June 26, 2025 • 35 mins
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
Noah and Noodles here!
We want to extend a heartfelt thanks to every listener of Backroad Odyssey.
Your support fuels our passion and inspires us to keep sharing stories and discover overlooked locations.
Follow each adventure visually at:
https://www.instagram.com/backroadsodyssey/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey there, welcome to the Van we're recording.
Now, where else but a CrackerBarrel parking lot, just north
of Charleston, west Virginia,the capital city of a state
astonishingly beautiful butlargely ignored, occasionally
stereotyped as a monolith ofunderdeveloped coal mining towns
(00:24):
, but also varied and surprising, a rugged land steeped in
mystery and relevant history.
A history that includes, but isin no way limited to a bold
separation from larger Virginiafascinating coal mining towns,
widespread economic exploitationand, yes, the Mothman.
(00:48):
We'll get to the Mothman, don'tyou worry.
But first let's ask ourselvesthe following questions why is
West Virginia often ignored?
For what reasons is itstereotyped as a monolith of
sorts?
What's the story of itsfounding, its transformation
into a titan of the coal miningindustry?
(01:10):
And finally, in what world?
Do all of these questionsexplain in some way the
sightings of West Virginia'sinfamous cryptid, the Mothman?
Many will say it's not possible.
To that I say challengeaccepted.
My friends, we answer all ofthis and more in this week's
(01:33):
episode of Backroad Odyssey.
Safe travels wonder where thisroad would lead.
So many possibilities.
Care to share what you think.
Oh, noodle Dolls, what do yousee?
(01:55):
Back Road Odyssey.
We're going on a little hikehere through central West
Virginia.
It's my first time in the areaand you know, growing up in Iowa
me, everyone I was arounddidn't really talk about West
(02:15):
Virginia much In history, class,in conversations, popular
culture I just didn't hear aboutit.
Popular culture, I just didn'thear about it.
So today we're going to amendthis lapse in knowledge by
asking ourselves the followingquestion how did this small
mountainous state secure itsrelatively insignificant place
(02:40):
in popular imaginings of theAmerican landscape?
What's the story of WestVirginia?
Not quite along the East Coast,not considered southern,
northern midwest and a worldaway from the West Coast, west
(03:02):
Virginia exists on a plane ofits own.
As the only state lockedentirely within the Appalachian
Mountains, west Virginiadeveloped a culture that was and
remains uniquely West Virginian.
To tell the story of WestVirginia we have to start where
all stories do, at the beginning.
(03:25):
Before European exploration andsettlement in the region, before
the tumultuous formation of astate during the Civil War and
many, many, many years beforethe arrival of our friend the
Mothman, the area we now callWest Virginia had been inhabited
(03:53):
for thousands of years beforeany European set foot on
American soil.
Although there's relativelylittle evidence for expansive
permanent native cities withinthe mountains of West Virginia,
settlements and cities in thearea did exist.
The Shawnee, cherokee, seneca,tuscarora tribes all had
connections and claims to thelandscape.
(04:14):
Pottery, burial andarchaeological sites all point
towards long-term activity inthe area.
Don't let the claims that WestVirginia was nothing more than a
hunting ground for migratorypeoples fool you.
This was home.
Still, though, the mountainouslandscape, as we will see with
(04:37):
West Virginia throughout itshistory, provoked a sense of the
ethereal, the unexplained.
The other, partially becausemany rivers were introversible
in the area and also partiallybecause the land itself was hard
to get around in, those livingin the area saw the land that
(05:00):
they lived in as having agency,as a thing unto itself.
The Cherokee and Haudenosauneetell stories of the little
people invisible to most humansand dwelling in the rocks, dense
thickets and shadows of themountains.
Tales also have long circulatedof the Ogiwa, a massive beast
(05:23):
patrolling the depths of theMonacahela River.
I bring this up to make thefollowing point the people that
lived here had a relationshipwith the land that was
especially attuned, attentive.
They lived amongst the hills,in the valleys, amid and with
(05:44):
the creatures of the landscape,not simply upon the land, in a
way that's not quite the sameelsewhere, and this is a trend
we'll see going forward.
All of this is to say the landof modern West Virginia has
always been, if anything,notably unique.
(06:09):
We're still hiking in KahnawaState Park.
About two miles in.
We've passed a couple littlecaves, streams.
It's just beautiful.
(06:30):
And what I've been wonderingthrough my relatively short
travels through West Virginia,why does it seem like this
particular section of thecountry has section of the
country has nearly always beenslightly overlooked.
So you hear about these 19thcentury doctors sending their
(06:51):
patients away into the mountainsfor their health, and it's
nearly always places likeAsheville, like the Smoky
Mountains, but it almost never.
You never hear West Virginia askind of a doctor's orders place
to go and I wonder why why notWest Virginia?
(07:12):
It's just as beautiful.
In some ways it's just asserene.
When and how did West Virginiaadopt this kind of diminished
reputation, adopt this kind ofdiminished reputation?
And look, I don't think it'sjust the difficult, sometimes
introversible terrain.
I think there's something more,something overlooked.
(07:35):
Before West Virginia there wasjust Virginia.
In an effort to establish apermanent English settlement in
North America, the British laidthe foundations of the Virginia
Colony named after the recentlydeceased Virgin Queen Elizabeth
I.
