The Diggerer

GANDEEVILLE- If you drove down through Gandeeville on your way down 119, you would be forgiven for not giving the small yellow signs a second look.  You might take them for the iconic Smiley Face from the decade of the 70's.  On second look, however, the homemade signs are actually menacing frowns.

FESTIVALL- Mrs. Gladys Meyer was having a great time at Saturday's Annual FestiVALL Wiener Dog Race.  Seeing a local sketch artist had an empty chair she and Oscar, her wiener dog, paid their money and posed for a portrait.  She was shocked by what she was handed at the end of their session.

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 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.

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.