Our Haunted Hill Country

Of the three title areas I cover in my just-released travel guide, Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country, the last is undoubtedly my favorite for a number of reasons, one being because it is where I live. This 25-county area is full of historic towns and villages, wilderness areas, lots of ranchland surrounded by fences hung with unwelcoming signage — and numerous haunted places. Following are a handful of my favorites, all of them publicly accessible. 

The Devil's Backbone, aka Ranch-to-Market Road 32, is a haunted highway that corresponds to a ridgeline used by Spanish explorers travelling inland and later by ranchers driving cattle. Parts of this road seem mysterious and haunted under the best of conditions and it is little wonder that it should have so much ghostly lore associated with it, to include an ominous "White Lady" that causes car wrecks. One spot along the highway travelers might want to visit is the Devil's Backbone Tavern, a haunted watering hole located on the site of an old Indian campground and what was once a stagecoach stop. 

Enchanted Rock State Natural Area has been part of the Texas state park system was designated as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1936. Native Americans believed the site was a portal to the otherworld and there are countless legends, ghost stories, and paranormal phenomena associated with this wondrous natural site, whose name is not arbitrary or just meant to be colorful. 

Jacob's Well is an artesian spring located just north of Wimberley. Peering into the mysterious and ominously beautiful depths of Jacob's Well, it is almost hard to believe that it is not haunted. Native Indians certainly held this natural artesian spring, which rises up through a limestone tube from the unmeasured depths of the underworld, to be sacred and inhabited by elemental spirits of the land. Beyond its appearance and hallowed nature, however, it is also the site of numerous drownings and there are those who believe the ghosts of those who have perished at this spot continue to haunt it.

James Kiehl River Bend Park is a pleasant recreational area situated along the banks of the Guadalupe River. Paranormal phenomena like strange mists, orbs, and EVPs have been noted both at it and a disused SA&AP railway bridge located nearby. There are also four small cemeteries dating at least as far back as the 1800s in the vicinity of the park.

The Treue Der Union Monument in the historic village of Comfort marks one of the strangest, bloodiest, and most heartbreaking episodes in the saga of a violent state, the Nueces Massacre, which took place during the Civil War. There is every reason to think the "Loyalty to the Union" monument might be haunted by the spirits of those whose deaths it memorializes and whose remains it marks.

Wimberley started as a trading post near Cypress Creek in 1848, the year Hays County was organized, and its original gristmill was expanded over the years to process lumber, shingles, flour, molasses, and cotton. The mill was shut down in 1925 but the community has continued to grow in more recent times into a resort town and destination for tourists and ghosthunters alike. Virtually every historic building in the town is reputed to be haunted and late author Bert Wall wrote numerous books specifically about the ghosts and legends of Wimberley and the surrounding area.

Other Hill Country sites with haunted lore associated with them include Fort Martin Scott in Fredericksburg, the Kerr County Courthouse in Kerrville, the Lover's Leap overlook outside of Junction, Schreiner University (notably its Delaney Hall), and the Y.O. Ranch Hotel & Conference Center. There are many more beyond these and if you ask the staff at any two establishments in historic communities in this area chances are at least one of them will have a ghost story associated with it.

And anyone who wants to learn more about haunted places in our area can find my book in stores and at sites like Amazon.com and can follow my Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country Blog!

I wrote the above article for the West Comal County Chronicle, a publication I write for off and on that is published by the Bulverde/Spring Branch Library, at which I periodically do educational lectures. 

My Favorite Haunted Road Trip Project

Periodically someone will ask me what my most and least favorite book projects have been and the answer to both questions is the same: my most recent one.

As contradictory as that might sound it is very true. My latest project is inevitably the one I have been most excited about and engaged with recently, for which the endorphin rushes received from finishing the various elements are most immediate, for which any exciting fieldwork I did is most memorable. That project is also the one for which I have suffered the most recent stress, for which I can most acutely feel physical rigors like lost sleep, for which other things have suffered because of my disproportionate use of time and other resources. This is the strange dichotomy of book authorship.

