Journey into the odd: Mothman Festival

Journey Into the Odd: Mothman Festival and Museum

In 1966, on a brisk November evening, a lone car full of friends drove home completely unaware that the events of that night would change their lives and the lives of their sleepy little town forever.  On their way back home, Roger and Linda Scarberry along with Steve and Mary Mallettte would witness something unexplainable.  According to the accounts the young couples would later give as they passed by the old abandon power plant their headlights would fall upon a strange grey horror in the shape of a man but with two large wings and bright red glowing eyes.  Panicked, the couple floored their vehicle leaving the mysterious creature behind.  This would later become one of the earliest sightings of the infamous Mothman of Point Pleasant West Virginia.

1966 was a year full of hardship for Point Pleasant but over the years the little town has embraced its single year of terror and tragedy, moving on from the destruction of the silver gate bridge to focus on the mysterious events of those 12 months in 1966.  This healing process included erecting a museum and a statue dedicated to the mysterious Mothman and in 2002 Jeff Wamsley, director of the Mothman Museum, decided that holding a festival in order to help bolster Point Pleasant’s economy as well as providing a fun weekend of escapism for locals and tourists alike would be just the thing to keep his home town relevant.

It was not until this year that I actually discovered the festival, I had been aware of Point Pleasant and its famous monster since childhood and the statue and the museum had been on my radar for years as a must-see travel destination.   I’ve just never had the time or money to make the journey but when some financial difficulties forced me to move to rural Ohio I was looking for something to just help with the frustrations of my current status, so I began looking at places I could travel to that were fun, relatively inexpensive and close.  So, when I found that point pleasant West Virginia was only a mere 3 hours away I began doing some research into the town and it’s lore and when I discovered there was a whole festival dedicated to the Mothman legend I knew that the time to visit the mysterious town of Point Pleasant had finally come.

Its hard to describe the giddy feeling of anticipation as you actually travel to accomplish something you have wanted to do since childhood, to visit a place that you have only read about in books to be able to go an visit that place, to experience it and know that it is real and that you are there, well dear reader I can only say that I hope and pray each and everyone of you get to experience that feeling in your lifetime.

As I made my own journey through the backwoods of Ohio and west Virginia I couldn’t help but feel as if I was star of my own personal horror story, an out of towner following road signs to a small little town in where mysterious happenings had occurred, I couldn’t help but let my imagination run away with itself for a little while making even the driving up to Point Pleasant entertaining. 

Despite leaving later than anticipated the drive up to West Virginia was still very relaxing with little in the way of traffic until we actually entered into Point Pleasant where we finally hit the festival traffic, but in comparison to some conventions I’ve attended traffic moved at a reasonably brisk pace.  The hardest part was trying to find parking as there were only a few signs for festival parking and none them actually directed you to where it was, I would later find the entrance to the festival parking lot down a side street but by then it didn’t matter anymore,  there are a few local business that will let you park in their lots but anyone traveling down for the festival will want to be wary of signs discouraging parking as these would be park at your own risk.

The festival itself was a surprisingly large street festival where they closed down the town’s main street to setup dozens of booths, food stands and rides for everyone to enjoy.  The most surprising thing about the whole celebration was that while Point Pleasant’s infamous monster was the center theme of the whole affair it wasn’t much different than any other community day fair in any other town, with plenty of events that would make it a fun family affair, making what could have been just a few die-hard enthusiasts sitting in a room sharing conspiracy theories a much more involved and entertaining event.

I was informed by the locals that this year was biggest year the festival has ever seen, which probably has something to do with the vault 76 booth giving out free Fallout swag to advertise the latest game that takes place in West Virginia.  I didn’t get a chance to visit the booth as the wait was almost twice as long as the museum and I had come here to experience the festival and museum so I chose to pass on the cheap plastic video game swag and enter into the legendary Mothman Museum.    

The Mothman Museum itself was a two-room warehouse with the front room being the gift shop/front desk and the back room being the actual museum. The museum portion was larger then expected but still quite small and a casual look around probably would take no longer than 15 minutes. However, if one wanted to actually indulge in all the museum had to offer one could spend a good portion of their day in there, because as I entered into the museum I was intrigued to find that the majority of the museum was mostly furnished by written material, newspaper clippings, letters, magazine articles and so on.  There was a lot to read and I myself, only reading a few articles in depth and skimming over most of them, spent about 30 minutes in the museum. Along with all the Mothman elements the museum also had a section dedicate to one of their hometown hero’s Mary Hyre and a memorial for the Silver Bridge incident, making the Mothman museum a kind of time capsule, a preserved memory of one incredibly bizarre and tragic year for this little town.

The gift shop was also a nice treat with plenty of paraphernalia to waste your money on, even if some the items could be found for much less online.  The gift shop felt like and attraction all itself with all the different merchandise to look over I probably spent over 15 minutes just perusing through their novelties.

Upon leaving the Museum I enjoyed various booths and food trucks that were scattered all across the festival while making my way to my last major event for the evening which was the TNT area bus tours.

The Bus used for the tours was very nice and made for a comfortable and pleasant ride through out Point Pleasant but the tour itself was a little on the shallow side. Our host for the tour was a young woman whose family ran the museum and a wise cracking teenager that laughed at his own jokes.  The woman gave out some interesting information but most of it were things that I had already read about or just general information nothing that really stood out as exceptional and her co-host mostly made bad jokes without providing a lot of real substance.
  

The highlight of the trip was arriving at the TNT area and entering into one of the old-World War II bunkers used for storage dynamite and other explosives. It was dark and eerie in in the middle of the day and with lush forest and marshy lands surrounding it it’s easy to see how someone could let their imagination run away with them or how something strange and mysterious could appear at  a moments notice.

The trip back to point pleasant was rather uneventful and as I stepped of the bus I knew that while I enjoyed my short excursion across Point Pleasant I probably wouldn’t waste any more money by taking the tour again deciding that next time I would instead do my own off the beaten trail exploring of the mysterious TNT area. With the tour done I took some time to soak in a little bit more the festival grabbing a cup of Island Noodles from a local, which were delicious, and finally set off for the journey back home.

 My short time spent at this weekend affair is one that will always make me smile looking back on it. the Mothman Festival exceeded my expectations and was light on the wallet making it an amazing weekend getaway for anyone even remotely interested in the Mothman legend, and even if you have not interest in the Mothman the Festival itself is still a lot of fun and a nice opportunity to explore a small town that otherwise would just be passed through.  I highly recommend the event and even if you cant make the festival the museum and statue are open year round for anyone passing by the little Town of Point Pleasant.

A heads up before you head out:

.The Festival is free but some activities may cost money such as the museum and tours.

.Cell phone reception during the festival is almost non-existent or at least it was for AT&T, other services may have better luck but plan accordingly.

.The tour claims that it lasts about 2 hours when it really wraps up in one

.A tour ticket will also act as free admission to the museum.

.Parking can be tricky so the earlier you can get there the better but when in doubt just follow the crowd.

.The festival is a street festival so make sure you have some cash on you for any vendors that done take cards.

.Many of the local restaurants on the festival strip are full up all day so if you’re looking to eat at any

.of them make sure you have enough time for a 20 min and up wait time.

.Further information can be found on the Mothman Museum site and the Mothman festival site.