Point Pleasant WV West Virginia
Frequently Asked Questions
At the riverfront park landing, on the point where the Kanawha River joins the Ohio. Passengers are within a few minutes' walk of everything that matters in this small town.
Yes, entirely. The riverfront park and its murals, Tu-Endie-Wei State Park, the Mothman statue, its museum and Main Street are all walkable from the landing.
A winged, red-eyed creature two couples claimed to have encountered in November 1966 near a disused munitions plant. Sightings multiplied for a year, and the town entered American legend. A polished steel statue with spread wings now stands downtown.
Yes, and it surprises people. Billed as the only museum in the world devoted to the creature, it gathers 1966-67 press clippings, witness accounts and props from the film made about the affair. You go in amused and come out thoughtful: in December 1967 the town suffered the Silver Bridge collapse, which killed 46 people, and the legend became bound to that very real grief.
Start with the floodwall murals, the best possible introduction to the town. Then Tu-Endie-Wei State Park and its obelisk, the Mansion House, the Mothman statue and museum, and a wander along Main Street.
The site of the Battle of Point Pleasant on 10 October 1774, where Virginia militia fought a confederation of Shawnee and Mingo warriors led by Chief Cornstalk. A 26-metre granite obelisk commemorates the engagement, which some historians consider a prelude to the Revolutionary War.
'The point between two waters', in the Wyandot language. The name describes the town's position exactly, at the junction of the Kanawha and the Ohio.
Local history, panel by panel: Indigenous nations, frontier life, the paddlewheel steamers. It is an open-air gallery along the riverbank, and it costs nothing but a walk.
The US dollar. Cards work in the Main Street shops and at the museum, but keep some cash: this is a very small town.
Spring through autumn, the Ohio River cruising season. The Mansion House, the 1796 log tavern turned museum, opens only from May to October: outside that window part of the visit will be closed to you.
