Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, road trip experts - Noah and Noodles - explore fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they unravel the - often shocking - story behind each neglected story or location.
If you love travel, exploration and unique locations - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
The Story of West Virginia - Almost Heaven: Also Mothman
What's the real story of West Virginia?
Why is the state often ignored, stereotyped and forgotten?
In what world do these questions explain the flurry of West Virginia Mothman sightings of the 1960's?
We answer all this and more as we hike mountain trails and visit the small town of Point Pleasant, a location infamous for its association with the Mothman.
Safe travels!
Works Cited:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4242460?searchText=the+battle+of+point+pleasant&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dthe%2Bbattle%2Bof%2Bpoint%2Bpleasant%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A37008b1977b34b4942bbe80356d2cc59&seq=3
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27649920?read-now=1&seq=14#page_scan_tab_contents\
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43198067?read-now=1&seq=10#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26233743?read-now=1&seq=24#page_scan_tab_contents
https://wvpublic.org/mothman-legacy-has-ties-to-ancient-folklore/
https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/mothman-point-pleasant-west-virginia
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/history-west-virginia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-VU_Yqadus
https://virginiahistory.org/learn/why-there-west-virginia
https://wvminewars.org/news/battleofmatewantrial
https://www.history.com/articles/west-virginia
https://www.britannica.com/place/Point-Pleasant-West-Virginia
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.battleofpointple00poff/?sp=11&st=image
https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/west-virginia
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Hey there, welcome to the Van we're recording. Now, where else but a Cracker Barrel parking lot, just north of Charleston, west Virginia, the capital city of a state astonishingly beautiful but largely ignored, occasionally stereotyped as a monolith of underdeveloped coal mining towns, but also varied and surprising, a rugged land steeped in mystery and relevant history. A history that includes, but is in no way limited to a bold separation from larger Virginia fascinating coal mining towns, widespread economic exploitation and, yes, the Mothman. We'll get to the Mothman, don't you worry. But first let's ask ourselves the following questions why is West Virginia often ignored? For what reasons is it stereotyped as a monolith of sorts? What's the story of its founding, its transformation into a titan of the coal mining industry? And finally, in what world? Do all of these questions explain in some way the sightings of West Virginia's infamous cryptid, the Mothman? Many will say it's not possible. To that I say challenge accepted. My friends, we answer all of this and more in this week's episode of Backroad Odyssey. Safe travels wonder where this road would lead. So many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh, noodle Dolls, what do you see? Back Road Odyssey.
Speaker 1:We're going on a little hike here through central West Virginia. It's my first time in the area and you know, growing up in Iowa me, everyone I was around didn't really talk about West Virginia much In history, class, in conversations, popular culture I just didn't hear about it. Popular culture, I just didn't hear about it. So today we're going to amend this lapse in knowledge by asking ourselves the following question how did this small mountainous state secure its relatively insignificant place in popular imaginings of the American landscape? What's the story of West Virginia? Not quite along the East Coast, not considered southern, northern midwest and a world away from the West Coast, west Virginia exists on a plane of its own. As the only state locked entirely within the Appalachian Mountains, west Virginia developed a culture that was and remains uniquely West Virginian. To tell the story of West Virginia we have to start where all stories do, at the beginning.