Its immediacy aside, I can nonetheless say that, of all the projects I have worked on for the America's Haunted Road Trip series of travel guides, Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country has definitely been my overall favorite. This is true for a variety of reasons.

One is my love for the American Southwest of which Texas is a part and the unique, violent, and colorful history that makes it such a fun subject for research, writing, and roadtrips and a likely locale for haunted places. Good subject matter counts for a lot.

Another reason is the almost iconic distinctness of the places I selected for inclusion in this book, which include everything from wilderness areas that have existed for time immemorial to ancient missions, grand hotels, and great public buildings. This variety of locales made the book stimulating to work on and that is the sort of thing that translates into a into a more enjoyable experience for readers.

Finally, a big reason is the improvements we have made in the format of this book so that it would be even more useful resource for the people using it as a guide on their own haunted road trips. Foremost among these improvements is a robust section of Additional Haunted Sites, which contains entries on 60 locations and effectively triples the number of places covered in earlier books in the series.

All these things have made not just me feel good about what I have accomplished with Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country — they have also made me very confident that the effort I have put into it will make it a valued resource for readers and one of their favorite volumes in the series as well. 

Acknowledgements for 'Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country'

While writing is a solitary pursuit in so many ways, a striking number of people nonetheless played a role in the completion of this project and deserve recognition here. 

Foremost among those who warrant thanks is my wife, Diane, who accompanied me on visits to many of the sites that appear in this book and, perhaps even more importantly, allowed me to make working on it a priority.

Three people who have encouraged the development of this project and given me an opportunity to speak about it publicly are Donna Stewart, Laura Schier, and Sharon Kincaid of Psi-Fi Radio, a paranormal-themed show I have appeared on many times over the years. All three of them even ventured out to Texas in May 2014 to do presentations and broadcast the show from the Comicpalooza fan convention in Houston! 

Comicpalooza itself, for which I serve as the paranormal track coordinator, has also been a terrific venue for talking to people about haunted sites in Texas, the America’s Haunted Road Trip series, and paranormal investigation in general. Its organizers have always been very helpful and encouraging. I am especially grateful to John and Patty Simons, Ginger Simon, J.R. Warren, and Dawn Washington.

Another convention that has given me the opportunity to talk about haunted places in the Lone Star State is Dallas Comic & Pop Expo, which is owned and operated by impresario Zachery Taylor McGinnis, who I always enjoy working with.

I also have had the opportunity to work with a number of paranormal investigation groups while writing this book and would like to thank the members and organizers of San Antonio Ghosthunters, Dawn Paranormal, the Pasadena Paranormal Research Team, and the Dallas Area Paranormal Society. People in those groups whom I have particularly enjoyed working with include Jill Benoit, Christy Briones, John Delgado, Alan King, Glenn Martinez, Coy and Lori McCollum, and Kristen Stout.

Special thanks are due to Lauren Swartz and Allison Lindhorst of Sisters Grimm GhostTours, whose historical roots in San Antonio, paranormal research in it, and work on the subject provided me with lots of useful information and some unique perspectives.

Karen Holmes, someone whom I have worked with off and on in some capacity or other since moving to Texas in 2009, deserves thanks for encouraging me in this and other projects and discussing the history and folklore of Texas with me. She also gave me the opportunity to visit or spend time at a number of the sites described in this book, including Enchanted Rock, the Texas State Capitol, the San Antonio Missions, and the Devil’s Backbone (the first three of which I visited with her and students from Fischer Schule Haus Christian Academy, and the last of which is the area where that school is located).

I do not want to neglect to thank the publishing, editorial, and design staff at Clerisy Press for the work they did on this book at their end. I am especially grateful to acquisitions editor Tim W. Jackson, who served as de facto project manager for this book and as my main point of contact with the company while I was working on it; to marketing and publicity specialists Liliane Opsomer and Tanya Twerdowsky Sylvan; and to publisher Richard Hunt. Molly Merkle and Marie Hillin at the Keen Communications headquarters have also always been helpful and a pleasure to work with.

