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Fort Phantom Hill grounds (April Slaughter)
Spotlight on Ghosts: Hell’s Gates
A small piece of land in northwest Texas near the Lubbock Cemetery has earned a reputation over the past three decades for being an area rife with paranormal activity—resulting from years of reported accidental deaths, suicides, murder, and even Satanic worship.
A wooded area littered with bike and hiking trails, the area has become known as Hell’s Gates. Over recent years, it has attracted many people interested in practicing occult rituals. The occurrence of séances and various other attempts at contacting the dead have led many to believe that paranormal activity has been called to Hell’s Gates rather than originating here.
Locals and ghosthunters alike have dozens of stories they are more than willing to share with anyone interesting in hearing them. Legend has it that a young woman was once hanged from the train trestle that runs through the property, and that she can be heard crying in the night. Some believe they have captured her apparition in photographs during their investigation of Hell’s Gates, often looking as though she were hanging from a rope or simply floating in mid-air just below the trestle. While there is no official record of her existence or death here, her alleged presence continues to attract the curious.
Psychics have often reported the impression of something dark and sinister lurking about the area, angry and defiant, not at all welcoming of nighttime visitors and investigators looking to capture evidence of its existence. Equipment failure is fairly common due to odd battery drainages and rare malfunctions that are often associated with paranormal activity.
The area’s atmosphere is said to change almost instantly from calm and serene in the daylight to uncomfortable and frightening at night. While many are attracted to Hell’s Gates when the sun goes down, not many attempt stick around to see the sun come up.
CHAPTER 4
Lonesome Dove Inn
ARCHER CITY
Lonesome Dove Inn exterior (Lance Brooks)
ARCHER CITY WAS BORN IN APRIL 1881 when a dentist named C.B. Hutto relocated from South Carolina to Texas, built himself a log cabin, and began building a town. The town is named after Branch T. Archer, who was Secretary of War in the Republic of Texas and who actively fought for Texas’ independence from Mexico. The population never boomed in Archer City, as it did in other Texas towns, and it has remained a small community.
In 1927, Archer Hospital was erected on the site now occupied by the Lonesome Dove Inn. Dr. T.C. McCurdy built the hospital to accommodate up to fourteen patients, and he remained in practice there until it was sold to Dr. Ted Alexander and his wife in 1944. Dr. Harold Smitson eventually purchased the hospital in the late 1940s and set up his practice until 1957, when the hospital closed.
In 1978, Jay and Patsy O’Neal purchased the old hospital building and converted it into a private residence. A fireplace replaced the emergency entrance, and additional renovations were completed when it was once again sold in 1985 to Bertie Kinsey.
Immediately recognizable, the beautiful Lonesome Dove Inn sits in a quiet residential area of Archer City. A wooden sign posted in the front yard bears the name of the inn with quaint lanterns, reminiscent of Old West ways. A short sidewalk leads visitors to the entrance, where majestic white columns stand on either side of the door, proudly bearing a Texas lone star symbol etched in the glass.
Mary Slack Webb and Ceil Slack Cleveland have owned the home since 1998 and have opened their doors to anyone interested in experiencing a little Old West charm. Named after the Pulitzer prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove by Archer City native Larry McMurtry, it is beautifully decorated with antiques in every room. McMurtry’s books and characters are the inspiration for each of the guest room names—Comanche Moon, Terms of Endearment, Evening Star, and Cadillac Jack among others. Adorning the main floor fireplace mantel are the author’s Golden Globe and Oscar award statues. It is said that Mr. McMurtry himself visits the inn from time to time.
Judy McCollough, an associate of mine from Texoma Researchers Investigating Paranormal Phenomena (T.R.I.P.P.), suggested that Allen and I visit the Lonesome Dove Inn after her team had the opportunity to investigate the building on two separate evenings.
“We conducted two investigations at the Lonesome Dove Inn and even spent a night as guests to work in a little photography and EVP work,” Judy said. “I had a very strange experience where I felt as though there was a young male spirit trying to communicate with me telepathically. I had never had anything happen to me like that before. I reached my hand out a couple of times where I thought this boy might have been and I actually felt an odd tingling sensation.”
Judy also described the images and information she was being given by the boy.
“He said he had died from egg allergies. He had gotten ill, and the first visit he made to the doctor didn’t help much as he returned a second time and apparently did not make it. He told me he was eight years old. It was a very bizarre incident. Nothing was captured on recorders we had set up in the room, but just as I stood up from sitting on the sofa, a team member of mine snapped a photograph and a fluid-looking orb was seen in the chair where I thought his spirit might be.”
Judy went on to describe several other instances where her team members experienced strange things at the inn.
“One of our team’s sensitives, Suni Hoffman, explained that she believed she too was communicating with the spirit of a little boy and that it might have been the same one I had encountered earlier. She felt as though he had been repeatedly kicking her leg in the Desert Rose room.”
Paranormal experiences are not limited to ghosthunters at the Lonesome Dove Inn. One guest reported that he had woken late one night to see a woman dressed as a nurse standing beside the bed holding a pillow. When he asked her what she wanted, she offered to provide him with another pillow. When he declined, she left the room.
A family spending the night in the Cadillac Jack room set up a video camera and talked about how they had made their trip to the inn because they had heard it was haunted. When they returned home from their stay at the inn, they reviewed the footage and could clearly hear an unfamiliar and eerie voice order them to “get out.”
The beauty and welcoming atmosphere of the Lonesome Dove Inn is enough to attract anyone, but a ghostly encounter is always a draw for Allen and me as we find new places to visit. When we arrived late one Saturday evening, Mary Webb graciously welcomed us in and offered us a tour of the home. As we made our way upstairs, I commented to Mary about the exceptionally wide the staircase.
“During its years as a hospital, they had to carry people in on stretchers with someone holding either side. It had to be wide enough to accommodate that,” Mary explained.
After having a quick look at all of the guest rooms on the upstairs floor, I asked Mary if she had ever experienced strange things in the inn.
“One day in particular, I was downstairs in my room at the end of the hall,” she said. “I was the only one in the house that day when I heard what I knew were footsteps right above me on the upstairs floor. My son was next door at the time, and I quickly called him over to come and look around the house to see if anyone else was in here. We looked and looked all through the house and couldn’t find anyone. That was a little eerie to me. I am familiar