Speaker 1:Before European exploration and settlement in the region, before the tumultuous formation of a state during the Civil War and many, many, many years before the arrival of our friend the Mothman, the area we now call West Virginia had been inhabited for thousands of years before any European set foot on American soil. Although there's relatively little evidence for expansive permanent native cities within the mountains of West Virginia, settlements and cities in the area did exist. The Shawnee, cherokee, seneca, tuscarora tribes all had connections and claims to the landscape. Pottery, burial and archaeological sites all point towards long-term activity in the area. Don't let the claims that West Virginia was nothing more than a hunting ground for migratory peoples fool you. This was home. Still, though, the mountainous landscape, as we will see with West Virginia throughout its history, provoked a sense of the ethereal, the unexplained. The other, partially because many rivers were introversible in the area and also partially because the land itself was hard to get around in, those living in the area saw the land that they lived in as having agency, as a thing unto itself. The Cherokee and Haudenosaunee tell stories of the little people invisible to most humans and dwelling in the rocks, dense thickets and shadows of the mountains. Tales also have long circulated of the Ogiwa, a massive beast patrolling the depths of the Monacahela River. I bring this up to make the following point the people that lived here had a relationship with the land that was especially attuned, attentive. They lived amongst the hills, in the valleys, amid and with the creatures of the landscape, not simply upon the land, in a way that's not quite the same elsewhere, and this is a trend we'll see going forward.
Speaker 1:All of this is to say the land of modern West Virginia has always been, if anything, notably unique. We're still hiking in Kahnawa State Park. About two miles in. We've passed a couple little caves, streams. It's just beautiful. And what I've been wondering through my relatively short travels through West Virginia, why does it seem like this particular section of the country has section of the country has nearly always been slightly overlooked. So you hear about these 19th century doctors sending their patients away into the mountains for their health, and it's nearly always places like Asheville, like the Smoky Mountains, but it almost never. You never hear West Virginia as kind of a doctor's orders place to go and I wonder why why not West Virginia? It's just as beautiful. In some ways it's just as serene.
Speaker 1:When and how did West Virginia adopt this kind of diminished reputation, adopt this kind of diminished reputation? And look, I don't think it's just the difficult, sometimes introversible terrain. I think there's something more, something overlooked. Before West Virginia there was just Virginia. In an effort to establish a permanent English settlement in North America, the British laid the foundations of the Virginia Colony named after the recently deceased Virgin Queen Elizabeth I. With the establishment of the first permanent English settlement on North American soil, the seeds for European expansion were planted. In time, virginia becomes one of the wealthiest of an ever-growing number of European claims and colonies, and as the hunger for land and resources intensify, opportunities out west grow ever more tempting.
Speaker 1:Okay, noodles is off-leash for now. We'll see what happens. I'm sitting down, currently almost done with the hike. We'll head still further west to Point Pleasant, west Virginia. But for now let's give some quick context. I guess for the bugs flying around me in the trees European exploration of modern-day West Virginia.
Speaker 1:Then still, virginia begins in the mid-17th century, with French and English traders establishing posts, interacting with nearby tribes and generally roughing it in the wild. There wasn't much here. No real emigration to the area occurs until the 1730s when Virginia passes a law and this law encourages westward movement. Basically, it grants 1,000 acres for each family they brought from outside the colony within two years of the law being passed. And it works right. People move west. By 1750, 1760, the population of the Shenandoah River Valley and beyond grows significantly. Whether or not this land was theirs to give away is another conversation for another day. But regardless, the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, american War of Independence for all of those across the pond. Continued expansion decimate the small Native American population in West Virginia itself. This leaves the terrain empty, open for settlement, as sad as it is. So time passes, but unlike expansion into the Shenandoah Valley, few come to West Virginia. Despite the beauty, the incentives, the economic incentives with this bill that was passed, despite the space, I want to know why One factor more than any other divides the mountainous West Virginia from East Virginia throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and that factor is wealth.
Speaker 1:It always comes down to money and the source of wealth for Virginia, then, america's wealthiest colony, is derived almost exclusively from large-scale agriculture driven by slaves. But in West Virginia, then still Virginia, because of the terrain, mountainous as it was, it was difficult to establish any meaningful or impactful plantation economy. They couldn't plant, which means they couldn't be an active participant in the creation of wealth in Virginia and consequently couldn't afford and didn't require slave labor on a large scale, didn't require slave labor on a large scale. So priorities from the very beginning between eastern and western Virginia were just different. Those in the West Virginian mountains came to resent the wealthier, more influential eastern elites who would frequently ignore their wants and their needs they felt underrepresented in the legislature, overtaxed, overlooked. And their needs they felt underrepresented in the legislature, overtaxed, overlooked and generally just shortchanged. This fundamental difference in lifestyle, economics, needs and more create over time a deep cultural and eventual political divide between East and West, a divide that will fully materialize amidst the growing sounds of familialcidal tannin fodder.