With the establishment of thefirst permanent English
(07:56):
settlement on North Americansoil, the seeds for European
expansion were planted.
In time, virginia becomes oneof the wealthiest of an
ever-growing number of Europeanclaims and colonies, and as the
hunger for land and resourcesintensify, opportunities out
(08:17):
west grow ever more tempting.
Okay, noodles is off-leash fornow.
We'll see what happens.
I'm sitting down, currentlyalmost done with the hike.
We'll head still further westto Point Pleasant, west Virginia
(08:37):
.
But for now let's give somequick context.
I guess for the bugs flyingaround me in the trees European
exploration of modern-day WestVirginia.
Then still, virginia begins inthe mid-17th century, with
(08:58):
French and English tradersestablishing posts, interacting
with nearby tribes and generallyroughing it in the wild.
There wasn't much here.
No real emigration to the areaoccurs until the 1730s when
Virginia passes a law and thislaw encourages westward movement
.
Basically, it grants 1,000acres for each family they
(09:26):
brought from outside the colonywithin two years of the law
being passed.
And it works right.
People move west.
By 1750, 1760, the populationof the Shenandoah River Valley
and beyond grows significantly.
Whether or not this land wastheirs to give away is another
conversation for another day.
(09:47):
But regardless, the French andIndian War, the Revolutionary
War, american War ofIndependence for all of those
across the pond.
Continued expansion decimatethe small Native American
population in West Virginiaitself.
This leaves the terrain empty,open for settlement, as sad as
(10:13):
it is.
So time passes, but unlikeexpansion into the Shenandoah
Valley, few come to WestVirginia.
Despite the beauty, theincentives, the economic
incentives with this bill thatwas passed, despite the space, I
want to know why One factormore than any other divides the
(10:48):
mountainous West Virginia fromEast Virginia throughout the
18th and 19th centuries, andthat factor is wealth.
It always comes down to moneyand the source of wealth for
Virginia, then, america'swealthiest colony, is derived
almost exclusively fromlarge-scale agriculture driven
(11:11):
by slaves.
But in West Virginia, thenstill Virginia, because of the
terrain, mountainous as it was,it was difficult to establish
any meaningful or impactfulplantation economy.
They couldn't plant, whichmeans they couldn't be an active
(11:32):
participant in the creation ofwealth in Virginia and
consequently couldn't afford anddidn't require slave labor on a
large scale, didn't requireslave labor on a large scale.
So priorities from the verybeginning between eastern and
western Virginia were justdifferent.
Those in the West Virginianmountains came to resent the
(11:54):
wealthier, more influentialeastern elites who would
frequently ignore their wantsand their needs they felt
underrepresented in thelegislature, overtaxed,
overlooked.
And their needs they feltunderrepresented in the
legislature, overtaxed,overlooked and generally just
shortchanged.
This fundamental difference inlifestyle, economics, needs and
(12:16):
more create over time a deepcultural and eventual political
divide between East and West, adivide that will fully
materialize amidst the growingsounds of familialcidal tannin
fodder.
(13:10):
The advent of America's CivilWar in 1861 somewhat echoes the
deep, cutting differencesbetween Plantation Virginia and
its mountainous western region.
An aristocratic plantationeconomy built on the backs of
slaves, virginia didn't want orneed the existing institution of
slavery to survive.
(13:30):
In fact, particularly in WestVirginia, the existing system of
oppression directly puts themat a disadvantage.
Why would they want it tocontinue?
So the coming opposition to aplantation economy built on
slavery was then, in the mindsof much of the population of the
(13:54):
North and in West Virginia,built largely upon a practical
matter rather than a moral one.
In 1863, after Virginiasucceeded from the Union to
establish ideological autonomy,48 counties separate from larger
(14:15):
Virginia to rejoin the Unionand establish at long last a
political environment that wouldbest suit West Virginians, not
the interests of outside forces,and so they thought it would
remain.
This, at least, was theirintention.
(14:38):
We made it back to the vanBefore we get on the road.
Let's talk.
You can start anything with aclear intention, but if you
don't have the abilities tofollow through with that
intention through influence,through power, endurance,
whatever, then the intentionitself kind of holds less value.
(15:02):
Right?
So when West Virginia achievedstatehood in 1863, they may have
had clear intentions for plansto benefit West Virginians and
ideas for the beautiful landthat was now theirs.
But the complicated reality ofdefining your own space is
(15:26):
difficult, particularly whenyou're doing it during
tumultuous times.
And West Virginia, born of acivil war, thrusted into the
greed of the gilded Age, an ageof exploitation, was unlikely to
fare well when it came toclaiming and maintaining the
(15:50):
vast natural resources that now,by name only, were theirs.
Workers keen on making a livingextracting the area's extensive
natural resources flood intoWest Virginia to mine mostly
coal, a resource that becomessynonymous with the West
(16:13):
Virginian identity going forward.
By and large, the coal industrydrives life, labor and culture
in the now separate state ofWest Virginia.
Soon after the war, like smogin the Hobbit, titans of the
Gilded Age claim vast reservesof coal deposits throughout the
(16:38):
state.
Outside investors from New York, london what have you all
compete for control of miningoperations within the state.
