Story 1
Ok, I will start with a bit of history of the area. SOme of this stuff is just folklore and may not be true, but this stuff is believed by the majority of the people in the area so here we go.
Pt. Pleasant, West Virginia is not the rural area many would think it is, in fact Pt. Pleasant is quite urban for a backwards town. Not at all what would be expected of a town in the foothills of W.Va. It rests right across the river from Gallipolis, Ohio, where I spent the vast majority of my high school career.
Not far from Pt. Pleasant is an ara called the TNT. The name comes from the fact that during WWII it was the site of a munitions dump and factory. They stored a lot of stuff here but it was pretty much abandoned after the war and done with by the time 69 rolled around.
Local legend held that the area had never been settled by the "indians" (I hate that term, being 1/4 Miami Nation myself) and this is backed up by the fact that you can not find native artifacts in the TNT area at all. The reason, so legend has it, is that the area was settled by a race of white skinned and red eyed cannibals though no evidence of any such thing exists.
Another interesting tidbit about Pt. Pleasant is the curse, this part I know is real. Chief Cornstalk fought for the rights of Native Americans in the White man's world and earned quite a reputation as a take no crap kind of guy, but relented and allied with the settlers. Well, he was killed in Pt. Pleasant, the spot is actually marked in town. It occured in what was then the town square. With his dying breath he pronounced a curse on the settlers of Pt. Pleasant that many people think brought about the fall of the SIlver Bridge. Strangely, the new bridge was built about 1-2 miles down the road of where the old Bridge was located and does not take one directly to Pt. Pleasant, you have to cross another bridge in W.Va. to get to Pt. Pleasant.
Now back to the more present day. The site was also home to a Satanic cult, and no not the rural myth kind of cult. These were your out and out La Veyan types of Satanists, just a bunch of hedonists who wanted to smoke pot, drink beer and skank all night. I knew a few of them atually. They used to see things though, creeping around the bonfire they had built out on the Island as it as called. It was a bunker surround by water except for a straight strip that led to the bunker itself. There was about 30 yard around it so it was pretty dry usually.
I visited the TNT area a few times. It possesses an eerieness that can not be described really, something John Keel calls a Temporal displacement. The area is now closed off to the public for the most part. The government claimed it as a part of a forest reclamation program during the Clinton Administration except that usually those places are open to the public so that we can help in the clean up. The area was really damaged by all the chemicals that were used during the Big One and most of the plant life was dead or dying year round. Now the military has the area and most of it is sealed by these gates that are barred and a lot of armed guards...
Makes you wonder what is really going on...
Jason
I edited a correction in with Chief Cornstalk... mixed him and Chief Logan together.