Speaker 1:The advent of America's Civil War in 1861 somewhat echoes the deep, cutting differences between Plantation Virginia and its mountainous western region. An aristocratic plantation economy built on the backs of slaves, virginia didn't want or need the existing institution of slavery to survive. In fact, particularly in West Virginia, the existing system of oppression directly puts them at a disadvantage. Why would they want it to continue? So the coming opposition to a plantation economy built on slavery was then, in the minds of much of the population of the North and in West Virginia, built largely upon a practical matter rather than a moral one.
Speaker 1:In 1863, after Virginia succeeded from the Union to establish ideological autonomy, 48 counties separate from larger Virginia to rejoin the Union and establish at long last a political environment that would best suit West Virginians, not the interests of outside forces, and so they thought it would remain. This, at least, was their intention. We made it back to the van Before we get on the road. Let's talk. You can start anything with a clear intention, but if you don't have the abilities to follow through with that intention through influence, through power, endurance, whatever, then the intention itself kind of holds less value. Right? So when West Virginia achieved statehood in 1863, they may have had clear intentions for plans to benefit West Virginians and ideas for the beautiful land that was now theirs. But the complicated reality of defining your own space is difficult, particularly when you're doing it during tumultuous times.
Speaker 1:And West Virginia, born of a civil war, thrusted into the greed of the gilded Age, an age of exploitation, was unlikely to fare well when it came to claiming and maintaining the vast natural resources that now, by name only, were theirs. Workers keen on making a living extracting the area's extensive natural resources flood into West Virginia to mine mostly coal, a resource that becomes synonymous with the West Virginian identity going forward. By and large, the coal industry drives life, labor and culture in the now separate state of West Virginia. Soon after the war, like smog in the Hobbit, titans of the Gilded Age claim vast reserves of coal deposits throughout the state. Outside investors from New York, london what have you all compete for control of mining operations within the state. Slowly and surely, west Virginia belongs not to West Virginians but to whoever owns mining operations within the state. By 1920, more than half of the state's private land is owned by parties outside of West Virginia. West Virginia tosses the shackles of Virginian control only to replace them with external interests who have little regard for the people living and working within its borders.
Speaker 1:We're in the car on our way to Point Pleasant, a small but storied West Virginian town along the Ohio River. Uh, known primarily for two things the Silver Bridge collapse in 1967 and Mothman. All right, you might be thinking, noah, how are you going to tie in the Silver Bridge collapse of Point Pleasant, the Mothman, into the larger story of West Virginia? You know, and to that I'd say stick with me, we'll get there. And to get there we have to talk about the absolutely abhorrent conditions in the Virginia mines throughout the 20th century. Here's the astonishing reason why these conditions were so poor. It blew me away and I hope you're ready.
Speaker 1:So, as new mines opened up throughout the state, institutions are needed around these mines A post office, a merchant, entertainment basic things any society needs. Merchants, entertainment basic things any society needs and the entity to step in and build these places? Essentially little. Towns are the owners and operators of each mining facility. They'd be the providers of entertainment, safety, commerce, sanitation, spiritual needs, education, everything with no to little oversight. Right, so, predictably, consequently, because these towns were set up and controlled by those employing the workers at the mine, conditions in and around the town were all limited and otherwise controlled by the will and the resources of each individual owner.