Slowly and surely, westVirginia belongs not to West
Virginians but to whoever ownsmining operations within the
(16:58):
state.
By 1920, more than half of thestate's private land is owned by
parties outside of WestVirginia.
West Virginia tosses theshackles of Virginian control
only to replace them withexternal interests who have
little regard for the peopleliving and working within its
(17:23):
borders.
We're in the car on our way toPoint Pleasant, a small but
storied West Virginian townalong the Ohio River.
(17:44):
Uh, known primarily for twothings the Silver Bridge
collapse in 1967 and Mothman.
All right, you might bethinking, noah, how are you
going to tie in the SilverBridge collapse of Point
Pleasant, the Mothman, into thelarger story of West Virginia?
(18:05):
You know, and to that I'd saystick with me, we'll get there.
And to get there we have totalk about the absolutely
abhorrent conditions in theVirginia mines throughout the
20th century.
Here's the astonishing reasonwhy these conditions were so
(18:26):
poor.
It blew me away and I hopeyou're ready.
So, as new mines opened upthroughout the state,
institutions are needed aroundthese mines A post office, a
merchant, entertainment basicthings any society needs.
Merchants, entertainment basicthings any society needs and the
entity to step in and buildthese places?
(18:48):
Essentially little.
Towns are the owners andoperators of each mining
facility.
They'd be the providers ofentertainment, safety, commerce,
sanitation, spiritual needs,education, everything with no to
(19:14):
little oversight.
Right, so, predictably,consequently, because these
towns were set up and controlledby those employing the workers
at the mine, conditions in andaround the town were all limited
and otherwise controlled by thewill and the resources of each
individual owner.
Remember, more often than notwe're outside investors, so what
(19:37):
do they care if people up inthe mountains are uncomfortable,
are struggling, are suffering,if their profits remain strong?
Here's the core of it.
Profit elsewhere, butparticularly in West Virginia,
sculpts conditions, not thecommon good of the people living
(19:59):
in and around the mines.
Look, think about it, thinkabout the worst boss you've ever
had.
Right, it's in your mind Now.
Everything in your life is nowcontrolled by that boss your
movie theater, your education,your health care, just
(20:22):
everything that sucks.
That straight up sucks.
So you know, predictably, again, terrible conditions ensue.
Mining disasters regularlyhappen, with little concern for
safety.
Born of this, collectiveexploitation and suffering
(20:45):
begins to take root in WestVirginia.
Throughout the 1900s, theconcept of a West Virginian
emerges the population of WestVirginia was, and is,
overwhelmingly rural Back in1870, 92% of the state is
(21:09):
considered rural, by the 30s 72%, and just over half of the
population today is consideredrural, but uniquely so, it's a
rural population that'sindustrial rather than
agricultural.
Here's the easiest way I wasable to understand this you take
(21:36):
the poor working conditions andexploitation within larger
cities and place them in a ruralsetting, a setting where the
operator, employer, owner,whatever the case may be, has
more control over the quality ofyour life outside of your
physical workplace than in thecities.
Than ever.
It's in these really helplessconditions where employees and
(21:59):
their families will themselvesto learn self-sufficiency,
particularly with farming.
The land when nothing exists,create it yourself.
The mentality becomes as rawand terrible as conditions were
in the mines and many of thetowns.
The rural setting of WestVirginia allowed for a level of
(22:23):
self-sufficiency that justwouldn't be possible in the
cities, and this Growingtendency towards
self-sufficiency in WestVirginia encouraged the passing
down of a uniquely WestVirginian set of skills and
values.
The land itself and thementality you must have to live
(22:44):
upon it becomes an integral partof life, an immovable fact of
the West Virginian mentality.
All this together makes for anindustrial, rural,
self-sufficient culture thatbecomes unavoidably and entirely
West Virginian.
(23:37):
It should be said that WestVirginia is not, nor will it
ever be, a monolith.
Today.
Eastern counties by DC will bedifferent than southern counties
, will be different thannorthern central.
But when considering thecollective perception, the
stereotype of West Virginia as awhole, it's important to
(23:59):
understand a bit about why thatmight be and where else to
demonstrate this.
But at the western edge of WestVirginia, point Pleasant, point
Pleasant, and as I walk alongthe main street of Point
Pleasant, I'm looking to bothprove the point that West
(24:20):
Virginia is not a monolithbecause you know Point Pleasant
is different and explain whymodern West Virginia has the
perception that it sometimesdoes.
And fine, we'll talk aboutMothman, thick Fog.
(24:48):
Thick Fog obscures the pathahead of Linda and Roger's Chevy
.
They know the abandoned bunkersand dirt roads around Point
Pleasant well.
Much of the land had been usedas a T&T manufacturing facility
during World War II.
These plants were not onlydangerous but toxic as well.
(25:10):
Locals considered the area goodfun, a fun time to ride around
the winding, dirt roadssurrounding the complex.
So in many ways tonight was justanother night for the young
couple, that is until when,passing a particularly dense,
(25:31):
thicket of trees.
They notice a large,particularly dense thicket of
trees.
They notice a large, unblinkingpair of eyes glaring back at
them.
Their Chevy screeches to a halt.
Somewhat mesmerized, linda andRoger both stare ahead intensely
.
