By Tim Binnall
West Virginia is celebrating its rich history of high strangeness with the creation of an official paranormal trail that highlights over a dozen odd and eerie locations found throughout the state. Developed by the West Virginia Department of Tourism, the clever initiative was announced on Monday by Governor Jim Justice. "I love when we come up with new ways to get folks to explore West Virginia," he said, "we've got so much unique history here, stories passed down through the years, and even a few ghost tales." To encourage would-be explorers, the concept includes a 'digital passport' for travelers to check in at each location along the spooky state-wide tour with the chance to win prizes as they accumulate stops.
Among the fourteen spots featured on the state's paranormal trail are museums dedicated to iconic West Virginia cases Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster, allegedly haunted sites like the infamous Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum and the unsettling Lake Shawnee Abandoned Amusement Park, and even a massive statue of Bigfoot located in a forest. Remarkably, West Virginia is not the first state to embrace its history of high strangeness in the hopes of drawing visitors as similar efforts have previously been launched in Nevada and Kentucky.