Speaker 1:Remember, more often than not we're outside investors, so what do they care if people up in the mountains are uncomfortable, are struggling, are suffering, if their profits remain strong? Here's the core of it. Profit elsewhere, but particularly in West Virginia, sculpts conditions, not the common good of the people living in and around the mines. Look, think about it, think about the worst boss you've ever had. Right, it's in your mind Now. Everything in your life is now controlled by that boss your movie theater, your education, your health care, just everything that sucks. That straight up sucks. So you know, predictably, again, terrible conditions ensue. Mining disasters regularly happen, with little concern for safety. Born of this, collective exploitation and suffering begins to take root in West Virginia.
Speaker 1:Throughout the 1900s, the concept of a West Virginian emerges the population of West Virginia was, and is, overwhelmingly rural Back in 1870, 92% of the state is considered rural, by the 30s 72%, and just over half of the population today is considered rural, but uniquely so, it's a rural population that's industrial rather than agricultural. Here's the easiest way I was able to understand this you take the poor working conditions and exploitation within larger cities and place them in a rural setting, a setting where the operator, employer, owner, whatever the case may be, has more control over the quality of your life outside of your physical workplace than in the cities. Than ever. It's in these really helpless conditions where employees and their families will themselves to learn self-sufficiency, particularly with farming. The land when nothing exists, create it yourself. The mentality becomes as raw and terrible as conditions were in the mines and many of the towns. The rural setting of West Virginia allowed for a level of self-sufficiency that just wouldn't be possible in the cities, and this Growing tendency towards self-sufficiency in West Virginia encouraged the passing down of a uniquely West Virginian set of skills and values. The land itself and the mentality you must have to live upon it becomes an integral part of life, an immovable fact of the West Virginian mentality. All this together makes for an industrial, rural, self-sufficient culture that becomes unavoidably and entirely West Virginian.
Speaker 1:It should be said that West Virginia is not, nor will it ever be, a monolith. Today. Eastern counties by DC will be different than southern counties, will be different than northern central. But when considering the collective perception, the stereotype of West Virginia as a whole, it's important to understand a bit about why that might be and where else to demonstrate this. But at the western edge of West Virginia, point Pleasant, point Pleasant, and as I walk along the main street of Point Pleasant, I'm looking to both prove the point that West Virginia is not a monolith because you know Point Pleasant is different and explain why modern West Virginia has the perception that it sometimes does.
Speaker 1:And fine, we'll talk about Mothman, thick Fog. Thick Fog obscures the path ahead of Linda and Roger's Chevy. They know the abandoned bunkers and dirt roads around Point Pleasant well. Much of the land had been used as a T&T manufacturing facility during World War II. These plants were not only dangerous but toxic as well. Locals considered the area good fun, a fun time to ride around the winding, dirt roads surrounding the complex.
Speaker 1:So in many ways tonight was just another night for the young couple, that is until when, passing a particularly dense, thicket of trees. They notice a large, particularly dense thicket of trees. They notice a large, unblinking pair of eyes glaring back at them. Their Chevy screeches to a halt. Somewhat mesmerized, linda and Roger both stare ahead intensely. The thickening fog obscures any definitive outline of whatever this is, any definitive outline of whatever this is. But from what they can tell, the creature is some seven feet tall, with wings twice its height. Its right wing seems to be caught on a fence. No distinguishable face lies behind the haunting red eyes. After a pause, the creature untangles its wings from the fence and shoots up in the air. The couple breaks out of their momentary paralysis as Roger slams on the pedal, linda screams. As they retrace their path along the winding, dirt roads, they look up to see the creature keeping pace with them with ease 80, 90, 100 miles per hour. Escape seems impossible. With the haunting red eyes glaring down at them, they panic and then nothing. As soon as it had happened, the creature with red eyes disappears. The fog dissipates. Still in a state of shock, the couple finds the nearest payphone to report what they had seen.