A number of the proprietors or staff of various sites I visited or people I encountered in the process of doing so deserve my thanks as well, and these include Jo Ann Rivera of Victoria’s Black Swan Inn, Doug Blank of the Faust Hotel, staff members at Hotel Indigo and the Emily Morgan Hotel in San Antonio and the Driskill Hotel in Austin, the staff of Ye Kendall Inn in Boerne, the management and staff of the Austin Pizza Garden, and bartender Lincoln at the Devil’s Backbone Tavern.

I also would like to thank all of the editors, colleagues, family members, business associates, and friends who patiently — or, in some cases, not so patiently — waited for me to fulfill my obligations to them while I was focusing so much of my attention on this project.

Finally, if there is anyone I have left out of these acknowledgments, I would like to sincerely beg their forgiveness and thank them for the roles they played in the completion of this book as well! 

Contents for 'Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country'

Following is the outline for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country as it stands now! These contents for the book are subject to some revisions and additions and as I do my final research for the book over the next couple of months but at this point are at least 90% reflective of what it will contain. Many items are hotlinked to previews or chapter excerpts posted to this site. 

I) FOREWORD

II) INTRODUCTION

III CITY OF SAN ANTONIO

            San Antonio Missions (South and Downtown San Antonio)

            Alamodome (Downtown San Antonio)

            Alamo Quarry Market (North Central San Antonio)

            Old Bexar County Jail (Downtown San Antonio)

            Comanche Lookout Park (Northeast San Antonio)

            Crocket Hotel (Downtown San Antonio)

            Emily Morgan Hotel (Downtown San Antonio)

                 SIDEBAR: "The Yellow Rose of Texas"

            Menger Hotel (Downtown San Antonio)

            San Fernando Cathedral (Downtown San Antonio)

            Sheraton Gunter Hotel San Antonio (Downtown San Antonio)

            Spanish Governor’s Palace (Downtown San Antonio)

            University of the Incarnate Word (Alamo Heights/Midtown San Antonio)
            Victoria's Black Swan Inn (Northeast San Antonio)

IV) GREATER SAN ANTONIO

            Faust Hotel (New Braunfels/Comal County)

            Gruene Historic District (New Braunfels/Comal County)

            The Mansion (Boerne/Kendall County)

            Ye Kendall Inn (Boerne/Kendall County)

V) AUSTIN

            Austin Pizza Garden (Southwest Austin)

            Driskill Hotel (Downtown Austin)

            Richard Moya Park/Moore's Crossing Bridge (Southeast Austin)

            State House (Downtown Austin)

            University of Texas Tower (Downtown Austin)

VI) TEXAS HILL COUNTRY

            Devil's Backbone (Blanco County, Comal County, Hays County)

                 SIDEBAR: Devil's Backbone Tavern

            Enchanted Rock  (Gillespie County, Llano County)
            Jacob's Well (Hays County)

            James Kiehl River BendPark/SA&AP Bridge (Comfort/Kendall County)

            Treue Der Union Monument (Comfort/Kendall County)

VII) Visiting Haunted Sites

VIII) Additional Haunted Sites

            City of San Antonio (Alamo Methodist Church, Brackenridge Villa Mansion, Brooks Air Force Base, Cadillac Bar, Chinese Graveyard, Christus Santa Rosa Hospital, Comanche Lookout Hill/Comanche Park, Crown Plaza St. Anthony Hotel, Donkey Lady Bridge, El Cameronsita Dance Hall, El Cameronsito/Player's Club, Empire Theater, Fort Sam Houston, Hemisfair Park, Hot Wells Motel, Huebner-Onion House, Indigo Hotel, Institute of Texas Culture, Lambermont, McNay Art Museum, North Star Mall, Oak Valley Vineyards, Old Stone Ridge Road, Our Lady of the Lake University, Plaza Marriott, River Center Mall, Riverwalk, San Antonio River Headwaters, San Pedro Park, Santikos Century Plaza 8 Theater, Stinson Field Cemetery, Trinity University, Tower of the Americas, Tro Bridge, University of the Incarnate Word)