The thickening fog obscures anydefinitive outline of whatever
(25:51):
this is, any definitive outlineof whatever this is.
But from what they can tell,the creature is some seven feet
tall, with wings twice itsheight.
Its right wing seems to becaught on a fence.
No distinguishable face liesbehind the haunting red eyes.
(26:16):
After a pause, the creatureuntangles its wings from the
fence and shoots up in the air.
The couple breaks out of theirmomentary paralysis as Roger
slams on the pedal, lindascreams.
As they retrace their pathalong the winding, dirt roads,
they look up to see the creaturekeeping pace with them with
ease 80, 90, 100 miles per hour.
(26:37):
Escape seems impossible.
With the haunting red eyesglaring down at them, they panic
and then nothing.
As soon as it had happened, thecreature with red eyes
disappears.
The fog dissipates.
Still in a state of shock, thecouple finds the nearest
(27:03):
payphone to report what they hadseen.
This story happens in the fallof 1966.
(27:24):
In the following year, nearly100 reports of this flying
creature with red eyes, laterreferred to as Mothman, happen
in and around the small town ofPoint Pleasant, west Virginia.
We're walking now towards thememorial of the Silver Bridge
disaster, again in modern PointPleasant.
(27:47):
We passed the Mothman Museum,mothman Mini Golf, mothman
Mojitos statues yeah, this townwas built and is built in and
around Mothman and the memory ofwhere I'm going now.
And I guess my question is thishow does this small town
(28:09):
between two rivers on the edgeof West Virginia fit in with the
larger context of the WestVirginia story?
It's people, it's history, it'spublic perception.
How and why is it relevant?
(28:31):
The West Virginia Mothman crazeof the 1960s becomes associated
with the Silver Bridge collapseof 1967.
But only in retrospect.
The more than 100 officialreports of the Mothman abruptly
stop following the bridge'scollapse in 1967, in 1967,
(29:01):
leading many to see the Mothmannot as a threat, a simple
curiosity, but as a harbinger ofdoom, an entity whatever it is,
warning of the coming bridgecollapse To Point Pleasant, a
town of some 6,000 in a sparsestate then known for significant
poverty and a deep distrust ofoutside authority.
Given the external land grabs,worker abuses and general
history, we've already gone over.
(29:22):
A general sense of forebodingis understandable.
Dread doom it's understandable,particularly when institutional
structures they're supposed torely on, let's say a bridge,
haven't always had their back inthe past.
(29:47):
Here we are, standing at thesite of the bridge collapse.
There's a memorial plaque forall of the victims and a large
mural right in front of me.
No mention or depiction of theMothman to be seen.
Here's my thought right now.
Maybe reports halted of theMothman after the bridge
(30:09):
collapsed because it was theninappropriate or too soon after
a tragedy to report or speak ofsomething as abnormal as a giant
flying moth?
Maybe the Mothman really warnedof things to come, who's to say
?
But my bet, my hunch, is thatthese sightings, the Mothman in
(30:34):
general, represent the generalmentality within the collective
consciousness, the historicalconsciousness of West Virginia.
West Virginia history is longand convoluted, a history that
(31:01):
the West Virginian modernperspective can only be informed
by, a mindset passed downthrough war, disappointment,
exploitation, thankless work,the ruthless self-sufficiency,
pride in land, hard-workingmentality is impressive given
the long history of exploitationin the state.
(31:23):
Although absentee landownersstill own a large portion of the
state's mineral-rich land, 16%of the state's population now
falls below the poverty line andcoal is still economically
important and even essential inplaces.
Good things happen too.
The state is slowlydiversifying economically,
(31:46):
investments in infrastructureare increasing and approximately
75 million people now visit therugged, beautiful mountains,
rushing streams and slopingvalleys of West Virginia.
So Mothman, to me, as thisprophetic thing, this warning
(32:13):
entity, makes sense as a kind ofpersonification of collective
caution for land and populationthat's long been well screwed.
But maybe, just as the Mothmanvanished in the summer of 67,
(32:34):
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.
(33:13):
Hope you enjoyed our travelsthrough West Virginia.
I've some final thoughts Goinginto this.
The last thing I wanted to dowas treat West Virginia, west
Virginians, as one thing, as amonolith.
Every state has diverse peoplewith different opinions and
experiences, and that'sundoubtedly true in West
Virginia and that's undoubtedlytrue in West Virginia.
(33:33):
But I also wanted to examinethe 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 youdive deeper into these stories,
(33:57):
the history of a person or aplace, you learn to see them
more fully, and I hope that Ihelped you see West Virginia a
little more fully as well.
Point Pleasant is more thanjust Mothman and the Silver
Bridge disaster.
West Virginia is more thanmountains and mining towns, but
all of these are a part of thewhole story of a state that I've
come to love and appreciate.
So thank you, west Virginia,for being unique, having good
(34:20):
stories and treating me withgood times.
We might be doing another, morein-depth Mothman episode in the
future.
I know the fans of all of ourcryptid episodes will be left
wanting with this one, so ifyou'd like to see that, or if
you'd like to see anything,reach out at backroad to Odyssey
(34:41):
pod at gmailcom.
Would love to start a convo Ifyou enjoy the stories that we're
telling.
Taking a minute right now torate and review genuinely helps
us continue to put the work we'dlike to into making the show as
(35:02):
good as it can be.
