Attractions and Events
Mason County boasts many recreational, educational, and entertaining activities that offer something for everyone! Please read the captions below the photos and, where available, click on the various links to learn more about the selected attraction or event. For detailed information including specific dates for our festivals, please visit our "Schedule of Events" page.
Photo by Ed Lowe
The annual Battle Days Festival is celebrated in Point Pleasant during the first full weekend of each October. The festival is a commemoration of the October 10, 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant and it features historical re-enactments, crafts, food, and fun for all ages.
Photo by Ed Lowe
Chief Cornstalk Wildlife Management Area (11,772 acres) is accessible by Nine-Mile Road traveling westward from U.S. Route 35 near Southside. The area can also be reached from state Route 2, five miles south of Gallipolis Ferry by turning onto Crab Creek Road leading east to Arlee and then onto the area. Gently rolling to moderately steep slopes comprise most of the area. The area is about 85 percent hardwood forest. Good hunting opportunities exist for deer, turkey, squirrel and grouse. Trapping for raccoon, mink, fox and muskrat is excellent and a special permit is required from the district biologist or area manager. A shooting range is available. A 5-acre lake offers fishing for largemouth bass, bluegill and channel catfish. Catchable-sized trout are stocked in the lake. Rustic tent or small camping sites with vault toilets are available for a nominal fee. Owned and managed by WVDNR.
Photo by Ed Lowe
Each November, the Christmas Fantasy Light Show kicks off at Point Pleasant's Krodel Park. Displays include a Mothman, a twenty foot Santa Claus and windmill, and a pink hippo among others.
Photo by Ed Lowe
The Country Fall Festival is put on by the West Virginia State Farm Museum each October. Attractions include steam and gas engines, a CEOS quilt show, antique bottle displays, sawmill and wheat thrashing demonstrations, and live entertainment. Visitors may watch people making apple butter, apple cider, corn meal, sorghum, and homemade vegetable soup (all for sale).
Photo by Scott Roedersheimer
Fort Randolph is a replica of an eighteenth century military installation that once stood in what has become Point Pleasant. The fort, owned by the City of Point Pleasant and administered by a volunteer committee, is located in Krodel Park. The goals of this committee are to promote historical and educational values through the preservation and development of Fort Randolph and through the interpretation of its history.
Photo by Ed Lowe
The Holiday Light Festival at the West Virginia State Farm Museum features over three million lights, Santa Claus, and free hot chocolate and cookies for children. This event takes place each December.
The Kanawha Valley MotorSports Park is West Virginia's only IHRA sanctioned raceway.
Photo by Ed Lowe
The historic Kincaid House in Point Pleasant is a three story brick house that was built between 1890 and 1900. This house is open for tours by appointment. Please contact Charles Humphreys at (304) 675-3844 for more information.
Photo by Ed Lowe
Krodel Park in Point Pleasant offers RV and tent camping, fishing, miniature golf, paddle boats, a public playground, one mile walking track, and a clubhouse and picnic shelters for rent.
Photo by Ed Lowe
Living History Days is an event sponsored by the West Virginia State Farm Museum each year in June. Visitors may see re-enactors, enjoy live entertainment and chicken barbeque, and watch an antique tractor pull.
The Mason County Fair is West Virginia's largest county fair. It plays host to live entertainment, carnival rides, food, livestock sales, tractor pulls, and more.
Photo by Ed Lowe
The Mason County Farmers' Market, located in both Point Pleasant and the town of New Haven, is where local growers sell their fresh produce and freshly baked pies and breads. The market runs from June 1st through October 31st. For more information, please contact Bill Reeble at (304) 675-2067.