            Greater San Antonio (Aumont Hotel [Seguin/Gaudalupe County], Bulverde Area Volunteer Fire Department (Bulverde), San Marcos River (Entity) [Luling/Guadalupe County], Seguin Palace Theatre [Seguin/Gaudalupe County], Seton Edgar B. Davis Hospital [Luling/Guadalupe County] , Texas Lutheran University [Seguin/Guadalupe County]) 

            Austin (Bertram's Restaurant/Clay Pit, Buffalo Billiards, Carrington's Bluff, Congress Street Bridge, David Grimes Photography Studio, Eanes-Marshall Ranch, Fado Irish Pub, Governor's Inn, Governor's Mansion, Hideout, Inn at Pearl Street, Jacob's Hill, Littlefield Building, Littlefield House, Mugshots, Neill-Cochran House, Old Stone Ridge Road, Omni Austin Hotel, Paramount Theatre, Tavern Restaurant, Zachary-Scott Theatre)

            Texas Hill Country (Schreiner University/Delaney Hall [Kerrville], Kerrville Courthouse [Kerrville])

IX) Further Reading/Bibliography

X) Ghostly Resources
            Comicpalooza
            Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours

XI) Acknowledgments

XII) About the Author

Varhola Appearance on December 13 'Paranormal View'

If you missed my appearance in the December 13 episode of the Paranormal View, you can now check it out in archiveon the Para-X radio network! Thanks to co-hosts Henry Foister, Kat Klockow, and Geoffrey Gould for running such a terrific and enjoyable show (and posting a useful synopsis of it). Among other things, we discussed my Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country, next title in the America's Haunted Road Trip series of travel guides, and places I visited and investigated while working on it. 

Comments are welcome! 

The Mansion (Boerne/Kendall County)

"Sometime around 1870, a French architect named Frank LaMotte constructed the impressive limestone building on Main Street in the town of Boerne that has since been known in the local area simply as the Mansion. This tradition is reflected in the name of the restaurant, La Mansion, that is located in it today. And just as its name has been carried down through the years, so too have the stories of spiritual activity in the house and a persistent reputation for being haunted, even as it has been passed to different owners and used for a variety of purposes.

  ...

... La Mansion certainly bears visiting by anyone interested in the paranormal, whether they would like to conduct a formal investigation or just have a meal in a place where spirits are firmly believed by many to be present. As I have found in any number of places I have visited and written about over the years, whether the stories about them are true actually has very little to do with whether or not they are really haunted." 

Those are the first and last paragraphs of my chapter on the historic building in Boerne known as the Mansion! Today it houses a notably good Mexican restaurant but is no less haunted than it ever was. Above right, La Mansion as it appears from Main Street; above left, entrance to the building's cellar, where Fred, one of the three ghosts that haunts the place, is said to reside; below left, the stairway connecting the main dining room with the upper level, where the other two ghosts associated with the home, David and Augusta, are often encountered. 

 

Ye Kendall Inn (Boerne/Kendall County)

"One of the most impressive and welcoming of the many haunted establishments that can be found throughout Hill Country is, without a doubt, Ye Kendall Inn, the sprawling hotel, restaurant, and event complex that dominates the main square in the town of Boerne. 

Ye Kendall Inn is well known in the local area for being haunted and I was well aware of its reputation before visiting it for the first time. I was therefore both amused and took it as an auspicious sign when I walked into the hotel bar that the barmaid and a patron were discussing the odds that some items that had ended up on the floor in the kitchen had been flung there by a ghost. My wife and I were also struck by the irony that some of the patrons in the bar at that point were having a few drinks ahead of a wake that was about to start there for a local man who had recently died. Perhaps his spirit will join those that have long been noted in this historic hostelry that has its roots in the mid-19th century and the early days of settlement in the rugged hills northwest of San Antonio." 