With that said, watch out forMothman.
Be good to each other.
Where to next?
Backroad Odyssey.
Hey there, welcome to the Van we're recording.
Now, where else but a CrackerBarrel parking lot, just north
of Charleston, west Virginia,the capital city of a state
astonishingly beautiful butlargely ignored, occasionally
stereotyped as a monolith ofunderdeveloped coal mining towns
(00:24):
, but also varied and surprising, a rugged land steeped in
mystery and relevant history.
A history that includes, but isin no way limited to a bold
separation from larger Virginiafascinating coal mining towns,
widespread economic exploitationand, yes, the Mothman.
(00:48):
We'll get to the Mothman, don'tyou worry.
But first let's ask ourselvesthe following questions why is
West Virginia often ignored?
For what reasons is itstereotyped as a monolith of
sorts?
What's the story of itsfounding, its transformation
into a titan of the coal miningindustry?
(01:10):
And finally, in what world?
Do all of these questionsexplain in some way the
sightings of West Virginia'sinfamous cryptid, the Mothman?
Many will say it's not possible.
To that I say challengeaccepted.
My friends, we answer all ofthis and more in this week's
(01:33):
episode of Backroad Odyssey.
Safe travels wonder where thisroad would lead.
So many possibilities.
Care to share what you think.
Oh, noodle Dolls, what do yousee?
(01:55):
Back Road Odyssey.
We're going on a little hikehere through central West
Virginia.
It's my first time in the areaand you know, growing up in Iowa
me, everyone I was arounddidn't really talk about West
(02:15):
Virginia much In history, class,in conversations, popular
culture I just didn't hear aboutit.
Popular culture, I just didn'thear about it.
So today we're going to amendthis lapse in knowledge by
asking ourselves the followingquestion how did this small
mountainous state secure itsrelatively insignificant place
(02:40):
in popular imaginings of theAmerican landscape?
What's the story of WestVirginia?
Not quite along the East Coast,not considered southern,
northern midwest and a worldaway from the West Coast, west
(03:02):
Virginia exists on a plane ofits own.
As the only state lockedentirely within the Appalachian
Mountains, west Virginiadeveloped a culture that was and
remains uniquely West Virginian.
To tell the story of WestVirginia we have to start where
all stories do, at the beginning.
(03:25):
Before European exploration andsettlement in the region, before
the tumultuous formation of astate during the Civil War and
many, many, many years beforethe arrival of our friend the
Mothman, the area we now callWest Virginia had been inhabited
(03:53):
for thousands of years beforeany European set foot on
American soil.
Although there's relativelylittle evidence for expansive
permanent native cities withinthe mountains of West Virginia,
settlements and cities in thearea did exist.
The Shawnee, cherokee, seneca,tuscarora tribes all had
connections and claims to thelandscape.
(04:14):
Pottery, burial andarchaeological sites all point
towards long-term activity inthe area.
Don't let the claims that WestVirginia was nothing more than a
hunting ground for migratorypeoples fool you.
This was home.
Still, though, the mountainouslandscape, as we will see with
(04:37):
West Virginia throughout itshistory, provoked a sense of the
ethereal, the unexplained.
The other, partially becausemany rivers were introversible
in the area and also partiallybecause the land itself was hard
to get around in, those livingin the area saw the land that
(05:00):
they lived in as having agency,as a thing unto itself.
The Cherokee and Haudenosauneetell stories of the little
people invisible to most humansand dwelling in the rocks, dense
thickets and shadows of themountains.
Tales also have long circulatedof the Ogiwa, a massive beast
(05:23):
patrolling the depths of theMonacahela River.
I bring this up to make thefollowing point the people that
lived here had a relationshipwith the land that was
especially attuned, attentive.
They lived amongst the hills,in the valleys, amid and with
(05:44):
the creatures of the landscape,not simply upon the land, in a
way that's not quite the sameelsewhere, and this is a trend
we'll see going forward.
All of this is to say the landof modern West Virginia has
always been, if anything,notably unique.
(06:09):
We're still hiking in KahnawaState Park.
About two miles in.
We've passed a couple littlecaves, streams.
It's just beautiful.
(06:30):
And what I've been wonderingthrough my relatively short
travels through West Virginia,why does it seem like this
particular section of thecountry has section of the
country has nearly always beenslightly overlooked.
So you hear about these 19thcentury doctors sending their
(06:51):
patients away into the mountainsfor their health, and it's
nearly always places likeAsheville, like the Smoky
Mountains, but it almost never.
You never hear West Virginia askind of a doctor's orders place
to go and I wonder why why notWest Virginia?
(07:12):
It's just as beautiful.
In some ways it's just asserene.
When and how did West Virginiaadopt this kind of diminished
reputation, adopt this kind ofdiminished reputation?
And look, I don't think it'sjust the difficult, sometimes
introversible terrain.
I think there's something more,something overlooked.
(07:35):
Before West Virginia there wasjust Virginia.
In an effort to establish apermanent English settlement in
North America, the British laidthe foundations of the Virginia
Colony named after the recentlydeceased Virgin Queen Elizabeth
I.
With the establishment of thefirst permanent English
(07:56):
settlement on North Americansoil, the seeds for European
expansion were planted.
