Nitro, Wv.

Named by the Government, Nitro was created to win wars.

It all sounds like a terrible movie right? Or at least “American Gladiators” on (more) steroids.

It turned out the government named a town of about 7,000 Nitro long before Somebodyisfromhere.com would have thought there would have been a word for Nitro. Wiki explains:

The name Nitro derives from nitrocellulose. The Nitro area was to be the American ammunition production facility during World War I. Its name was selected by the United States government because of the establishment there, during World War I, of a large federal plant for the manufacture of explosives.

They duplicated this for next great war and were evidently pretty good at it.

The chemical plants in the area were able to fulfill this function during World War II, on a lesser scale. The city is known as the “Magic City,” or a “Living Memorial to World War I.

Perhaps these chemicals seeped into the local’s skulls, though, as there are some weird occurrences in town.

For example, “In 2001 Clonaid operated a lab in Nitro that was tied to the Raelians. It was located inside a rented room within a former high school. The FDA said that the equipment in lab was state-of-the-art and had been bought by a former West Virginia state legislator Mark Hunt.”

Another Wiki page explains, “The Raëlian Movement teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, which they call the Elohim.”

Meanwhile fans of either Richard Gere and/or unexplained phenomena might be interested to know Nitro is also home of a “…1967 Mothman sighting, although this remains unconfirmed.”

Wiki explains, “Mothman is a legendary creature first reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia from 15 November 1966 to 15 December 1967.”

Most unusual of all there were also said to have been Clark Gable sightings. Oh, wait, this might be true since Wiki explains, “Actor Clark Gable lived briefly in Nitro around 1920.” Randy Moss, too(however, not in 1920).