Jim's FJ-40 parked in TNT area where Mothman was seen.
These are acid cradles in the TNT area north of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. TNT was made at this location during World War II. It was officially called the West Virginia Ordnance Works but called the TNT plant by locals, including Jim's mother, who worked there and knew what was going on during the war. Large train-car size tanks sat on these foundations. The area was abandoned following the war. Most of the buildings and other facilities were dismantled after the war. However, some structures were too massive to tear down so were left standing. The area was given to the West Virginia State Farm Museum and to a state-operated wildlife management area and abandoned for 50 some years. Before this area was taken over by the government to support the war effort, it was some of the best farm land in Mason county.
Following graduation from high school in the early 1950s, Jim worked for two years as a fish and wildlife specialist at the McClintic Wildlife Refuge nearby.
Jim, as a volunteer at the museum, created a nature and hiking trail through these structures and published a self-guiding brochure of the area. The government declared sections of these lands Superfund Sites and cleanup is in progress. During the war effort, some chemicals were disposed of improperly according to today's standards. For a while, Jim attended meetings of the Corps of Engineers who oversee the decontamination effort as it pertained to Farm Museum grounds. Details of the ongoing activity can be found on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Mid-Atlantic Superfund site.
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