Hello everyone.

April 23, 2007

Over the weekend my spouse and I went to Point Pleasant West Virginia, the home of one of the most famous cryptoids, the Mothman.

Background
The Mothman was seen at the same time a UFO wave took place in the area during the years of 1966-67 and seemed to end (except for the odd sighting or two) with the collapse of the Silver bridge.

One of the landmarks that the Mothman was sighted around is the TNT area the old W.W.II abandoned ammunition storage area near Point Pleasant. This is the only landmark that is still standing and even so not easy to find.
The Adventure.
We went to the Mothman Museum first and the price is a fair one, $3.00 for adults, children under ten $1.00. We talked with the proprietor briefly and grabbed a sighting map then wandered around the museum.
The museum is in an old store front with two rooms. In the back room they have set up a giant screen TV and were playing the interviews of the people who had seen the Mothman.
Inside the museum are props from the movie and a wealth of newspaper articles written during the time as well as letters from John Keel.
The owner was nice and friendly, I didn't get his name since a lady and her 10 year old son (who looked like he was in heaven) had the owners attention. I was surprised that there was a fair amount of foot traffic for the off beat museum but the area is starting to flourish after years of being run down and almost abandoned.

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If you ever wondered if a creature could hide in such an area the following photos should provide some answers.

As we drove along route 62 you can see the wildlife area but the mounds don't stand out from the gentle rolling hills. We went up CR 11 to the McClintic Wildlife Station and I still couldn't see the mounds until we found find the opening to one. The woods have started to reclaim the mounds and even walking around it is still difficult to determine which hill is manmade and which one isn't.

We walked along the wildlife area and flushed wood duck and geese and even they were difficult to spot. I had to laugh because I was right on top of the wood ducks when they took off they had been hidden in the foliage along the bank right by my feet and had I moved a different way I wouldn't have seen them at all.
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Regards,
Mabon.

Did you happen to try and see if any of those "bunkers" were locked(I'm sure they were, but I was just curious how well they were secured)?

Oh yeah they were locked! LOL. One even had a new lock installed.

Some of the ammunition mounds are privately owned. It's still a teen hang out so I don't know if they are kept locked just to keep people out of them or if they are kept locked because of residual chemicals, such as asbestos or other lingering hazards?

Regards,
Mabon.

They are probably locked to keep homeless people from making a "home" out of them. About 15 years ago, a Marine base in South West Georgia came across some old munitions from either World War one or two, (I don't remember, it's been a while), when they were starting construction on some new buildings. The things were so old that the nitroglycerine used in them had started to extracte itself from the suspension medium and had formed pools on the floors under them. (Yeah, liquid bang-bang). For most of that week the EOD rattled the nearby neighborhoods getting rid of all of it. Supposedly, the bomb bunkers were built, filled with ordinance and basically forgotten about. I still don't know exactly how that happens but, that was the story and I guess they are sticking with it.

Oh my goodness! That just seems crazy LU! To simply forget where they left munitions! As far as I know all of that was removed long ago.. but your post now makes me wonder. LOL!

Regards,
Mabon.

Well, Obviously, I'm not implying that it happens everywhere or even that it happens often but, it did happen here in SoWeGa. Also, record keeping was not as good then as it is now. At the time it was probably a simple issue of digging a few bunkers and burying the goodies. After a few years, newer Marines to the area knew that they weren't supposed to go into that area. A few years later and the newer MArines knew they weren't supposed to go into that area but, didn't know why. Another decade or so down the road and no body even thought of going into that overgrown area. Eventually, somebody realized there was a need to expand some building and low and behold, there was something there.

I assume that is how it happened here anyway. I wasn't on base so I don't kow for sure. I just remember hearing the explosions and the locl news saying they were disposing of some old ordinance that was forgotten about. Of course the local news was a little more in depth about it than I am here but, you get the picture. By the way, if you live anywhere in the southern states of the U.S.A., you might want to do a little research into "Nike Bases". You might find a few of those scattered around your area.

We have two within an hours drive of my home town. What there were was anti-bomber missle instalations. The idea was that if the Soviets sent in bombers, we would launch low-yeild nuclear missles at them that would detonate at a high altitude thereby wiping out their formations. We never lauched any in anger but, they all went on high alert during the Cuban Missle Crisis. Most were unknown even to locals before that event.

Here are some photo's from Point Pleasant old asylum. It had stood abandoned for years, I'm glad that I got these photos since it was torn down last year. Sad in a way considering it was a beautiful building. No sighting of the MM took place here as I know but the general creepy vibe the place had and considering that it isn't that far from the Fair grounds doesn't rule it out entirely for strangeness at any rate.
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More coming.

Here are the rest.

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Thank's for sharing

You're welcome Sea.
Hopefully I'll be able to get back and take some more soon.

Regards,
Mabon.

You never know if its still there hiding somewhere or moved on to somewhere else.

Those are intriguing photos, thanks for sharing! I have read about the mounds but never actually seen them.

Neat-o Photos!!! Thanks for sharing.

I remember that at Shaw AFB in South Carolina, there were mounds that were explosive ordinance bunkers. Grassed over and everything. I never got a chance to get too close to them though.

You're welcome everyone!
This was a fun outing and it does help for those who've read the book or other accounts of the MM sightings but haven't been to the locations, to get an idea of how quickly an animal/person/other can disappear into the brush and be camouflaged. In some instances all something has to do is not move and you don't see it or fly over a ridge line (which there are several). WV isn't called the mountain state for nothing LOL!

Regards,
Mabon.

visited the mothman museum today and was told about the igloos..asked the guy if any were unlocked/open and he told us how to get to several of the ones that were..sure enough they were...very creepy stuff...i have lots of photos of the insides...i'll post them soon...just wanted to let you guys know that there are some that are unlocked (in case anyone was unaware)

Great post. I love the Mothman statue! Must've had a huge impact on the town to build a statue of it.