That is an excerpt from the chapter on Ye Kendall Inn that I wrote for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country! Above, a view toward the front of the inn, with a Texas state historic marker in the foreground; below left, a glimpse at some of the more than a dozen historic cabins and cottages that are available to guests at the inn; below right, a rare picture of me in the field, to include my bag of investigative equipment. 

 

Varhola Appearance on 'Pairanormal'

Very much enjoyed my appearance on the Pairanormal show when it returned to the air on Friday, September 26 on TMV Cafe! Had a great time when I was a guest on the show a couple of years ago and think everyone will enjoy my discussion with E.W. Bradfute and his co-host as we explored haunted places throughout the Lone Star State. You can check it our in archive now! 

Faust Hotel (New Braunfels)

"In the western literary and occult traditions the name 'Faust' has an ominous connotation, and many people assume that the historic hotel in New Braunfels bearing this moniker received it as a tribute to the paranormal activity associated with the site. It is, however, named for its founder, flesh-and-blood local businessman Walter Faust Sr., rather than a figure out of German legend. 

Over the past few decades, the Faust Hotel has increasingly gained a widespread reputation for being haunted and has attracted the attention of various paranormal investigative groups. I have visited the hotel a number of times since 2009 and, among other things, have spent the night at it and conducted investigations on or around Halloween twice and appeared as a guest on the PSI-FI Radio show from it. It has, in fact, become one of my favorite sites in the Greater San Antonio area, not just for the strange things associated with it but also for its colorful history." 

Those are the opening words of my chapter on the haunted Faust Hotel for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country! I have investigated it a number of times and even appeared on the Psi-Fi Para Radio show from it and it is one of my favorite sites in the area. Above right is the lobby of the Faust Hotel as it appears today, below left is a historic image of the hotel as it appeared shortly after it opened in October 1929, and below right is developer Walter Faust Sr. 

 

Beyond Texas: An Aegean Ghost Hunt (Santorini, Greece)

Anyone following this blog might well wonder why I posted to it 10 times in July but not at all in August! The answer is that I took a break from working on this book and spent four weeks making an "Aegean Odyssey" across several Greek islands, in part to do research for a number of projects for Skirmisher Publishing LLC (anyone interested in seeing daily reports of this trip can check them out at my TravelBlogue). 

In the course of this trip I did take the opportunity to do a number of things related to my interest in paranormal investigation, to include studying grave stele and other items associated with graveyards at the various antiquities museums I visited. On the night of August 12, I also ventured out to a small cemetery located near the northeastern edge of the town of Fira on the island of Santorini and, over the course of a couple of hours, conducted a brief investigation of it and took about 220 digital photographs. 

This site was a walled compound that contained two large chapels, a number of mausoleums, and probably fewer than a hundred individual graves. It is probably a private cemetery, appeared to be affiliated with the Greek Orthodox faith, and reflected a certain level of affluence. The gate to the cemetery was not locked and, as always, I showed proper respect for the people interred there and their families and observed appropriate spiritual precautions. 

  

Above left, a structure that might be a smaller chapel, a mausoleum, or both; above center, a view down one of the few relatively long pathways in the cemetery — compare with the image of the same place at bottom, which has a gray mass of some sort in it; above right, the main chapel at the north end of the cemetery, built in a classic Byzantine style. 

 

Above left, a fairly significant orb can be seen toward the left side of this image; above right, this gravesite has one of the lamps that can be seen burning at night. 

One thing that can make Greek burial grounds feel kind of creepy is the practice of keeping lamps or candles burning at many of the gravesites (something that indicates ongoing care and, once again, the financial means for doing so). 

Suffice it to say that the Fira cemetery felt very active to me and that I caught what seemed like a disproportionately high level of anomalies in my photographs. Foremost among these is a virtual cloud of orbs in one of the first shots I took, of one of the two chapels from the roof of an adjoining building (top right); my first assumption is that I was seeing some sort of atmospheric effect but this was belied by the fact that no anomalies appeared in any of the other images of the chapel that I took in a series over a five-minute period (the one of the same thing that appears at the right end of the top row of pictures was taken about a minute earlier). I also picked up individual or pairs of orbs in a number of shots and what may have been a vague gray mass in one (at the center of the image at bottom). There was also one place where I felt very apprehensive about photographing some vaults flush with the ground and opted not to do so — irrational, perhaps, but you have to go with your intuition when conducting an investigation and it is better to be safe than sorry! 