Speaker 1:This story happens in the fall of 1966. In the following year, nearly 100 reports of this flying creature with red eyes, later referred to as Mothman, happen in and around the small town of Point Pleasant, west Virginia. We're walking now towards the memorial of the Silver Bridge disaster, again in modern Point Pleasant. We passed the Mothman Museum, mothman Mini Golf, mothman Mojitos statues yeah, this town was built and is built in and around Mothman and the memory of where I'm going now. And I guess my question is this how does this small town between two rivers on the edge of West Virginia fit in with the larger context of the West Virginia story? It's people, it's history, it's public perception. How and why is it relevant?
Speaker 1:The West Virginia Mothman craze of the 1960s becomes associated with the Silver Bridge collapse of 1967. But only in retrospect. The more than 100 official reports of the Mothman abruptly stop following the bridge's collapse in 1967, in 1967, leading many to see the Mothman not as a threat, a simple curiosity, but as a harbinger of doom, an entity whatever it is, warning of the coming bridge collapse To Point Pleasant, a town of some 6,000 in a sparse state then known for significant poverty and a deep distrust of outside authority. Given the external land grabs, worker abuses and general history, we've already gone over. A general sense of foreboding is understandable. Dread doom it's understandable, particularly when institutional structures they're supposed to rely on, let's say a bridge, haven't always had their back in the past.
Speaker 1:Here we are, standing at the site of the bridge collapse. There's a memorial plaque for all of the victims and a large mural right in front of me. No mention or depiction of the Mothman to be seen. Here's my thought right now. Maybe reports halted of the Mothman after the bridge collapsed because it was then inappropriate or too soon after a tragedy to report or speak of something as abnormal as a giant flying moth? Maybe the Mothman really warned of things to come, who's to say?
Speaker 1:But my bet, my hunch, is that these sightings, the Mothman in general, represent the general mentality within the collective consciousness, the historical consciousness of West Virginia. West Virginia history is long and convoluted, a history that the West Virginian modern perspective can only be informed by, a mindset passed down through war, disappointment, exploitation, thankless work, the ruthless self-sufficiency, pride in land, hard-working mentality is impressive given the long history of exploitation in the state. Although absentee landowners still own a large portion of the state's mineral-rich land, 16% of the state's population now falls below the poverty line and coal is still economically important and even essential in places. Good things happen too. The state is slowly diversifying economically, investments in infrastructure are increasing and approximately 75 million people now visit the rugged, beautiful mountains, rushing streams and sloping valleys of West Virginia. So Mothman, to me, as this prophetic thing, this warning entity, makes sense as a kind of personification of collective caution for land and population that's long been well screwed. But maybe, just as the Mothman vanished in the summer of 67, this distinct feeling of caution, of dread, will too fade away as West Virginia, its peaks, valleys, mines and people, look towards a West Virginian future. It's Noah here. Hope you enjoyed our travels through West Virginia.
Speaker 1:I've some final thoughts Going into this. The last thing I wanted to do was treat West Virginia, west Virginians, as one thing, as a monolith. Every state has diverse people with different opinions and experiences, and that's undoubtedly true in West Virginia and that's undoubtedly true in West Virginia. But I also wanted to examine the very real, hard history of a state whose people, historically, have been looked over and exploited by others, and that's part of the story. When you look deeper, when you dive deeper into these stories, the history of a person or a place, you learn to see them more fully, and I hope that I helped you see West Virginia a little more fully as well. Point Pleasant is more than just Mothman and the Silver Bridge disaster. West Virginia is more than mountains and mining towns, but all of these are a part of the whole story of a state that I've come to love and appreciate. So thank you, west Virginia, for being unique, having good stories and treating me with good times.
Speaker 1:We might be doing another, more in-depth Mothman episode in the future. I know the fans of all of our cryptid episodes will be left wanting with this one, so if you'd like to see that, or if you'd like to see anything, reach out at backroad to Odyssey pod at gmailcom. Would love to start a convo If you enjoy the stories that we're telling. Taking a minute right now to rate and review genuinely helps us continue to put the work we'd like to into making the show as good as it can be. With that said, watch out for Mothman. Be good to each other. Where to next? Backroad Odyssey.
