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INTRODUCTION

TO SAY THAT I LIVE IN THE MIDST of a haunted landscape would hardly be an exaggeration. About a half mile east of my home, in the little wooded valley below the ridge it sits on, lies a tiny, haunted, 19th-century German graveyard, its half-dozen headstones clustered around an ancient oak and enclosed in a rickety fence. A half mile west of my home, the deep, overgrown ravine known as Devil’s Hollow—a dry creek bed within which ancient peoples once lived—descends from the spine of low, rocky mountains to the north. Four miles north of my home, the haunted highway that locals call the Devil’s Backbone runs along the top of the aforementioned chain. And, on a miniature charter-school campus located on that road, between a haunted one-room schoolhouse and a somewhat desolate historic cemetery, I have taught children history.

Innumerable haunted and otherwise strange or spiritually charged sites of every sort radiate out from there in every direction, as if from the center of a supernatural vortex. Forty miles south, in the heart of San Antonio, you will find some of the most haunted locales in all of Texas, including the Alamo and the hotels that sit on the site of the battle that was fought around it, the Crockett and the Menger. Within blocks of these two are other hotels, colonial Spanish buildings, and the oldest continuously used cathedral in North America, all haunted by the ghosts of people who dwelled, visited, or worked in them in life. A little farther away lie the Ghost Tracks, where spectral children are known to move people’s stopped cars. If you head 25 miles east, you will come to the town of New Braunfels, which houses the historic village of Gruene and the beautiful and creepy Faust Hotel. Fifty miles north, in the state capital of Austin, government buildings remain occupied by the spirits of officials, their mistresses, and others who met strange or violent ends there, and numerous haunted parks, restaurants, and other sites can be found. And for a hundred miles north and west, up into the rugged, rolling highlands known as Hill Country, uncounted haunted crossroads, caves, wilderness areas, and towns dot the landscape.

Urban legends abound in the area about things like zombie outbreaks and supposed encounters with devils at dance halls, as well as accounts of cryptozoological creatures like the Donkey Lady and chupacabra, UFOs and alien encounters, and other paranormal but nonghostly phenomena. We have decided that these things stray too far from the core subject of this book, however, and that they do not quite fit in with places reputed to be haunted by ghosts. Maybe one day they will warrant a book of their own!

Texas is certainly one of the most haunted of all the states, as befits its vast size; long, violent history; and brief status as an independent nation. And, settled by Spanish explorers more than three centuries ago, San Antonio in particular has a rich haunted history that includes conquistadores, the local Apache and Comanche Indian tribes, old monasteries, lost gold mines, battlefields, and elegant hotels. Perhaps because of its bloodstained heritage, people have also always felt the presence of evil and the supernatural in Texas, evidence of which remains in the names of desolate, isolated, or forbidding places throughout the state—names like the Devil’s River, Devil’s Sinkhole, and Purgatory Road. Perhaps the iniquity that has occurred in Texas has inspired people to see the devil in its landscape, or perhaps he really is present and has inspired much of the evil that has been perpetrated here and the spiritual residua that remains.

My own interest in the paranormal goes back as long as I can remember, in large part from having spent the first half of my life visiting spiritually charged or haunted places like the Tower of London in England, the Parthenon in Athens, the Paris Catacombs, old Nazi tunnels in Germany, and scores of castles throughout Europe. My attraction to the strange history of the American Southwest goes back just as far and is rooted in experiences that include family trips into the California desert, a year living on an Indian reservation in Roswell, New Mexico, and pilgrimages to ancient Spanish churches in Colorado.

Since childhood I have also loved the classic song “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” a cowboy-style ballad that dates to 1948 and has been recorded by more than 50 performers. Unmatched in poignantly evoking the haunted tradition of Texas and the Southwest, it tells the tale of a cowboy who encounters a herd of spectral cattle being chased eternally across the sky by the damned spirits of cowboys. Hearing it never fails to raise the hair on the back of my neck:

An old cowboy went ridin’ out one dark and windy day

Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way

When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw

Plowin’ through the ragged skies, and up a cloudy draw

Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel

Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel

A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky

For he saw the riders comin’ hard, and he heard their mournful cries

Yippie i ohhh ohh ohh

Yippie i aye ye ye

Ghost riders in the sky

Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred

Their shirts all soaked with sweat

He’s ridin’ hard to catch that herd

But he ain’t caught ‘em yet

Cause they got to ride forever in that range up in the sky

On horses snortin’ fire, as they ride on hear their cries

As the riders loped on by him he heard one call his name

If you wanna save your soul from hell a-ridin’ on our range

Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride

Tryin’ to catch the devil’s herd, across these endless skies

Yippie i ohhh oh oh

Yippie i aye ye ye

Ghost riders in the sky

Ghost riders in the sky

Ghost riders in the sky

I have drawn upon these experiences, as well as my training and background as a historian, journalist, and paranormal investigator, in compiling what I hope is a colorful and useful guide to publicly accessible haunted places. My intent is for it to appeal both to residents of and visitors to one of the largest and fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States, especially those interested in the paranormal, travel, or Texas history.

Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country covers nearly three dozen haunted locations in or around the cities of San Antonio and Austin and throughout Texas Hill Country, collectively one of the most haunted places in the country. Each chapter includes a combination of history, haunted lore and phenomena, and practical visitation information. This hands-on guide is organized into four geographical sections—San Antonio, Greater San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country—and includes all the information readers will need to visit the places described in it. This book also includes an appendix that briefly describes nearly 100 other haunted places in the region that people can go to, making it even more comprehensive.

All of the places described in this book are believed to be haunted. That said, determining exactly what ghosts are is beyond the scope of this book, and throughout it I use terms like ghost, phantasm, specter, and spirit fairly synonymously and not as technical terms indicating manifestations with specific and differing characteristics. This is, after all, primarily a travel guide, not a tome devoted to the classification of earthbound spirits, which would be of little practical use to most readers. All that said, the term ghosts runs the gamut from nonsentient residues of spiritual energy that can be detected by various means, to intelligent manifestations that can make their presence felt in various ways. My sense is that the vast majority of hauntings are of the lower order and that it is quite possible to have subtly haunted sites that are never identified as such due to a lack of investigation.

My goal with this book is not to prove that any of the places included in it are indeed haunted, just to identify sites that have ghostly phenomena associated with them, to visit them, and to compile their histories and my experiences into a book that other people with an interest in the subject can use as a guide for their own visits. That said, I am willing to go on the record and say that I believe any of the sites covered in this book could be haunted—and I am firmly convinced that several of them definitely are. I will leave to readers to determine for themselves which ones those might be.

Ghosthunting as a pursuit has certainly come into its own over the past several years, and it and associated phenomena have become the subjects of numerous television shows and movies. In my experience, however, actual paranormal investigation bears very little resemblance to what is depicted even in “reality” shows related to the subject. The real thing is generally much less manic, a lot quieter, and—despite the absence of noise, running back and forth, and jerky camera angles—much more intense. It also does not result in evidence of paranormal activity on every expedition.

Many paranormal investigators today use a wide variety of electronic equipment, and there can certainly be some value associated with this approach. I do not believe, however, anyone should hesitate to engage in ghosthunting based on a lack of equipment, and am myself more of a “naturalistic” ghosthunter. For various reasons, I use a minimum of equipment in my own investigations and not much more than I have ever used as a writer and reporter: a digital recorder, a digital camera, a pen and notepad, and a flashlight. I also have found a full tank of gas, some food and water, and a fully charged cell phone to be useful when heading into relatively isolated areas.

I also think a ghosthunter’s innate senses are just as critical to an investigation as any sort of equipment. While I make no claims here to be psychic or a medium, I do believe that most people have access to certain paranormal senses that they can draw upon if they choose to and are aware of them. People who can use such abilities reliably have generally spent many years honing them and learning to differentiate exterior phenomena from internal thoughts. Those without such experience should probably err on the side of caution and, in the absence of corroborating evidence, assume that whatever they are sensing could very well be a product of their imaginations.

Beyond experience, a good attitude is crucial. While the following chapters include a lot of information that can be useful when visiting the specific sites, there is one bit of general advice I would like offer to prospective ghosthunters: Show respect for both the rights of any relevant living people (for example, property owners) and for the dignity of any spirits that might be lingering at a particular site. I believe that paranormal investigation is an endeavor fraught with its own potential hazards, and my sense is that anyone who acts inappropriately for too long is ultimately going to suffer some unhappy consequences—whether legal, spiritual, or otherwise.

The point of this book is not for me to convince anybody of anything. Rather, it is to provide a tool that historic travelers and prospective ghosthunters can use to help them find haunted sites, conduct their own investigations, and draw their own conclusions. I sincerely hope you enjoy this book and find it to be a useful resource on your own haunted road trip through San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country!

—Michael O. Varhola

Canyon Lake, Texas