  

Above left, a fairly profound orb appears at the far left side of this image; above right, I was able to see inside of this vaulted mausoleum but did not see anything exceptional in it. 

Above left, this image gives a good sense for the subtropical climate of Santorini, one of the Cycladic Islands of Greece; above right, the second large chapel in the cemetery has a vaulted style that is popular for many sorts of buildings throughout Greece, especially in rural areas; bottom, what appears to be a gray mass that might or might not be indicative of anything appears at the center of this image. 

San Antonio Missions (South and Downtown San Antonio)

"While the Alamo is certainly the most famous site in Texas, it is amazing how many people do not know that it was originally just one of several Spanish missions established along the banks of the San Antonio River. Originally called Mission San Antonio de Valero, it was the first and northernmost of five religious settlements defended by the garrison from the presidio of San Antonio de Bexar. It was followed over the next thirteen years by the establishment of four other significant church communities, Mission San Jose, Mission Espada, Mission San Juan, and Mission Concepcion.

Over their centuries of existence, what are now collectively known as the San Antonio missions were the starting points of quests north and west in search of gold and souls, locations of raids and battles, places of births and deaths. They were crucibles of human emotion, those of fervent proselytes spreading the word of God, native peoples being stripped of their own cultures and faiths, greedy and bloodthirsty fortune hunters, and those who fell in battle at their gates or succumbed to disease within their walls. All were also established in an abundant area that had been occupied by ancient peoples since time immemorial and used by them for hunting and gathering. It should thus not be surprising that these missions are widely considered to be haunted and that people have reported every sort of paranormal phenomena at them, including everything from anomalies in photographs and recordings to apparitions of conquistadores, monks, Indians, settlers, and soldiers." 

Those are two of the opening paragraphs of my chapter on the San Antonio Missions for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country! It covers the mundane and supernatural histories of the earliest settlements in what is now the city of San Antonio is comprises the biggest chapter in the book. 

Old Bexar County Jail (Downtown San Antonio)

"Presumably, we will never see a commercial in which someone, when asked if they are a ghosthunter who spent the night in a haunted jail, replies with 'No, but I did stay at Holiday Inn Express last night!' On the other hand, it would be quite reasonable for someone to answer that question in the affirmative if they had just spent the night in the Holiday Inn Express Riverwalk Area, which is located in what had been the Bexar County Jail for nearly a century. 

... One of the most common phenomenon is rooms that remain unnaturally cold, even during the summer or if the heat is turned on. Other activity includes beds that are indented as if someone is laying on them, but then abruptly have the indentations disappear; people hearing whispering in their rooms that stops when the lights are turned on; objects being pulled out of people's hands and thrown across the room; and the breakfast area being rearranged and disheveled during the night. Most horrifying among the things people have reported, however, are in the rooms where the gallows were once located, where people claim to have seen apparitions fall through the ceiling as if just hanged!" 

That is a preview of my chapter on the old Bexar County Jail for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country! People can become inmates for the night at the former detention facility, which is now a hotel in the heart of downtown San Antonio. 

 

Above left: Allison Schiess of Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours talks about the Old Bexar County Jail from the parking lot of Penner's, an iconic San Antonio clothier. Above right: Brutal murderer Apolinar Clemente, who lived in the jail for a year-and-a-half before dying there at the end of a rope. 

Menger Hotel (Downtown San Antonio)

"In an old and storied state occupied by the ghosts of a colorful and bloody past, one might think that the title 'Most Haunted Hotel in Texas' would be a tough one to live up to. With some three-dozen spirits identified in it, however, give or take a few, the sprawling Menger Hotel has a strong case for making this claim. These reportedly include the ghosts of conquistadores, Indians, Texian and Mexican soldiers who fought in the Battle of the Alamo, cowboys who drove cattle on the Chisholm Trail, a land baron, a U.S. president, a murdered housekeeper, a 'lady in blue,' and a little girl who died by misfortune. As anyone investigating the site quickly learns, the mundane and supernatural histories of the hotel are inextricably linked and span the centuries." 

