to lower it. While I believe something paranormal may indeed be occurring in an instance like this, I am not convinced that it is a spirit trying to use the energy of a battery to communicate in some way.
As my husband likes to say, “If ghosts actually needed the power from batteries, the Duracell and Energizer manufacturing plants would be the most haunted places on the planet!”
Allen and I also made note of slight variations in battery power throughout the evening, which on occasion coincided with the recording of an EVP.
Around 8:30 in the evening, Adam and Gabriela entered what is known as the “fireplace room,” and Gabriela noted feeling an overwhelming sense of love.
“Love you,” said a disembodied voice on their recorder.
“We are not scared,” said Gabriela. “And we do not want you to be scared.”
“I love you. I’m not scared,” answered the whispery voice.
Adam thought the voice sounded childlike.
“I always find EVPs creepy when they sound like children,” he said.
Chad and Wendy Wilson, a married couple that had just joined the team, accompanied us to Hill House for their very first paranormal investigation. While in the “window room” upstairs, Allen was providing some instruction when he began to feel something touching his right leg near his ankle. He described to Chad and Wendy what he was experiencing and asked them to begin taking pictures of his ankle. No apparent cause for the sensation was evident in the resulting photographs, but Allen noted that it lasted for a good fifteen to twenty seconds. We didn’t know it at the time we went in to investigate the house, but previous visitors had actually seen and photographed what looked like a cat’s tail in this very room.
When the three of them moved back down to the main level of the home, Chad began to feel as though something was persistently watching them as they moved from room to room. When they approached a dark hallway in the rear of the house, both Allen and Chad began to feel extremely uneasy. For some, such an uncomfortable sensation would result in a prompt exit, but Allen and Chad held their position and then advanced into the hallway. After all, we were visiting Hill House Manor to find ghosts, not to run from them.
After a few brief moments, Allen distinctly felt as though a hand had been placed on his right shoulder. He quickly turned around to see who had walked in to join them, but found that no one was there.
After we all had regrouped in the living room on the main floor, we discussed the various experiences of the evening. Each member encountered phenomena of varying degrees, but strange things happened around the entire team during our evening at Hill House Manor.
Overnight investigations of the property occur almost every weekend, and seekers of the paranormal often reserve entire nights to see if they can document anything out of the ordinary. These investigations are also streamed lived over the web via the official Hill House Manor website, connecting curious onlookers with the ghosthunters who brave the night alone in the dark with its ghostly inhabitants.
As we were about to pack up and head home, I thanked Linda and her husband Del for hosting us that evening.
“What do you plan to do with the property in the future?” I asked.
“Eventually we’d like to turn it into something like a bed and breakfast,” said Linda. “But as for now, it’s just Six Flags for ghosthunters.”
Hill House Manor may no longer be a residence for the living, but it seems there are still a few unseen individuals who live there rent-free and who are always up for a visit.
CHAPTER 6
Old Alton Bridge
COPPER CANYON / DENTON
Original Old Alton Bridge (April Slaughter)
MY INTRIGUE with haunted locations in Texas first began here, at an old bridge no longer open to vehicle traffic tucked away just outside of Denton. While there is nothing outwardly grandiose about the structure or the surrounding area, there is an odd energy in the atmosphere that is almost palpable every time I make a repeat visit.
The bridge was originally constructed in 1884 to facilitate travel over Hickory Creek, and connects the towns of Lewisville and Alton. Built by the King Iron & Bridge Co., the iron truss structure proved an asset to travelers of all kinds including equestrians, those who traveled by foot, and farmers in need of a way to move their stock. The bridge also eventually opened to automobile traffic until the 1970s, when the state of Texas determined that it was no longer safe for vehicle usage. In 1988, the bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and remains intact for visitors to enjoy today, while a new bridge built just downstream handles all automobile traffic for the area.
Old Alton Bridge has long been known to locals as the “Goatman’s Bridge,” and there are a couple of different explanations of how it may have earned that name. One of them is the story of Oscar Washburn, an African-American goat farmer who settled with his family on property just north of the bridge not long after it was erected. He was a hard-working and gentle man dedicated to providing a good life and living for his family. It is said that a sign was posted on the bridge that read, “This way to the Goat Man’s.” Being that he was a black goat farmer in the south, his success was not well received by everyone in the community, and members of the Ku Klux Klan were looking to impose their own punishment on Mr. Washburn.
Under cover of night in August 1937, it is alleged that Klansmen forcefully removed Oscar from his home, placed a rope around his neck, and lynched him over the side of the bridge. When the Klansmen went to verify that Oscar was dead, they reportedly found nothing but a dangling rope. His body was nowhere to be found. The Klansmen, in a state of panic, rushed back to the Washburn residence and murdered the remaining family members.
The community suffered a tremendous loss in the tragedy, and rumors quickly began to spread that Oscar’s restless spirit would forever guard the bridge and prevent anyone from crossing whom he felt meant to do others harm. This story has survived into the present day, and many people still believe that Oscar’s anger keeps him tied to the bridge, wandering the area to ensure the safety of others.
This story, however, is not the only reason the span is called the “Goatman’s Bridge.” For decades, people have reported encountering a creature described as being half man, half goat. On more than one occasion, visitors have heard the sound of hooves running the length of the bridge as they walked, feeling as though they were being chased away by the Goatman himself. While no photographic evidence exists to support the claims that this creature exists, there are many who will attest that they have seen and experienced the Goatman while out at the bridge and in the woods that surround it.
It was near dusk on my first excursion to the bridge, and I was not feeling well. When Allen and I arrived, I asked him to go on ahead without me to walk around and told him I would be out to join him in a short while. I was alone in the car for only a couple of minutes when I noticed an orange light flitting about the outside of the windshield. For a brief moment I didn’t think much of it, and suspected it was merely a lightning bug. After a few seconds, however, the light suddenly stretched into a long, strongly illuminated beam that shot straight up into the air and hung there for several seconds before disappearing. The same phenomenon repeated itself twice more in the exact same pattern within the span of a couple of minutes. As it was still fairly light
