Myths & Mysteries of WVa (8)
In West Virginia, we have many many road signs. Our state feels it necessary to inform motorists of every turn, intersection and weird hillbilly mystery hole/hot dog stand that is in a 50 mile radius. Some think it's our way of blowing all that money Robert C. Byrd diverted into our state during his 200 year senate run, but many old timers in West Virginia are aware there are some circumstances of pure weird mountain folk lures tainting our over abundance of signs.
The peaceful community of Point Pleasant, West Virginia was gripped in a vice of ever-increasing terror for over one year, beginning in November 1966 and reaching a horrible climax on December 15, 1967, with the collapse of the Silver Bridge during rush hour traffic, plunging 46 innocent Christmas shoppers to their deaths in the icy Ohio River. Events leading up to the tragedy in the months beforehand caused many people to blame “The Mothman”, a mysterious creature that had begun its reign of fear by first appearing to two young married couples outside the abandoned WWII TNT factory on the outskirts of town.
On the evening of September 12, 1952, the quiet lives of the people of Braxton County, West Virginia would be forever changed by the arrival of an otherworldly being like nothing ever before seen. Despite the testimonies of many sober witnesses, the mystery of what would become known as the “The Phantom of Flatwoods” has never been solved. Whatever the answers, the things seen in the woods that night were by no means human, and according to descriptions...not of our known world.
On Christmas Eve 1945, Mrs. George Sodder consented to the joyful pleading of her children and allowed them to stay up late so that they could play with their new toys. Tired from what was surely a busy day for grownups, Mr. and Mrs. Sodder climbed the stairs to bed, after securing promises from the children to turn out the lights and lock the doors when they were ready to say good night themselves. The series of events that followed would become a tragic mystery that has troubled the citizens of Fayetteville, West Virginia for more than half a century.
Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia is best known in history books as the site of John Brown’s armory raid, but the tiny town is rich in tales of the supernatural as well. One of the most dramatic is the legend of “Screaming Jenny”, whose spirit has appeared to many engineers and passengers at the local train station. Jenny is believed by many to be the ghost of a poor woman whose shabby clothes were caught aflame one frigid winter’s night as she heated her meager supper. Bursting through the door of her shack she fled toward the station, desperate for aid from the shocked witnesses gathered on the platform. In a mindless panic, she ran onto the tracks, her piercing shrieks blotting out the horrible grind of steel as the engineer failed to stop the train.
BatBoy...the name is synonymous with “monster”. Our story begins deep in the belly of Lost World Caverns, Lewisburg’s subterranean window to the dawn of time. It was here in the spring of 1992 that Dr. Ronald Dillon made the discovery that would forever change the world as we know it. Worming his way through one of the narrowest portals in the caverns, the scientific explorer was unnerved by piercing shrieks echoing from the walls of the great stone room that lay ahead.
Will and Sandra Morrison have taken on a Herculean task. For the past several years, they have managed to contain the unexplainable within the walls of a psychedelic Quonset hut only one mile west of Hawk’s Nest State Park. How much longer can these forces be withheld from seeping into the outside world? This writer shudders to imagine an answer.
Charlie Miller followed the twin headlight beams of his father's Dodge as he navigated the twists and turns of Green Valley Drive one mid-October night in 1971. Summer was fading fast, and there was a chill in the air. A recent graduate of Huntington High School, Charlie had been in town that evening, waiting out the crowd at Wiggin's Drive-In, so that he might talk to the pretty new car-hop. She had seemed impressed by the '66 Coronet, shiny clean under the pink neon. Her name was Christie. When she laughed at his jokes, she had the most beautiful smile.