That is the first paragraph of my chapter on the Menger Hotel, a beautiful San Antonio landmark that has been welcoming guests, and enticing the spirits of some of them to stay indefinitely, since 1859. At right is a picture of the original lobby of the hotel as it appears today. Below is a picture of the current lobby, added during one of the hotel's many expansions. At bottom is a photograph of the Menger Hotel as it appeared in 1865, the last year of the Civil War. 

San Fernando Cathedral (Downtown San Antonio)

"It would not be an over-exaggeration to say that San Fernando Cathedral has, literally, been the spiritual and geographical heart of San Antonio for nearly 300 years, and there is even an official seal set into the floor church affirming this. It is, in fact, the oldest active Roman Catholic cathedral in Texas, one of the oldest in all of North America, and the mother church of the Archdiocese of San Antonio and seat of its archbishop.

As one of the oldest extant buildings in the city and the site of what most people today would consider to be some very strange practices, it is perhaps not too surprising that San Fernando Cathedral would have a reputation for spiritual activity. Phenomena people claim to have witnessed at the site include spectral faces appearing on the walls and the apparition of a white horse galloping across the plaza in front of the church. Inside it definitely does, in any event, have a sacred and even otherworldly atmosphere." 

Those are the first two paragraphs of my chapter on San Fernando Cathedral for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country! I have visited San Fernando Cathedral a number of times and, most recently, had the privilege of doing so with Allison Schiess, one of the title members of Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours. She is a descendant of the Canary Islanders who built the church and I very much enjoyed hearing her unique and personal perspectives on it. 

 

Top left: the seal marking San Fernando Cathedral as the center of San Antonio. Top right: The sepulcher containing the cremated remains of James Bowie, William B. Travis, and David Crockett. Bottom: A postcard from the era 1901-1914 showing the cathedral and main plaza. 

Sheraton Gunter Hotel (Downtown San Antonio)

"Since 1837, travelers and visitors to San Antonio have often found one of the nicest and most convenient hotels in the city to be located at a particular corner about a hundred yards from the bank of the river. Over the years, this establishment has had many different names, occupied successively larger and more elaborate buildings, been controlled by the armies of four nations, and collectively contributed to a fascinating and colorful history. One of those colors, however, has been that of blood, and gruesome events that have occurred at the hotel are among the things that have led to it becoming a reputed venue for hauntings and paranormal activity."

That is the opening paragraph of my chapter on the Sheraton Gunter Hotel for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country! Below left is bluesman Robert Johnson, who is said to have made a pact with the devil for musical ability and who recorded an album at the hotel in 1936. Below right is Walter Emerich, who shot, dismembered, and ran a prostitute through a meat grinder in a room at the Gunter Hotel in 1965.  

 

Emily Morgan Hotel (Downtown San Antonio)

Located in one of the largest and most imposing buildings in downtown San Antonio, the Emily Morgan Hotel is one of the city's quintessential lodgings — all the more so in that it is the "official hotel of the Alamo" — and at the same time stranger and much different than any of the others. Its merits as a beautiful luxury hotel aside, it has both a unique and atypical history and as its namesake the woman who may well have inspired the classic song "The Yellow Rose of Texas." 

"The Emily Morgan Hotel was originally developed as a hospital and then in 1984 it was converted into a hotel," Allison Schiess of the Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours told me. "It is named after the woman, an indentured servant, who was 'distracting' Santa Anna when the Texans attacked the Mexicans during the Battle of San Jacinto. So, she helped us win our independence." 

Those are the opening two paragraphs of my chapter on the Emily Morgan Hotel for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country! Among other things, it explores the history of one of the most colorful and controversial figures in Texas history, the woman known variously as Emily Morgan and Emily D. West.