“As the Phoenix (or Mothman) Rises”: A Review of Bridging the Tragedy: Silver Linings in the Mysterious Ohio River Valley, by Bill Kousoulas and Jacqueline Kousoulas

 

 (Chicago: Bird Mountain Books, 2022). ISBN: 9798848732122

It is not a stretch to say that Mothman is presently the most popular cryptid—bigger than Nessie, Bigfoot, and Dogman. It would also not be a stretch to posit that the collapse of the Silver Bridge, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia to Gallipolis, Ohio, until it fell within minutes on December 15, 1967 (killing 46 people), is the most tragic in U.S. history. It spurred President Johnson to form a highway commission and change the frequency and process by which bridges are inspected.

Consider for a moment that these disparate events (despite persistent lore) happened in the course of almost exactly 13 months (starting with the first Mothman sightings around November 15, 1966) in the same tiny town of 6,000. No wonder Point Pleasant is almost mythical and certainly magical in bringing tens of thousands of visitors each year to its stuck-in-time Main Street and nearby McClintic Wildlife Management Area (aka the TNT Area). Whether it’s to take a picture with Bob Roach’s Mothman statue, visit the Mothman Museum, attend the Festival, or explore the concrete igloos in the TNT Area, people come for the cryptid but often stay to learn about the bridge and history of the town, which nearly died when the bridge collapsed and its replacement was built several miles away.

Ask just about anyone in the area, and they’ll tell you revitalization began with the release of Mark Pellington’s 2002 film, The Mothman Prophecies, starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney, which is loosely based on Fortean researcher John Keel’s 1975 book of the same name. Like the authors of Bridging the Tragedy, the film was my introduction to this oddly named cryptid. Living in West Virginia at the time—about three and a half hours from Point Pleasant—my wife and I took a weekend trip to this quaint little town on the Ohio River that profoundly changed our lives.

It seems we share this with the authors of Bridging the Tragedy.

There are other similarities, although our immediate fondness for Carolin Harris, owner of the Harris Steak House (aka The Mothman Diner) is most important. Carolin wore horn-rimmed glasses and a beehive hairdo that went perfectly with the 1950s/60s feel of the diner and the town. From August 2009 until Carolin’s death in December 2016, we were fortunate to call her our friend. Her spirit and energy were another key to Point Pleasant’s revitalization. She provided free food every Thanksgiving and was a driving force, along with Jeff Wamsley, behind the Mothman Festival, which happens every September.

During our August 2009 visit, my wife and I had a profound experience with interdimensional beings near the TNT Area that led to our becoming paranormal researchers, authors, podcasters, and lecturers. We were mentored for more than a decade by Rosemary Ellen Guiley and, over the past 13 years, have presented countless times about Mothman and Point Pleasant. I wrote and designed the forthcoming Mothman Escape Room at the museum and am writer/lyricist of the forthcoming Mothman Was Here musical, which will debut at the amphitheater on the Ohio River in Point Pleasant in autumn 2023.

I was of course eager to read Bridging the Tragedy. Having done so, I now consider it a mandatory addition to the books and documentaries on the subjects of Mothman and the Silver Bridge.

My reasons for doing so are threefold. First, the authors clearly love Point Pleasant and honor their interviewees. Second, this is the first book-length exploration of these two events to use a psychological approach. Third, I learned new things about the town from the 11 interviewees, and, despite having read an excellent book on the collapse of the Silver Bridge and the aftermath, their insights painted an even clearer picture of just how tragic it truly was.

Authors Bill and Jaci Kousoulas are the principles behind Phenomenology Research Professionals. Bill, who holds a PhD, is “especially passionate about learning how people and communities often thrive by overcoming trauma and adversity” (quoted from the newspaper article seeking study volunteers). His dissertation was on post-traumatic growth (PTG), a facet of positive psychology. Jaci brings expertise in data analytics, investigation, and research.

One of the strengths of Bridging the Tragedy is the interweaving of the academic with the interviews. Rather than keep to the American Psychological Association–style layout of Introduction, Background, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion, the authors alternate sections of interviews with sections of academic writing, which allows for broader readership. If your interest is only the narratives, you can easily skip the academics. But don’t; you’d be missing the larger purpose.

Another strength is that the authors have not extensively edited the interviews, and much of interest emerges when the interviewees free-associate, even if it means some rambling. Rather than being disembodied extracts to prove the authors’ thesis—which often happens in APA papers (I’ve edited thousands since 1998)—the quotes from the 11 interviewees are human and relatable.

As for the interviewees, they’re a compelling mix of locals and those who lived nearby who were children at the time of the collapse (including former mayor Jimmy Wedge, who lost his parents in the tragedy). Among the 11 are paranormal authors/researchers/experiencers, the owner of the Mothman Museum, the county tourism director, and people from more mundane walks of life.

Some of them believe that Mothman exists and some say emphatically NO. Wedge contextualizes an oft-whispered story—that it was just a group of teenagers in a bird costume. As for the corollary high strangeness—Men in Black, UFOs, secret military bases and experiments—the responses range from cynical, to skeptical, to true believer/conspiracy theorist. If you’re a fan of the dozens of documentaries, then Director of the Mason County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Denny Bellamy’s 27-page interview will be of particular interest.      

I mentioned that the lore links Mothman and the bridge collapse. It is clear what caused the failure… and it wasn’t a red-eyed, black-winged cryptid. It was the failure of an “eyebar” bridge design that was cost-saving in the 1920s and life-ending in the 1960s due to a lack of accounting for increased traffic and vehicle weight—especially semi-trucks. Whispers of Mothman being seen on the bridge that day are nothing more than paranormal lore verging on clickbaiting. However, the idea of Mothman as a Thunderbird or Garuda—as a harbinger of disaster—is harder to dismiss.

The last third of the book is devoted to data analysis. The authors lay out participant demographics, explain their textual coding process (providing three extensive tables), and present the findings through the final 15 core codes/dimensions framing their analysis. Some of the 15 are Community, Entrepreneurial, Optimism, Perseverance, and Spiritual Development. For those interested in statistical and textual analysis in psychological studies, Bridging the Tragedy is essential reading. My favorite aspect of this section is the further contextualization of the interviewee narratives. In academic papers and often in dissertations, no one is quoted at length and there are not entire interviews.

The final chapter, Conclusions, gives us good reason to believe in the healing and strengthening power of PTG. Having spoken privately with, read and reviewed books by, and publicly interviewed those who have had profound paranormal and abduction/contactee experiences (as well as having experienced them myself) and also near death and out of body experiences, there is considerable overlap. A growing body of research by psychologists, neuroscientists, metaphysicists, and parapsychologists backs up the conclusions in Bridging the Tragedy—that these experiences are profoundly life changing, and they constellate solidly with the 15 core dimensions identified by Bill and Jaci Kousoulas.

Through this book, and its talented researchers, the spirit of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, has once again proven that it draws with an almost measurable magnetism all those whom it needs to tell its story.