Theresa Travels to Pt. Pleasant (November 2018)

The Nina and the Pinta

This past weekend, my family and I made plans to visit Gallipolis, Ohio.  Our destination was the riverfront, where we would once again experience The Nina and The Pinta, two recreations of Christopher Columbus' famous ships.  We're kind of like Columbus Groupies...not that we support, you know, the genocide and stuff...but we enjoy history and we enjoy boats.  We've seen the Columbus Foundation's historically accurate replica ships in both Charleston, WV and Ashland, KY and now we can add Gallipolis, OH to our list!  It was really fun, and Luke was finally old enough this year to actually learn and retain some interesting information.  If you get a chance to see these boats in person, I highly recommend doing so!  They tour 11 months out of the year, and make it into our region about every 1-2 years. Anyway, we also got a quick glimpse of the quaint, historic little town of Gallipolis, which was founded in 1790 as a colony of French citizens.  There are a lot of cool places of historical (and even spooky!) interest in town, such as the haunted Our House Museum.  But, being late autumn and on a Sunday, there wasn't a whole lot open...so we headed across the bridge and into Pt. Pleasant, West Virginia.

Ever since my son was little, he has called Pt. Pleasant 'Mothman City.' Obviously, Pt. Pleasant was home to the original 1966-1967 Mothman/UFO flap and is now home to the world's only Mothman Museum, the annual Mothman Festival, and of course, the world-famous Mothman Statue! Since the anniversary of the original sightings is coming up later this month, it seemed fitting that we spend a few hours in one of our favorite little towns. 

Living only about a half hour to 45 minutes away from Pt. Pleasant my entire life, I've been there quite a few times.  I think, though, that being so close, I've taken the area for granted a bit.  It really is a fun little town to spend some time and learn all about West Virginia's most famous mysterious monster.  Our first stop was to the Mothman Museum.

Now, I love everything about the annual Mothman Festival, but during the festival I never get a chance to visit the actual museum.  It is just way too crowded.  And honestly, I had only planned on making a stop into the gift shop during this trip, as I have been to the museum before so, so many times.  However, my son, Luke, really wanted to go into the museum and since admission was cheap, we went for it.  I am SO glad we did.  There is so much stuff to look at in the Mothman Museum that you could spend hours in there and not see every single thing, and every time we go back, there's been something new added or we see something we missed on the previous trip.  There are props, photos and memorabilia from the movie, The Mothman Prophecies.  There are hand-written eye-witness accounts.  There are newspaper clippings, information about the history of the TNT area, costumes and artwork, books and rare documents.  There is even a small 'theater' playing Mothman documentaries. 

Luke is finally at an age where he's getting more into stuff like this.  He wanted to watch a bit of the documentary, and even took the time to read several newspaper articles.  When we asked him questions about what he thought the Mothman was and whether or not it was good or bad, he replied with thoughtful, knowledgeable answers.  As a mom and a lover of all things paranormal, I had never been happier!  After purchasing some souvenirs from the gift shop, we made the mandatory photo stop at the Mothman Statue.  One day, I want to put together a flip book of Luke's Mothman statue photos over the years, starting with one of the pictures of me pregnant with him, standing in front of the iconic silver creature with the glowing red eyes!

After a quick lunch, we rounded out our little afternoon with a trip to the TNT area bunkers.  It had been a long time since we had taken Luke out to see the bunkers and with it being a warm day and the thick foliage starting to die down, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity.  As we entered the first bunker, Luke was VERY hesitant.  In fact, he was close to tears.  He absolutely refused to go any further than the doorway.  So, Aaron and I walked around a bit and took some photos of the newest graffiti.  We had planned on only visiting the first open bunker on the trail, but Luke insisted that we go a little further down to the next open bunker.  I'm not sure what changed, but he found his courage, and proudly marched right into the center of the bunker, experimented with the strange acoustics of the structure, and laughed at a spray-painted penis drawn on the floor.  It was really special seeing him conquer his fear and hear his theories as to whether or not the Mothman actually camped out in these strange, concrete igloos.

We had to pass the first bunker on our way back to the car, and Luke decided that he would go ahead and go into this one as well now, which he bravely did!  Even on a Sunday afternoon with other people in the area, even I have to admit that the area around the bunkers is kind of creepy.  Therefore, I was impressed with his bravery and I have to wonder what he tells his friends at school when they ask about what he does on the weekends, lol.

Anyway, with the sun setting we bid adieu to Point Pleasant, aka 'Mothman City' and headed back home, with plans to visit again soon, and also to spend more time in Gallipolis as well.  For us, Pt. Pleasant is just a short drive, but it really is worth the trip if you're coming from further away.  If you can attend the yearly Mothman Festival in September, check that out---its a whole experience of its own.  But, if you can't make it down for the festival, there really is no bad time to visit.  The Mothman Museum is open year-round, and the statue is located right beside the museum.  The haunted Lowe Hotel can be booked much more easily during non-festival times, and the TNT area bunkers are always accessible as long as the weather isn't terrible. With other local museums and historic sites, you can easily spend an afternoon, a weekend, or maybe even longer exploring the area, and with the release of the new Fallout 76 game, in which the Mothman Museum and ol' Mothman himself appear, I think we'll see a lot more visitors to the area soon!

I picked these up at the Mothman Museum gift shop for $10 each.  They are by LizPavlovicDesign

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