In time, virginia becomes oneof the wealthiest of an
ever-growing number of Europeanclaims and colonies, and as the
hunger for land and resourcesintensify, opportunities out
(08:17):
west grow ever more tempting.
Okay, noodles is off-leash fornow.
We'll see what happens.
I'm sitting down, currentlyalmost done with the hike.
We'll head still further westto Point Pleasant, west Virginia
(08:37):
.
But for now let's give somequick context.
I guess for the bugs flyingaround me in the trees European
exploration of modern-day WestVirginia.
Then still, virginia begins inthe mid-17th century, with
(08:58):
French and English tradersestablishing posts, interacting
with nearby tribes and generallyroughing it in the wild.
There wasn't much here.
No real emigration to the areaoccurs until the 1730s when
Virginia passes a law and thislaw encourages westward movement
.
Basically, it grants 1,000acres for each family they
(09:26):
brought from outside the colonywithin two years of the law
being passed.
And it works right.
People move west.
By 1750, 1760, the populationof the Shenandoah River Valley
and beyond grows significantly.
Whether or not this land wastheirs to give away is another
conversation for another day.
(09:47):
But regardless, the French andIndian War, the Revolutionary
War, american War ofIndependence for all of those
across the pond.
Continued expansion decimatethe small Native American
population in West Virginiaitself.
This leaves the terrain empty,open for settlement, as sad as
(10:13):
it is.
So time passes, but unlikeexpansion into the Shenandoah
Valley, few come to WestVirginia.
Despite the beauty, theincentives, the economic
incentives with this bill thatwas passed, despite the space, I
want to know why One factormore than any other divides the
(10:48):
mountainous West Virginia fromEast Virginia throughout the
18th and 19th centuries, andthat factor is wealth.
It always comes down to moneyand the source of wealth for
Virginia, then, america'swealthiest colony, is derived
almost exclusively fromlarge-scale agriculture driven
(11:11):
by slaves.
But in West Virginia, thenstill Virginia, because of the
terrain, mountainous as it was,it was difficult to establish
any meaningful or impactfulplantation economy.
They couldn't plant, whichmeans they couldn't be an active
(11:32):
participant in the creation ofwealth in Virginia and
consequently couldn't afford anddidn't require slave labor on a
large scale, didn't requireslave labor on a large scale.
So priorities from the verybeginning between eastern and
western Virginia were justdifferent.
Those in the West Virginianmountains came to resent the
(11:54):
wealthier, more influentialeastern elites who would
frequently ignore their wantsand their needs they felt
underrepresented in thelegislature, overtaxed,
overlooked.
And their needs they feltunderrepresented in the
legislature, overtaxed,overlooked and generally just
shortchanged.
This fundamental difference inlifestyle, economics, needs and
(12:16):
more create over time a deepcultural and eventual political
divide between East and West, adivide that will fully
materialize amidst the growingsounds of familialcidal tannin
fodder.
(13:10):
The advent of America's CivilWar in 1861 somewhat echoes the
deep, cutting differencesbetween Plantation Virginia and
its mountainous western region.
An aristocratic plantationeconomy built on the backs of
slaves, virginia didn't want orneed the existing institution of
slavery to survive.
(13:30):
In fact, particularly in WestVirginia, the existing system of
oppression directly puts themat a disadvantage.
Why would they want it tocontinue?
So the coming opposition to aplantation economy built on
slavery was then, in the mindsof much of the population of the
(13:54):
North and in West Virginia,built largely upon a practical
matter rather than a moral one.
In 1863, after Virginiasucceeded from the Union to
establish ideological autonomy,48 counties separate from larger
(14:15):
Virginia to rejoin the Unionand establish at long last a
political environment that wouldbest suit West Virginians, not
the interests of outside forces,and so they thought it would
remain.
This, at least, was theirintention.
(14:38):
We made it back to the vanBefore we get on the road.
Let's talk.
You can start anything with aclear intention, but if you
don't have the abilities tofollow through with that
intention through influence,through power, endurance,
whatever, then the intentionitself kind of holds less value.
(15:02):
Right?
So when West Virginia achievedstatehood in 1863, they may have
had clear intentions for plansto benefit West Virginians and
ideas for the beautiful landthat was now theirs.
But the complicated reality ofdefining your own space is
(15:26):
difficult, particularly whenyou're doing it during
tumultuous times.
And West Virginia, born of acivil war, thrusted into the
greed of the gilded Age, an ageof exploitation, was unlikely to
fare well when it came toclaiming and maintaining the
(15:50):
vast natural resources that now,by name only, were theirs.
Workers keen on making a livingextracting the area's extensive
natural resources flood intoWest Virginia to mine mostly
coal, a resource that becomessynonymous with the West
(16:13):
Virginian identity going forward.
By and large, the coal industrydrives life, labor and culture
in the now separate state ofWest Virginia.
Soon after the war, like smogin the Hobbit, titans of the
Gilded Age claim vast reservesof coal deposits throughout the
(16:38):
state.
Outside investors from New York, london what have you all
compete for control of miningoperations within the state.
Slowly and surely, westVirginia belongs not to West
Virginians but to whoever ownsmining operations within the
(16:58):
state.
By 1920, more than half of thestate's private land is owned by
parties outside of WestVirginia.
