Who hasn’t stumbled upon a quiet stretch of road in the dark of night and wondered what awaits them around the corner? Well, in Texas, you might just find yourself face-to-face with headless ghosts; part-man, part-animal apparitions; orbs of dancing bright light; and other paranormal entities when you drive down the state’s most haunted routes.
Plenty of Texas roads come with their share of mystery and fright, where the historical and supernatural entwine to shape the cultural mythologies of the communities around them. Cruise down the hilly, picturesque Devil’s Backbone between Wimberley and Blanco, and you’ll hear tales of Confederate ghosts and other unexplained happenings. Or cross (if you dare) the Old Alton Bridge in Denton, where the abominable hybrid of man and goat is said to seek revenge on those who wronged him.
From the Panhandle to the Hill Country, Texas is home to an intricate web of haunted roads, each with its own unique brand of terror and intrigue. So set your GPS to “points unknown” on this drivable journey to explore the state’s most spine-tingling haunted roads, where the line between truth and legend thins, and the veil between worlds lifts.
Devil’s Backbone, Hill Country
A long, winding, rather beautiful route off State Highway 281 and featuring farm roads from Blanco to Wimberley has its fair share of ghost tales—perhaps the most in Texas. There’s the story of a ranchman who awoke to his cabin shaking and stepped outside to discover the ghosts of Confederate soldiers riding horseback nearby. But that’s just one of several ghost tales from the area gathered by author Bert M. Wall in The Devil’s Backbone: Ghost Stories From the Texas Hill Country. The book trilogy details spooky encounters with ghosts of Spanish monks, Comanche Indians, and Confederate soldiers, among other hair-raising tales that’ll have you rerouting your destination.
One might wonder why this stretch of road experiences extensive supernatural activity, but with the violent history of the region, particularly Indian warfare, it’s no wonder that tales of the beyond have found rich, otherworldly roots here. Some of the ghost tales are intrinsically tied to history, while others, including that of a wolf spirit who once possessed a man, are completely novel.
As owner of the popular and supposedly haunted Devil’s Backbone Tavern in Fischer, Robyn Ludwick says the roadway’s “ruggedness and frontier-like quality” is why it remains “super mysterious.” Se cites plenty of “unexplained things happening,” like the story of a ghost who walks the road carrying a baby crying out for her husband.
The owner of the historic, hilltop watering hole on Farm-to-Market Road 32 has witnessed some strange and unexplained occurrences in her business. She’s experienced feelings of a presence, as if someone—or something—is watching her: pictures falling off the wall, noises around the building with no apparent source, the jukebox flipping pages by itself, and a mirror in the dance hall that reveals ethereal, eerie images when photographed.
Ludwick believes the spirits that inhabit the space are friendly and possibly those of locals who once inhabited the space. “There have been people who have come and spread their families’ ashes here, [of those who] loved the bar and sat on a bar stool every day of their adult life,” she says. “It’s a very spiritual place because of how much it’s loved.” And yet, even friendly ghosts don’t stop the equal parts fascination and fear created by an area as active and mysterious as Devil’s Backbone—a hair-raising journey every Texan should take.
Old Alton Bridge, North Texas
Denton’s Old Alton Bridge, nicknamed Goatman’s Bridge, looks like a place where a midnight haunting would take place. This time-worn iron truss bridge, built in 1884, stretches over Hickory Creek and is a passageway between Denton and Copper Canyon, but it’s also become a spot that drivers avoid near the witching hour—for good reason.
Legend has it in the early 1900s, a Black goat farmer put up a sign on the bridge directing customers to his nearby farm. His signage (and prosperity) so angered the Ku Klux Klan, they snatched the goat herd and lynched him from the Old Alton Bridge. After the lynching, the Klansmen went down to the riverbed to make sure he was dead, but discovered the man had disappeared. Thinking he must have survived and escaped his untimely fate, they returned to his home, setting it on fire with his wife and children inside.
The story goes that the goat farmer now haunts the bridge as a combination of man and goat, targeting those with Klan lineage who dare drive by or signal their presence by honking or flashing their lights. The legend has become so powerful in these parts, there are those who won’t drive near the area past a certain hour, or they avoid it altogether. The tragedies that have happened at or near the bridge, including suicides and a recent homicide, don’t help alleviate fears either.
