Echoes of the Southwest

Cruising along the back roads from West Virginia to Gettysburg, PA, we came across two equally amazing abandoned structures.  Sharon and I saw them down a somewhat paved road and knew we needed to stop and take pictures.  We hiked up the road and notice they were sitting along another two-lane road.  I was drawn to the large two-story home.  It looked like it had been abandoned for many years.  To me, it was a beautiful piece of art for me to photograph.  The other building looked like a small cabin.  Sharon got a reading on that structure for our next Abandoned Places book.

Across the street from the Grave Creek Mound is a massive stone medieval castle-like structure which is the West Virginia Penitentiary (Moundsville Prison).  The prison opened in 1876 and was constructed to hold 480 prisoners.  By the 1900’s, the prison started to experience overcrowding and they started working on enlarging the prison.  In 1929, the construction was temporarily halted because of the war causing an iron shortage.  By then, the penitentiary accommodated over 2,400 prisoners with three men to every five by seven cells.  The expansion was finally finished in 1959, but by then the prison had a reputation for violence and harsh punishments. In 1986, the West Virginia Supreme Court made a judgment proclaiming that the tiny cells were merciless and harsh punishment.  They ordered the West Virginia Penitentiary to be shut down.  The last of the prisoners were moved out and relocated in 1995.
Today, the prison is a place where tourist can visit and roam the halls while learni…

In the town of Moundsville, West Virginia, and near the Ohio River sits the massive Grave Creek Mound.  As we were driving down the streets of Moundsville and looking for it, we got stuck at a red light.  I said to Sharon, “we should be able to see the mound because it is so big”.  Right after saying that, I turned to my right and there it was.  You just can’t miss the immense green grassy hill right in the middle of town.  It is also located across the street from the colossal Moundsville Prison.  (That place is featured in my next post.) The Grave Creek Mound is about 69 feet high, 295 feet in diameter, and is one of the most prevalent cone-shaped burial mounds found in the United States.  It was built sometime between 250-150 BC and is crafted of more than 60,000 tons of dirt by the Adena people.  Historians believe the mound was constructed in various stages by the many burials at various levels inside the mound.  In earlier times, the mound was surrounded by a moat which was about…

Driving along the back roads of West Virginia, we came across this abandoned farmhouse.  We almost missed it because of all the growth all over the shell of the structure.  We stopped and noticed a building in the background which looked like it collapsed.  We took pictures of the structure before walking over to the farmhouse.  We noticed a cow staring at us.  He looked like Norman from the movie "City Slickers".  Norman would not keep his eyes off us the entire time we took pictures of the house.  This was another of my favorite places.  I just love how the vines engulfed the entire place.  It looked so beautiful.  Norman and his buddy kept a watchful eye on us until we got in our car.  I am so glad we found this empty gem.

It is always great when you see a lone structure sitting along the the highway.  The church looked abandoned so we had to stop and take pictures.  As I was snapping away, Sharon told me to look across the street.  There it was, tucked in the forest among the trees was a tiny cemetery.  Scattered were several headstones that looked like they have been there for years.  It was an eerie site with the darkness of the trees surrounding the graves.  This stop turned out to be much better than we expected.

You can’t go to Point Pleasant, WV without hearing about the Mothman.  There are many stories floating around about what it is and if it was responsible for the collapse of the Silver Bridge in 1967.  Some believe it is the harbinger of doom, an urban legend, while others think it is a protector.  It was reported by witnesses as seeing the winged creature flying over the bridge right before it fell into the river.  This event spawned a book “The Mothman Prophecies” and a 2002 movie with the same name.
The Mothman is an infamous winged cryptic first seen in Point Pleasant in 1966 by two couples driving near the TNT area.  This area is an abandoned TNT factory from World War II and where many reported sightings of the creature have been seen.  The couples described what they saw as a “flying man with ten-foot wings with red glowing eyes”.  After their story in the Point Pleasant Register, several others came forward with stories of seeing the huge bird-like creature especially near the…