State file · TX
Haunted places in Texas
What are the most haunted places in Texas? The best-known are The Alamo, The Driskill Hotel, The Marfa Lights and La Llorona, among 6 on file.
Texas ghost lore is as big and varied as the state. Its oldest layers come from Spanish missions and Mexican Texas, from the Coahuiltecan, Apache and Comanche peoples who lived here long before them, and from the borderland tradition of La Llorona, the weeping woman said to search the rivers for her lost children. The Texas Revolution added the most sacred site of all: the Alamo in San Antonio, where the defenders died on March 6, 1836, and where ghost tours now gather nightly in the plaza outside the church.
- 6 hauntings
- 12 recorded sightings
- 2 news stories
Haunted places in Texas
The Alamo
The mission where the Alamo’s defenders died in March 1836 is a memorial first. Ghost tours tell of phantom guardians, soldiers and a child at a window. Widely reportedThe Driskill Hotel
Austin’s grand 1886 hotel, built by cattle baron Jesse Driskill, is often named the most haunted place in Texas – home, guests say, to its founder. Widely reportedThe Marfa Lights
Glowing orbs that seem to dance over the desert east of Marfa have drawn watchers for generations. Studies point mostly to distant headlights and mirages. Widely reported
La Llorona
The weeping woman who searches rivers and canals at night for the children she lost – the best-known ghost legend of Mexico and the Hispanic world. FolkloreSan Antonio Ghost Tracks
Legend says ghost children killed in a bus crash push stalled cars over a San Antonio rail crossing. The crash was in Utah; a slope does the pushing. Hoax / debunkedBlack-Eyed Children
Pale children with solid black eyes who knock at night asking to be let in – a modern legend traced to one Texas journalist’s story in the 1990s. FolkloreThe ghost lore of Texas
San Antonio is the state’s ghost capital, with its missions, old hotels around Alamo Plaza and the famous Ghost Tracks on the South Side – a legend of ghost children pushing cars over a rail crossing that turns out to rest on a Utah tragedy and a gentle slope. Austin’s 1886 Driskill Hotel, built by a cattle baron who lost it within a year, is often ranked the most haunted place in Texas.
Far to the west, the Marfa Lights have drawn watchers to a roadside viewing area in the Chihuahuan Desert for decades; scientists who have studied them mostly point to distant headlights bent by layers of desert air. From Galveston’s storm-battered island to the old forts and courthouses of the Hill Country and the Panhandle, nearly every Texas town has a ghost story to go with its history.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Alamo Plaza and downtown San Antonio
The Alamo, historic hotels, theatres and San Fernando Cathedral make the city centre the starting point of San Antonio’s many ghost walks.
- Sixth Street and Congress Avenue, Austin
The Driskill, the old capitol district and the city’s historic bars anchor Austin’s ghost tours.
- Galveston
The island devastated by the 1900 hurricane – the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history – has a thriving tradition of ghost tours among its Victorian streets.
- Marfa and the Big Bend
The lonely high desert of far West Texas is home to the Marfa Lights and to stories of old forts, ranches and ghost towns.
- Jefferson
The East Texas river port, with its antebellum inns and riverboat-era history, markets itself as one of the state’s most haunted small towns.
Timeline
- 1986The first Marfa Lights Festival The Marfa Lights
After years of lobbying by local guide Armando Vasquez, the Chamber of Commerce launches a festival that now draws thousands each September.
- 1996Brian Bethel’s encounter Black-Eyed Children
Journalist Brian Bethel says two boys with solid black eyes approached his parked car one evening and asked for a ride. His account becomes the founding story of the legend.
- 30 July 1997The story on Usenet Black-Eyed Children
According to Skeptoid’s search of Usenet archives, Bethel’s account appears on the newsgroup alt.magick, and about a month later on alt.folklore.ghost-stories.
- December 31, 1999Reopening after a $30 million restoration The Driskill Hotel
The restored hotel reopens on the eve of the millennium, its ghost stories by now a staple of Austin lore.
- January 26, 2003The newspaper traces the source San Antonio Ghost Tracks
The San Antonio Express-News reports that its own front-page coverage of the 1938 Utah crash seeded the local legend.
- 2004UT Dallas physics students investigate The Marfa Lights
Over four nights the students find that identifiable lights correlate with car headlights on U.S. 67, and they reproduce a “Marfa light” by flashing a parked car’s headlights.
- 2008Spectroscopy study The Marfa Lights
Texas State University researchers record lights over 20 nights and attribute them to headlights and small fires, while calling for more work on rare unexplained cases.
- 2012On television Black-Eyed Children
Bethel retells his experience on the reality series Monsters and Mysteries in America, standing by it as genuine.
- February 2013A viral revival Black-Eyed Children
An episode of MSN’s Weekly Strange featuring black-eyed children helps spread the legend to a much wider audience.
- 2014Tabloid front pages Black-Eyed Children
The Daily Star runs a string of front-page stories about black-eyed children, including claimed sightings around Cannock Chase.
- July 5, 2015World Heritage listing The Alamo
UNESCO inscribes the San Antonio Missions, including the Alamo, as a World Heritage Site, months after the state took over management.
- May 2022Sold as “the most haunted place in Texas” The Driskill Hotel
Hyatt sells the hotel for $125 million; coverage of the sale repeats a 2021 Yelp ranking naming it the state’s most haunted place.
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