West Virginia tosses theshackles of Virginian control
only to replace them withexternal interests who have
little regard for the peopleliving and working within its
(17:23):
borders.
We're in the car on our way toPoint Pleasant, a small but
storied West Virginian townalong the Ohio River.
(17:44):
Uh, known primarily for twothings the Silver Bridge
collapse in 1967 and Mothman.
All right, you might bethinking, noah, how are you
going to tie in the SilverBridge collapse of Point
Pleasant, the Mothman, into thelarger story of West Virginia?
(18:05):
You know, and to that I'd saystick with me, we'll get there.
And to get there we have totalk about the absolutely
abhorrent conditions in theVirginia mines throughout the
20th century.
Here's the astonishing reasonwhy these conditions were so
(18:26):
poor.
It blew me away and I hopeyou're ready.
So, as new mines opened upthroughout the state,
institutions are needed aroundthese mines A post office, a
merchant, entertainment basicthings any society needs.
Merchants, entertainment basicthings any society needs and the
entity to step in and buildthese places?
(18:48):
Essentially little.
Towns are the owners andoperators of each mining
facility.
They'd be the providers ofentertainment, safety, commerce,
sanitation, spiritual needs,education, everything with no to
(19:14):
little oversight.
Right, so, predictably,consequently, because these
towns were set up and controlledby those employing the workers
at the mine, conditions in andaround the town were all limited
and otherwise controlled by thewill and the resources of each
individual owner.
Remember, more often than notwe're outside investors, so what
(19:37):
do they care if people up inthe mountains are uncomfortable,
are struggling, are suffering,if their profits remain strong?
Here's the core of it.
Profit elsewhere, butparticularly in West Virginia,
sculpts conditions, not thecommon good of the people living
(19:59):
in and around the mines.
Look, think about it, thinkabout the worst boss you've ever
had.
Right, it's in your mind Now.
Everything in your life is nowcontrolled by that boss your
movie theater, your education,your health care, just
(20:22):
everything that sucks.
That straight up sucks.
So you know, predictably, again, terrible conditions ensue.
Mining disasters regularlyhappen, with little concern for
safety.
Born of this, collectiveexploitation and suffering
(20:45):
begins to take root in WestVirginia.
Throughout the 1900s, theconcept of a West Virginian
emerges the population of WestVirginia was, and is,
overwhelmingly rural Back in1870, 92% of the state is
(21:09):
considered rural, by the 30s 72%, and just over half of the
population today is consideredrural, but uniquely so, it's a
rural population that'sindustrial rather than
agricultural.
Here's the easiest way I wasable to understand this you take
(21:36):
the poor working conditions andexploitation within larger
cities and place them in a ruralsetting, a setting where the
operator, employer, owner,whatever the case may be, has
more control over the quality ofyour life outside of your
physical workplace than in thecities.
Than ever.
It's in these really helplessconditions where employees and
(21:59):
their families will themselvesto learn self-sufficiency,
particularly with farming.
The land when nothing exists,create it yourself.
The mentality becomes as rawand terrible as conditions were
in the mines and many of thetowns.
The rural setting of WestVirginia allowed for a level of
(22:23):
self-sufficiency that justwouldn't be possible in the
cities, and this Growingtendency towards
self-sufficiency in WestVirginia encouraged the passing
down of a uniquely WestVirginian set of skills and
values.
The land itself and thementality you must have to live
(22:44):
upon it becomes an integral partof life, an immovable fact of
the West Virginian mentality.
All this together makes for anindustrial, rural,
self-sufficient culture thatbecomes unavoidably and entirely
West Virginian.
(23:37):
It should be said that WestVirginia is not, nor will it
ever be, a monolith.
Today.
Eastern counties by DC will bedifferent than southern counties
, will be different thannorthern central.
But when considering thecollective perception, the
stereotype of West Virginia as awhole, it's important to
(23:59):
understand a bit about why thatmight be and where else to
demonstrate this.
But at the western edge of WestVirginia, point Pleasant, point
Pleasant, and as I walk alongthe main street of Point
Pleasant, I'm looking to bothprove the point that West
(24:20):
Virginia is not a monolithbecause you know Point Pleasant
is different and explain whymodern West Virginia has the
perception that it sometimesdoes.
And fine, we'll talk aboutMothman, thick Fog.
(24:48):
Thick Fog obscures the pathahead of Linda and Roger's Chevy
.
They know the abandoned bunkersand dirt roads around Point
Pleasant well.
Much of the land had been usedas a T&T manufacturing facility
during World War II.
These plants were not onlydangerous but toxic as well.
(25:10):
Locals considered the area goodfun, a fun time to ride around
the winding, dirt roadssurrounding the complex.
So in many ways tonight was justanother night for the young
couple, that is until when,passing a particularly dense,
(25:31):
thicket of trees.
They notice a large,particularly dense thicket of
trees.
They notice a large, unblinkingpair of eyes glaring back at
them.
Their Chevy screeches to a halt.
Somewhat mesmerized, linda andRoger both stare ahead intensely
.
The thickening fog obscures anydefinitive outline of whatever
(25:51):
this is, any definitive outlineof whatever this is.
But from what they can tell,the creature is some seven feet
tall, with wings twice itsheight.
