TNT Area

An abandoned World War II munitions storage facility consisting of concrete igloos and bunkers in the McClintic Wildlife Management Area. The site of the first reported Mothman sighting on November 15, 1966, when two young couples encountered a large creature with glowing red eyes.

The TNT Area outside Point Pleasant, West Virginia, is ground zero for the Mothman legend -- the place where America's most famous cryptid was first encountered and where the paranormal wave that gripped Mason County for thirteen months began. During World War II, the site served as the West Virginia Ordnance Works, a massive munitions manufacturing and storage facility operated by the United States Army. The complex included hundreds of concrete igloos -- dome-shaped bunkers used to store TNT and other explosives -- scattered across thousands of acres of dense Appalachian forest. When the war ended, the facility was decommissioned and abandoned, leaving behind a labyrinth of crumbling bunkers, overgrown roads, and contaminated soil that gave the area an eerie, post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

On the night of November 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant -- Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette -- were driving near the old munitions plant when they spotted a large figure standing beside the road near one of the concrete igloos. The creature stood between six and seven feet tall, with a brownish-black body, massive wings, and two large red eyes that glowed like bicycle reflectors. When the terrified couples sped away, the creature spread its wings and pursued their car, keeping pace at speeds exceeding one hundred miles per hour all the way to the Point Pleasant city limits.

The Scarberry-Mallette encounter was just the beginning. Over the next thirteen months, at least twenty-six Mothman sightings were reported in and around the TNT Area. The abandoned bunkers and dark forest roads became a magnet for both the curious and the terrified. Additional witnesses included volunteer firefighters who described a large bird with glowing red eyes. One Salem resident reported mysterious television interference, strange outdoor sounds, and two red eyes reflecting back at him from the darkness -- followed by the disappearance of his pet dog.

But the Mothman was not the only strangeness reported at the TNT Area. Witnesses described UFO sightings over the bunkers, mysterious lights hovering in the treeline, phantom phone calls with eerie electronic voices, and encounters with the Men in Black -- strange, pale-skinned men in dark suits who appeared in Point Pleasant to question witnesses about their sightings with an unsettling mechanical demeanor. Journalist John Keel documented these phenomena during his 1966-1967 investigation, later publishing his findings in The Mothman Prophecies in 1975.

The sightings stopped abruptly on December 15, 1967, the day the Silver Bridge collapsed. Today, the TNT Area remains accessible, its crumbling concrete igloos still standing among the trees like monuments to the unexplained. Visitors report feelings of unease, unexplained sounds in the forest, and an oppressive sense of being watched -- the same sensations described by witnesses more than half a century ago.