It's officially spooky season, baby.
This might sound totally out of character, but Texas can be a frightening state to be in. With haunted hotels, creepy old manors, demonic urban legends, and a touch of sci-fi fear out west, the Lone Star State might be far from alone after all. * spooky lightning crash*
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photo credit Barret L.
Aurora Cemetery Alien Grave
507 Cemetery Rd (Aurora, TX)
In the future, maybe extraterrestrial tombstones will be commonplace, but for now, a marker for a lost intergalactic soul is pretty shocking. Knowing it was dug in the late 1890s before aliens invaded pop culture, makes it even more fascinating. After an unknown "airship" crashed into town, the locals gave the "martian" body a proper burial and even marked the headstone with a design to reflect what the ship looked like. Of course, people have stolen that cool thing, but there is still a marker above the unearthly soul laid to rest deep in the heart of Texas. Can aliens be ghosts too? Go find out and report back.
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photo Credit: Bonnie Arbittier / San Antonio Report
Donkey Lady Bridge
Old Applewhite Bridge (San Antonio)
This is a double feature of sorts in this exurban legend. One tale is of a woman who lost her children to a fire set by her husband. Horrifically disfigured by the flames and resembling a donkey, the woman would roam looking for her dead children and lurk under the Old Applewhite Bridge scaring off anyone who passes over. The other version is a woman who walked her donkey along the path when a kid claimed the donkey bit him. Sending his father and his friends to find the donkey, fighting the woman only to drown both her and the animal in the aftermath of the argument. Soul bonded, the woman and donkey became one and haunt the bridge as a Donkey Lady. Legends of hoof prints and terrifying sightings continue to keep the tale alive.
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photo via Backroads Texas
White Lady of the Frio River
Banks of Frio River
We have plenty of white ladies, but one stands out more than all the others, literally. Maria Juarez lived with her sister and her sister's husband, Gregorio. After being a dutiful aunt to her sister's family, Gregorio found himself obsessed with the young Maria. Even as she went on to find love with Anselmo, Gregorio refused to believe Maria was anyone but his. Confessing his love for her, Maria denied any feelings from her end and told him she was going to marry Anselmo. Gregorio's resulting rage terrified Maria, sending her running home. Later that night, thinking she heard Anselmo arrive, she went outside, only to find Gregorio standing in his place. Armed with a gun, he fatally shot Maria. Maria was buried in her sister's white wedding dress in the Rio Frio Cemetery, while Gregorio would eventually be found after running from the murder scene, confessing to his crime. Ever since children claim she will protect kids and watch over them as her kind spirit lives on.
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Photo: Flickr/Adventures of KM&G-Morris
Texas Farm Roads 12, 165, 2325, 32, & U.S. Highway 281
Visitors are drawn to this scenic Hill Country drive for the views and fresh air, but it also seems to draw a darker side of the world to it as well. With a history of deadly clashes with indigenous residents of the area, to constant car crashes, the roadways are paved with superstitions. Haunting the road, cabins, farms and even a tavern, Devil's Backbone is Route 66 for ghosts.
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photo credit: Atlas Obscura
Under Lake Buchanan
There's hardly any reason to be excited when we enter these droughts, but there is a sliver of a silver lining to be found during them. As the droughts pull back the waterlines for lakes, one lake reveals a ghost town. One of the first in Hill Country, Bluffton was a rural outpost along a stagecoach line. By the time of the New Deal, a project to bring hydropower to Texas meant Bluffton would soon be submerged. Slowly residents sold their land and moved out as the water would eventually move in. A New Bluffton would be built, but the physical ghost of Old Bluffton remains. Haunting the shore with every drought, and reminding the world it's still here, the graves, wells, and remnants of the town return to see the sun one more time.
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Photo via Driskill
604 Brazos St (Austin)
This one's close to home and one that you've probably already heard about if you're in tune with the supernatural. The Driskill Hotel is an Austin institution dating back to 1886. When a building has been around for 134 years, you can safely bet that some interesting things have gone on there. The original owner, Jesse Driskill, lost ownership of the hotel in a whiskey-fueled card game, and the place is widely reported to be haunted by a little girl who died on the grand staircase. If you're really looking for a scare, stay in the room of the "Suicide Brides" and decide for yourself if these tall tales hold true.
