The ghosts among us in Dallas-Fort Worth
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The Stockyards have seen some gnarly things. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images
Ghosts roam the halls and rooms of several Dallas hotels. The spirit of a jilted bride floats through the hallways of the 19th floor of the Adolphus Hotel. A gangster haunts room 1909 at another inn. And mistress Margaret likes to turn off the lights at the Stoneleigh.
Why it matters: Most ghost stories are inspired by some truth.
- The Adolphus, for example, has a long history of gruesome deaths that are far more interesting than the tale of a lady in white.
Other North Texas ghost stories
Lost Cemetery of Infants
"Baby" and "Infant" and other generic identifiers are the only details on small headstones that fill a graveyard in a park near the University of Texas at Arlington campus.
Flashback: The site of about 80 graves is all that's left of the Berachah Industrial Home for the Redemption of Erring Girls, which housed unwed mothers until 1935.
- The U.S. Census recorded 34 women living in the Berachah Home in 1920. By the 1930 Census, there were 100 women and children, according to the Texas State Historical Association.
The intrigue: People have reported seeing spirits in the cemetery or seeing toys moved from grave to grave, per WFAA.
- It's likely that many of the infants buried in the cemetery died during childbirth or from disease, including during a measles outbreak in 1914.
White Rock Lake
A woman dressed in white who appears to have fallen into the water appears in front of cars driving around White Rock Lake.
- She says her boat overturned, asks for a ride and then gets in the car. But when the car arrives at her Oak Cliff home, all that remains of the woman is a puddle on the seat.
State of fable: The first published account of the Lady of the Lake appeared in 1943, but the story has been embellished several times since.
- In some versions, the woman is wearing a fine dress, likely from downtown department store Neiman Marcus.
- The Dallas Public Library has tracked the versions and connected the story to some real drownings at the lake.
Old Alton Bridge
North Texas high schoolers have been daring each other for decades to visit Old Alton Bridge at night to glimpse the Goat Man.
- The bridge was erected in 1884 and is Denton County's oldest Pratt-truss iron bridge.
Threat level: The story goes that anyone who knocks on the bridge (or honked when you could drive across it) will be grabbed by a creature that's half-goat, half-man.
Flashback: Legend says a white mob lynched Oscar Washburn, a Black goat farmer, from the bridge in the 1930s, but there's no historical record of a man by that name or a lynching that occurred there.
- Still, the story stems from the history of Texas lynchings by the Ku Klux Klan.
Fort Worth Stockyards
Even when the Stockyards are empty, visitors can hear the clink of spurs on the ground.
State of ghost: The Cowtown Winery's owner launched the Stockyards Ghost Tour after discovering a ghost in his building.
- David Besgrove hired a ghost hunter who said she felt the spirit of a child. Besgrove later learned that a child had died in the building a century earlier.
The intrigue: Miss Molly's Hotel is one of the tour stops. The former brothel advertises its ghost encounters as part of the overnight experience.
- The haunted hotel has been featured on the Discovery Channel.