The Mysterious Moortown Bridge

by Lynn Hall, Ruth Sanderson (Illustrator)

While on a camping trip with their families, Curtis and Pat discover a ghost town in a heavily wooded ravine.

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Lynn Hall was the author of over fifty novels for juvenile and young adult readers, as well as over two dozen novels for younger readers. Her books focus on coming-of-age stories featuring dogs and horses.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me only a short while to read this. I thought it would be right up my alley, because anything with mystery and haunted locations and ghosts is guaranteed to capture my attention. The font was really big and I didn't like that part, and the pictures were sketchy, brown, black and white, those loose lines that's kind of distracting. I think I would've even been disappointed in this reading it as a kid, and I definitely am disappointed reading it at the age of 21. The mystery started off being a little interesting and I waited for it to become more so--and then the book ended. I don't like short novels because there's no way to resolve anything in a short amount of time.

It's a children's novel about young friends, a boy Curtis and a girl Pat, they meet once a circle at the Circle M and go horseback riding. They go riding alone and take the horses further than they should, and end up coming across a covered bridge with an old lady yelling at them. They think she's a witch or a ghost, and their horses get spooked so they have to turn around. They decide to go camping there by themselves and they once again see the old lady. This time they cross the bridge without the horses and they notice bullet holes in the flooring. The old lady gets mad at them for bumping into a man they can't see. A younger woman comes, and it turns out the old lady is her husband's great-aunt. The kids ask about the identity of the man they "bumped" into, and the woman tells them the story about the man who originally lived in the area and hired men for the bridge to be built. He asked for a 12-foot bridge, but the inside of the bridge, where the wagons cross through, was only 11.2. The entire bridge measured 12 from the outside but not the inside, so the man refused to pay for the work, only the tools. The worker became angry and said no one would ever cross that bridge, so he lied in wait every day to keep people from crossing, banging pots and pans and making noise to scare horses away. The man called the sheriff on him and told him he couldn't be on the bridge anymore, so the worker hid under the bridge instead with his gun. His wife found out about it and rode over in the wagon with her two children. The worker didn't know it was her and fired the gun up beside the bridge. The horse spooked and fell over sideways, and the wagon fell into the river killing his wife and one of his children. His daughter, now known as aunt Evvie, survived, and she is the old lady that the kids saw on the bridge. Some years later the worker hung himself on the bridge and Evvie found him. Curtis was doubtful, saying it happened a long time ago and maybe the horses weren't scared of a haunted bridge but had a sense of danger, that maybe the floor was rotted and the horses knew they couldn't cross. Pat says maybe, maybe not, and that's where the novel ended.

I just couldn't believe my eyes that the story was just cut off like that because I wasn't ready for it to end, and I don't think it was a good place to end off. There was so much more that could've happened. The kids could have actually seen the ghost, which would've been cool, or they could've found some resolution for the old woman and her lost family, which would have wrapped everything up nicely. Also, I like for there to be some love in a story, I don't care if they are kids, and there was nothing. What would have really left off on a good note was to say they got together and came back as adults with their kids or something, but nope, I have no idea what happened to these kids or anyone else. It's really astounding that a book is left off this way.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this at a local bookshop, that the library had discarded, and it was instantly familiar to me. I remembered the bridge, and the kids riding on it, and skimmed through the story, it was just so familiar, even though my sister tries to convince me I haven’t read it!
I bought it some time last year, or earlier this year, I don’t remember, and I’m just now adding it to my Read shelf.
I probably read this sometime during elementary school, and got it because of the horses on the cover, and also the mystery aspect.

[Hadiqa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two kids went into the woods for camping and decided to go to the "haunted bridge" which wasn't, in the end, haunted at all.

[Shazza Maddog · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice young reader's book about a pair of kids who find a mysterious covered bridge while out riding horses. They wind up asking their parents if they can spend the night in the woods and discover how the bridge was built...and why it's in the condition it is.

I felt like the story could've easily gone on a little longer - while the kids uncover the "mystery", there's no resolution in my opinion.