself Indred Cold.

Anyhow, this all culminated in December 15, 1967 with the rush hour collapse of the Silver Bridge that spanned the Ohio River. 46 people were killed in what was the most deadly type accident in American history. Now, to be fair the Mothman was not linked with this tragedy when it occurred. But now people think the Manman was a harbinger of death or he was a warning or that he even caused it. Today there is a shiny stature of the Mothman, a museum and a festival in September each year. I have made two trips to the museum and the statue once last April and then this weekend. I want to make it to the festival and finally out to the TNT Area maybe this September.

Point Pleasant has a lot more going on than just the Mothman. Point Pleasant being located at the confluence of two rivers has given it importance not just as a strategic location and for trade but the indigenous people of what is now the eastern US have believed the places to be special and villages are often found at such confluences, like Pickawillany, in Piqua, Ohio (one of the sites I dug on for my field school) that was the confluence of the Great Miami River and Loramie Creek. And that is what caused a bloody conflict…

Long history lesson short, in 1774 settlers moved into areas south of the Ohio River into what is now West Virginia and Kentucky a Shawnee chief Hokoleskwa or Cornstalk tried to prevent an escalation of hostilities but failed. So in an effort to push back the settlers he led a group of Shawnee and Mino in to battle at what is now know as The Battle of Point Pleasant and failed. In the fall of 1777 Cornstalk made a diplomatic mission on an American fort in Point Pleasant, Fort Randolph. His goal was to maintain the neutrality of his people. He was detained by the fort commander without any order to do so. Then on November 10th after a group of Americans were attacked by an unknown group of Native Americans, Cornstalk and his son were executed. Prior to his death according to legend, Cornstalk placed a curse on the land to be plagued by misfortune. And some believe that this curse is what brought the Mothman to town or is what caused the Silver bridge to collapse in 1967. This little epic in history is the reason for the second stop on our trip to Point Pleasant. Tu-Endie-Wei (Point between two waters in the Wyandotte language) State Park is a 4 acre piece of land where there are memorials to the the frontiersmen that died in the Battle of Point Pleasant, as well as the grave and marker of Chief Cornstalk. There is also a petroglyph that is claimed to be of a Water Panther and Chief Cornstalk was of the Water Panther Clan. The park is really in a beautiful location with a great view of the two bridges in town and opening during the summer a small Museum.

I took this little adventure with the boyfriend, and he’s not the sort to enjoy anything even remotely paranormal. So he found other things that he wanted to check out and that includes our first stop on the adventure, the Point Pleasant River Museum. Admission is 5 bucks and well worth it. The lady working was very sweet, friendly, helpful, and quite knowledgeable about the items in the collection. It was also very interactive, they had horn that you could blow, a calliope that would have been on show boats back in the day for you to try your hand at allowing this easy to read directions on how to play familiar tunes. In the far back of the museum they have a large fresh water tank that contains a number of species native to the Ohio River. Including an adorable cat fish who is now my fishy buddy I’m a cat whisperer regardless if they are land kittens or water kittens. He came right up to me followed me around the tank and we took selfies together. He is cute af. There are also Paddle Fish and Bass and others. They have

a large collection of artifacts from, the bridges locks, sternwheelers and other boats on the Ohio River. They have a pretty large collection of artifacts regarding the collapse of the Silver Bridge that didn’t mention the Mothman which I think is really refreshing and important to see.

Then there was Adam’s favorite the boat simulator. Now even I have to admit this thing is pretty impressive. This thing wasn’t some little video game it was similar to what someone training to become a pilot may use. In fact, these things are used for training. There were 4 large tv screens in front and one behind then smaller ones that contained navigational charts and gauges. There where paddles for barges and a wheel for the other boats and a throttle. Adam piloted a barge on the Ohio River there in Point Pleasant, and then again on a river in Kentucky and I played with a speed boat in NYC. Its really quite strange I got a little motion sick from it! Following our time here we walked across to the road to the Tu-Endie-Wei Park that I discussed earlier.

After our walk around Tu-Endie-Wei park we headed to the Mothman Museum. It’s on the tiny one way main street of Point Pleasant. It in an old brown brick building with a striped awning over the door. In the large window in the front is a sign for “The World’s only Mothman Museum”. Inside you will find a large gift shop stocked with a large variety of items from tee shirts to coffee. The admission is 3.50 per person. Inside the museum you will find news papers from the time of the sightings, and the actual accounts from the eyewitnesses. The have the displays explaining the Men in Black, and Indred Cold. The multiple documentaries made on the subject can also be found playing here. There are displays of much of the Mothman merchandise from decades past. There is also a large collection of props and photos of the movie The Mothman Prophecies. Outside and around the corner is the Mothman Statue which is shiny with large red eyes. He’s pretty easy to get photos with. After this we took a walk down the flood way to look at the murals depicting the history of the town. When we left we drove a few miles down the river to a lock Adam hoped to see a boat go through. Which we were there in time but we couldn’t get as close as he wanted to. A neat little thing on the drive down was an indian mound. As the sun set on out little adventure we headed back to Ohio and a quiet Mothman free evening at the boyfriends house and a great start to my spring break.

Have any of you been to these places? What did you think? Have you been to the TNT Area? Do you have any Mothman theories? Do you have any suggestions for things to check out on a return trip? What are some good places for a meal in the area? As always thanks for reading and I hopped you enjoyed!