Though the legend of the goatman makes for core-shaking lore, there’s no documentation that this event ever happened, and yet, the story isn’t far removed from the racism and violence that occurred during that period.
Shaun Treat, a former professor at the University of North Texas who has studied Denton history, says people ask him all the time if the story is true. “I remind them that that’s not the important part,” he says. “The important part is that there were a lot of lynchings during that time that wouldn’t have necessarily made the news.”
Ghost tales like these are more of a reflection of “stories and untold history about our communities and confronting the things we don’t necessarily talk about every day,” he adds, and the “unknown history throughout the state” that included racial violence.
Denton has other spooky spots to check out for those in search of bonus roadside frights, including places like Bonnie Brae Bridge—plagued by the supposed Pigman of Hog Valley—and Cooper Creek Cemetery, with urban legends featuring shadow figures and ghostly lights that’ll keep you up at night.
Bragg Road, East Texas
Ghostly apparitions, orbs of moving light, unexplained noises and whispers. That’s what you might encounter one evening when you drive down the quiet and isolated 8-mile stretch of Bragg Road, aka “Ghost Road” or “The Light of Saratoga,” in the Big Thicket.
Passed-down tales of this tree-lined dirt road have dubbed it one of the most haunted, mysterious roads in the state. Legend has it that a railroad worker fell off a train and was decapitated by the locomotive. Now, his ghost traverses the straight road at night—lantern in hand—in search of his noggin.
There’s no historical record of this tragedy, either, but it hasn’t stopped people from indulging in late-night visits to the railway turned country road hoping to catch a peek of the dancing ghost lights. The tale resembles a PG scary story you’d tell fidgety, sleep-aversive kids around a campfire, but there are those who have seen the luminous legend up close and lived to tell the tale.
Jane Nierman, who grew up in Warren about 20 miles away from the road, says she’s witnessed the phenomena, but never likened it to a ghost haunting.
“In Warren there wasn’t much to do, so as teenagers on Friday nights or Saturday nights we’d go down to Bragg Road in the back of a pickup truck. We saw the lights several times, like this glowing ball at the end of the road,” she says. “One time when I was in college, I brought friends down there, and it really put on a show for us. It was on the side of the road, about 20 feet away from us, and it moved when we did, almost like it was dancing. It was phenomenal.”
There have been reasonable explanations, such as headlights from nearby roads, tossed around to explain this ongoing bright-light mystery. There’s also the possibility the light is just marsh gas produced by decaying organic matter in the wetlands, but regardless, that doesn’t stop individuals from driving down the road in search of a possible encounter with the headless rail worker.
River Road, Central Texas
The Guadalupe River, grandiose trees, open skies—the best a Hill Country landscape can offer. New Braunfels’ River Road is a place where you’ll find relaxation, but according to local lore, it’s also where you might run into the goatman who lingers under a bridge.
As the tale goes, if you drive over the bridge at the first crossing of River Road late at night, slow down, and honk your horn or blink your lights, you might find yourself being charged by the terrifying mythological creature.
Sound familiar? Like many Texas tales, this one sounds like a variation of the one in Denton, but spooky news tends to travel far and wide—often beyond city lines. And yet, that hasn’t stopped people from swearing they’ve met the beast face-to-face.
New Braunfels-based Anita Carrera says while she’s never witnessed the goatman in person, she’s heard rumblings of those who have. Carrera, who has lived in the area 25 years, says she would go tubing on the Guadalupe River at night and meet people who spoke of eerie encounters with the creature.
She says people would swear it was real. They’d describe him as a half-goat, half-man with hooves and the head of a man with horns that you can hear coming down the road. “Of course, when you’d ask if they had seen him, it was always, ‘Oh no, but my uncle, or my friend, and so on has,” she says. “It’s always a friend or a family member, of course, but it’s a story that carries weight because there are people who will not drive down that road past a certain time of night or on days like Halloween or Friday the 13th.”
Though Carrera doesn’t believe in the goatman, she does believe in the power and possibility of the beyond. The teacher by day hosts NB Ghost Tours on Friday and Saturday nights, walking to historic spots like Naegelin’s Bakery, Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, the Phoenix Saloon, and other downtown destinations that are known for having a spooky history.
“We want to have these encounters to see if this is all real. We want to hear the hooves, and we want to see the creatures to test our belief,” she says. “It’s the anticipation and that thrill of being frightened that inspires us all.”
