Point Pleasant (West Virginia)

Point Pleasant is a town of 4,637 people (as of 2000) in West Virginia. These days it's best-known for a series of mysterious paranormal occurrences that began in 1966. Starting on November 12th of that year, locals began to catch glimpses of an odd flying creature - people generally described it as a very large grey man-shaped creature, with giant wings and large red eyes - that pursued people and even killed their pets, apparently making its home in an abandoned TNT plant outside of town. The newspapers called it Mothman, and there were over 100 sightings of it during the next year. Then tragedy struck: on December 15, 1967, the 700-foot Silver Bridge between Point Pleasant and Ohio collapsed, killing 46 people. Following the collapse, sightings of the Mothman dropped off, leading some to hypothesize that the Mothman was a sort of harbinger of doom. This same period was marked with an apparent increase in paranormal phenomena, and some have linked the entire series of events to an old Native American curse that was reputedly put on the area by a murdered chief. The events surrounding the sightings inspired the book The Mothman Prophecies, on which the 2002 film was based.

Understand
Point Pleasant was also the site of the First Battle of the Revolution - the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774, between the Virginia militia and the Shawnee led by Chief Cornstalk (he of the curse). The battle prevented the Native Americans from forming an alliance with the British, which in turn shaped the outcome of the War of Independence.

Get in
Point Pleasant is at the intersection of US-35 (which follows the Kanawha River), between Charleston and Jackson, Ohio, and OH-7 (which follows the Ohio River), between Huntington and Middleport, Ohio.

Get around
There's no bus or taxi service in town, so bring your car.

See

 * The tourism information center is at 210 Viand Street, +1 304-675-6788. Open M-F 9AM-5PM, Sa 9AM-2PM.

Buy

 * Mothman souvenirs, of course. There are T-shirts, books, videos, bumper stickers, and you can even pick up a Mothman beanie baby.

Drink
Point Pleasant is the only place you can get a Mothman Frappuccino.

Go next

 * Gallipolis, Ohio is a 10-minute drive across the Ohio River on US-7.
 * Huntington is about 1 hour south on US-7.
 * Charleston, the state capital, is a little over 1 hour southeast on US-35 and I-64.