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photo credit: Omni Austin Hotel Downtown Facebook
700 San Jacinto Blvd (Austin)
Haunted hotels always seem to favor lacy victorian ghosts, but when have you seen an all-out 80s spirit? The tragic story of a permanent guest of the Omni, Jack. Visiting Austin on a business trip, he found himself at the recently renovated Omni (which recently underwent another reno, spooky coincidence?) frustrated at another bad attempt to make sales as a door-to-door salesman. Maxing out his cards at the Omni, the bill came knocking on the door of a room he knew he couldn't afford anymore. Having only one way out, Jack leaps from his balcony into his new role as an urban legend. Thanks to the hotel's then-new computer system, since Jack never checked out, he is still registered to be in his room, and according to those who've stayed in it, remains to be an unwelcome guest of travelers to the Omni to this day.
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Photo via Facebook
006 Holbrook Rd Ste A (San Antonio)
Regarded as one of the top ten most haunted places in the country, Victoria's Black Swan Inn was built on land once belonging to Native American encampments. In addition to reported signs of Native American ghosts nearby, guests have also long told stories of mangled confederate soldiers haunting the place. And it doesn't stop there: the history of the Inn is riddled with the deaths and suicides of owners and their children. Read more about the full history here.
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Photo via Excelsior House
211 W Austin St (Jefferson, TX)
As the oldest hotel in all of Texas, The Excelsior House is bound to have some spooky stories. Numerous guests have regaled eager ears of the otherworldly sights and experiences they experienced upon their stay, but none have turned as big-screen as that of Steven Spielberg himself. According to the rumors, Spielberg stayed in the Jay Gould room (which you, too, can stay in) and experienced his briefcase flying at him from a chair and a little boy waking him up in the early hours of the morning. He checked out soon after and wrote his notorious film, Poltergeist.
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Photo via Hotel Galvez
2024 Seawall Blvd (Galveston, TX)
Head down to Galveston for one of the most famously haunted hotels in Texas. The historic hotel opened in 1911 shortly after a hurricane destroyed the area. In the years during WWII, the hotel was taken over by the US Coast Guard but shortly after the war became a bustling gambling destination. Many have come to the Hotel Galvez over the past century and fewer have left, but it's the suicide of a seaman's fiance in room 501 that truly gives this place its haunted history.
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Photo Credit: Alex Beckett Photography
Marfa, TX
Numerous explanations have been proposed for the Marfa Lights, faint twinkles on the West Texas horizon. Whether they're a close encounter of the first kind or just faraway campfires, these intermittent orbs are more than a little mystical. Check them out from the dedicated viewing area on US-90, east of the town proper. Then, for an added West Texas mystery, head to the ghost town of Terlingua.
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Photo via Atlas Obscura
Denton, TX
Denton may be known for the University of North Texas and all of the hipsters and DIY music that one small college town could produce, but what lies beneath the quirky little city is something more sinister than the rolled up pants of the cool kids that call the place home. Take a drive out to Goatman's Bridge to know what we're talking about it. Legend has it that if you cross the bridge at night on foot you'll meet the Goatman himself on the other side.
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Photo via Yelp
203 S Crockett St (Seguin, TX)
Not every supposedly-haunted hotel can give you an exact count of the number of ghosts on its premise. Magnolia Hotel can. (It's thirteen.) Deemed the most haunted hotel in Texas, Magnolia Hotel was built in 1840 as a mere log cabin. Expansions over the decades have led Magnolia to be a much larger - and subsequently much more haunted - establishment. The hotel has been featured on many ghost-hunting shows and podcasts, but the real way to experience the ghostly disturbances is to stay there yourself.
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Photo via Facebook
Yorktown, TX
There's nothing quite as scary as a hospital, let alone a haunted one. In a place where many people have surely taken their last breath, the possibility of ghosts lingering around is high. The Yorktown Memorial Hospital is an abandoned building in decay, but the ghostly activity here keeps visitors coming back. The caretaker himself has reported countless nightly sightings of deceased patients.
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Photo via Pinterest
Huntsville, TX
With a name as ominous as Demons Road, there's bound to be a scare or two in store. In Huntsville, Demons Road is a dirt strip that leads your way to Martha Chapel Cemetery. Both the road and the cemetery itself are reported to be haunted, with visitors telling stories of strange lights, mysterious hand prints on their cars, and even the ghosts of small children. But do ghosts sound like child play to you at this point? Then have fun with the shape-shifting demon waiting at the end of the road. Good luck!
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Photo via Wikipedia
Corpus Christi, TX
Finish your scary road trip down on the coast with a visit to the USS Lexington. While on the surface it may seem like a scholarly trip that would make your elementary school history teacher proud, there's something lurking in the lower decks that may leave the hair on your skin standing up. The director of operations himself says that he receives hundreds of reports a year involving supernatural activity on this WWII ship. If you're not scared of a little adventure, opt for an overnight stay on the USS Lexington and see for yourself what goes bump in the night.
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Tell us a ghost story.