Photo by Ed Lowe
McClintic Wildlife Management Area (3,655 acres) is located five miles north of Point Pleasant or eight miles south of the city of Mason off state Route 62 via Fairgrounds Road (CR12), follow DNR signs. McClintic contains the greatest variety of wildlife habitats to be found on any West Virginia WMA. Approximately 600 acres of farmland, 1,100 acres of brushland, 180 acres of wetland, and 1,775 acres of mixed hardwood forest combine to provide excellent hunting for deer, waterfowl, turkey, squirrel, rabbit, mourning dove and woodcock. Waterfowl hunting on a portion of the area is by permit only during early October. Trapping for muskrat, mink, beaver and raccoon is productive and requires a special permit from the area manager. The area features a 100-yard shooting range. Warmwater fishing is allowed in 29 of the area’s 31 ponds, with bass and bluegill anglers enjoying the greatest success. Channel catfish and northern pike are stocked in several ponds. Rustic campsites with vault toilets and drinking water are available at a nominal fee. Owned by WVDNR.
Photo by Ed Lowe
The annual Mothman Festival, which celebrates the infamous legend of the Mothman, takes place in September each year. Recently called one of West Virginia's "coolest new festivals" by the Huntington Herald-Dispatch. The event features live music, screenings of Mothman related documentaries and films, vendors, crafters, a guest speakers' forum, and tours of Mothman-related sites.
Photo by Ed Lowe
The world's only Mothman Museum and Research Center is home to an archive that contains information about various Mothman sightings over the years. The museum features all sorts of rare collectables, as well as movie props from the "Mothman Prophecies" movie starring Richard Gere. A visual media viewing area, gift shop, and free local information can also be found at this museum in the heart of Point Pleasant's historic downtown.
Native People of the Point, an event that occurs each June, transports visitors 250 years into the past by giving them the opportunity to explore an authentic recreation of an Eastern Woodland Indian village and to witness skilled reenactors demonstrating the life ways of tribes that once tread the lands in what we now know as Mason County.
The Point Pleasant River Museum focuses on river life and commercial enterprise on the Ohio and Great Kanawha rivers. Displays, video demonstrations, and special events and guests will highlight topics such as great floods, boat construction, sternwheel steamers, river disasters, and the local river industry's contribution to World War II. The museum also offers a working pilot house, as well as a research library.
Riverside Golf Club, located in Mason County's Bend Area, is a public par 70 course.
Photo by Ed Lowe
The Rodders Car Show takes place each August at Point Pleasant Riverfront Park. The proceeds from this event benefit a chosen non-profit agency.
Photo by Ed Lowe
The Siege of Fort Randolph takes place during the third weekend in May each year. Visitors witness a historical drama of the events that led up to Shawnee Chief Cornstalk's murder at Fort Randolph in 1777, as well as several re-enactments of the ensuing siege of Fort Randolph by American Indians in 1778.
Photo by Ed Lowe
The Steam and Gas Engine Show occurs annually in May at the West Virginia State Farm Museum. This event features displays of small engines, antqiue tractors, sawmill demonstrations, live entertainment, and home-cooked food.
Photo by Ed Lowe
The annual Sternwheel Regatta in Point Pleasant is a celebration of the river that occurs each July. It features live music, vendors, and a carnival-like atmosphere.
Tu-Endie-Wei State Park is located at the confluence of the Ohio and Great Kanawha rivers. Also known as Point Pleasant Battle Monument State Park, Tu-Endie-Wei is the site of the October 10, 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant. This four acre state park is home to several memorials, including the giant obelisk that memorializes those militamen who fought and died at the battle. The Mansion House Museum, housed in the oldest log-hewn structure in the Kanawha Valley, boasts antiques and heirlooms of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The West Virginia State Farm Museum is dedicated to the preservation of Mason County's agricultural heritage. It is home to hundreds of antiques from tools to tractors. The museum is also the site where dozens of historic buildings, moved from their original locations, have been rebuilt and preserved.
The Virgil A. Lewis House, located in Mason, West Virginia, is registered on the National Register of Historic Places. It was once the home of Virgil A. Lewis, West Virginia's first state historian. For more information, please contact Paula Gregory at (304) 773-5200.