Its right wing seems to becaught on a fence.
No distinguishable face liesbehind the haunting red eyes.
(26:16):
After a pause, the creatureuntangles its wings from the
fence and shoots up in the air.
The couple breaks out of theirmomentary paralysis as Roger
slams on the pedal, lindascreams.
As they retrace their pathalong the winding, dirt roads,
they look up to see the creaturekeeping pace with them with
ease 80, 90, 100 miles per hour.
(26:37):
Escape seems impossible.
With the haunting red eyesglaring down at them, they panic
and then nothing.
As soon as it had happened, thecreature with red eyes
disappears.
The fog dissipates.
Still in a state of shock, thecouple finds the nearest
(27:03):
payphone to report what they hadseen.
This story happens in the fallof 1966.
(27:24):
In the following year, nearly100 reports of this flying
creature with red eyes, laterreferred to as Mothman, happen
in and around the small town ofPoint Pleasant, west Virginia.
We're walking now towards thememorial of the Silver Bridge
disaster, again in modern PointPleasant.
(27:47):
We passed the Mothman Museum,mothman Mini Golf, mothman
Mojitos statues yeah, this townwas built and is built in and
around Mothman and the memory ofwhere I'm going now.
And I guess my question is thishow does this small town
(28:09):
between two rivers on the edgeof West Virginia fit in with the
larger context of the WestVirginia story?
It's people, it's history, it'spublic perception.
How and why is it relevant?
(28:31):
The West Virginia Mothman crazeof the 1960s becomes associated
with the Silver Bridge collapseof 1967.
But only in retrospect.
The more than 100 officialreports of the Mothman abruptly
stop following the bridge'scollapse in 1967, in 1967,
(29:01):
leading many to see the Mothmannot as a threat, a simple
curiosity, but as a harbinger ofdoom, an entity whatever it is,
warning of the coming bridgecollapse To Point Pleasant, a
town of some 6,000 in a sparsestate then known for significant
poverty and a deep distrust ofoutside authority.
Given the external land grabs,worker abuses and general
history, we've already gone over.
(29:22):
A general sense of forebodingis understandable.
Dread doom it's understandable,particularly when institutional
structures they're supposed torely on, let's say a bridge,
haven't always had their back inthe past.
(29:47):
Here we are, standing at thesite of the bridge collapse.
There's a memorial plaque forall of the victims and a large
mural right in front of me.
No mention or depiction of theMothman to be seen.
Here's my thought right now.
Maybe reports halted of theMothman after the bridge
(30:09):
collapsed because it was theninappropriate or too soon after
a tragedy to report or speak ofsomething as abnormal as a giant
flying moth?
Maybe the Mothman really warnedof things to come, who's to say
?
But my bet, my hunch, is thatthese sightings, the Mothman in
(30:34):
general, represent the generalmentality within the collective
consciousness, the historicalconsciousness of West Virginia.
West Virginia history is longand convoluted, a history that
(31:01):
the West Virginian modernperspective can only be informed
by, a mindset passed downthrough war, disappointment,
exploitation, thankless work,the ruthless self-sufficiency,
pride in land, hard-workingmentality is impressive given
the long history of exploitationin the state.
(31:23):
Although absentee landownersstill own a large portion of the
state's mineral-rich land, 16%of the state's population now
falls below the poverty line andcoal is still economically
important and even essential inplaces.
Good things happen too.
The state is slowlydiversifying economically,
(31:46):
investments in infrastructureare increasing and approximately
75 million people now visit therugged, beautiful mountains,
rushing streams and slopingvalleys of West Virginia.
So Mothman, to me, as thisprophetic thing, this warning
(32:13):
entity, makes sense as a kind ofpersonification of collective
caution for land and populationthat's long been well screwed.
But maybe, just as the Mothmanvanished in the summer of 67,
(32:34):
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.
(33:13):
Hope you enjoyed our travelsthrough West Virginia.
I've some final thoughts Goinginto this.
The last thing I wanted to dowas treat West Virginia, west
Virginians, as one thing, as amonolith.
Every state has diverse peoplewith different opinions and
experiences, and that'sundoubtedly true in West
Virginia and that's undoubtedlytrue in West Virginia.
(33:33):
But I also wanted to examinethe 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 youdive deeper into these stories,
(33:57):
the history of a person or aplace, you learn to see them
more fully, and I hope that Ihelped you see West Virginia a
little more fully as well.
Point Pleasant is more thanjust Mothman and the Silver
Bridge disaster.
West Virginia is more thanmountains and mining towns, but
all of these are a part of thewhole story of a state that I've
come to love and appreciate.
So thank you, west Virginia,for being unique, having good
(34:20):
stories and treating me withgood times.
We might be doing another, morein-depth Mothman episode in the
future.
I know the fans of all of ourcryptid episodes will be left
wanting with this one, so ifyou'd like to see that, or if
you'd like to see anything,reach out at backroad to Odyssey
(34:41):
pod at gmailcom.
Would love to start a convo Ifyou enjoy the stories that we're
telling.
Taking a minute right now torate and review genuinely helps
us continue to put the work we'dlike to into making the show as
(35:02):
good as it can be.
With that said, watch out forMothman.
Be good to each other.
Where to next?
Backroad Odyssey.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.