Whiskey Hollow Road is a dark forest road, about 5 miles long, that has many urban legends attached to it, including that of satanic rituals, KKK practices and ghosts. One local legend says a man and his wife are two of the ghosts who roam these parts. The man was wrongly convicted of murder and was imprisoned in a shack along the road to await his corporal punishment. The man died there before his punishment was carried out, and his grief-stricken wide hanged herself on a nearby tree.
Whiskey Hollow Road
Jacksonville Rural Cemetery
A black cat with green glowing eyes, an apparition of a teen girl, and gunshots are some of the eerie things visitors have witnessed at the Jacksonville Rural Cemetery. To add to the eeriness, rumor has it that behind the cemetery is a forest with a stream that seems to pull visitors toward it.
Forest Park Cemetery - Pinewoods Cemetery
Forest Park Cemetery, aka Pinewoods Cemetery, is an 1897 graveyard known for its locally told ghost stories. It has been used for burials as recently as 2005, although it stood neglected for a period between 1975 and the 1990s. The cemetery is said to be extremely active with paranormal activity and was called the “Gateway to Hell” in a LIFE Magazine article about the country’s most haunted places. Urban legends tell of a decapitated statue that bleeds out of its neck (although some say this is a result of a particular type of moss). Because of unsafe structures, the land is not open to the public, and trespassers will be prosecuted.
Elmlawn Cemetery
At Elmlawn Cemetery, reports say some drivers have seen orbs and lights when passing by between midnight and 3 a.m. One of the ghostly legends told about the church here is of a young newlywed bride who long ago was run over and killed by another carriage as she was getting into the wedding carriage. Her apparition is said to cross the street after dark.
Lone Oak Cemetery
The Lone Oak Cemetery is a small graveyard that’s rumored to be haunted by ghosts who whisper and make odd noises and flicking sounds along the barbed wire.
St. Edward's University
There are three popular spots with the haunts at St. Edward’s University, according to student lore. One is Doyle Hall where a ghostly nun turns on the showers. Another is Mary Moody Northern Theatre, where the ghost of a young man who hanged himself using the sandbag ropes spooks witnesses. The apparition of his body has been seen and heard creaking and swinging on the ropes, even if the ropes themselves can’t be seen. And at Premont Hall walks the ghost of a former Resident Advisor who died after slipping in the showers–his body wasn’t found for a week. The ghost makes itself known by slamming windows and doors and by turning on all the shower faucets at the same time.
River Legacy Park
At River Legacy Park are several places rumored to be haunted. One of them is Hell’s Gate, along a shady trail through swampland. Local legend has it that it was along this trail that captured Union spies were marched on their way to be hanged. Here, phantom sobs and prayers are heard, and along the walkway folks have seen an apparition of a Confederate general with red hair. Another spooky spot at the park is known as Screaming Bridge, where a carload of football players is said to have crashed head-on with another car and burst into flames, falling off the bridge to their deaths. The road is now closed to cars, but some reports mention seeing a mysterious fog and glowing tombstones in the water under the bridge, bearing the names and death dates of the deceased. A ghostly hobo also is said to walk near the railroad tracks in River Legacy Park. According to the local tales, he was shot when he saw a man beating up a woman and stepped in to break it up. He appears as an old man in rags.
Fabens Old Port of Entry
The Fabens Port of Entry border station at the Fabens-Caseta International Bridge between Texas and Mexico was built in 1938 and operated until the mid-1990s. It is scheduled to be replaced; the new Tornillo-Guadalupe Port of Entry station was begun in January of 2014. In the interim, operations are being conducted in temporary structures nearby. Witnesses say in this area there are three phantom horsemen who ride across the border, both ways, shooting revolvers. Once across the border, the apparition fades away.
Cattleman's Steakhouse
At Cattleman’s Steakhouse there is rumored to be an apparition of a man that only can be seen from the corner of one’s eye. The ghost is most often seen around the bar, in the Buffalo Room and in the Greenhouse Room.
Alameda Avenue
At the intersection of Alameda Avenue and Leisure Lane, local legend warns, is the favorite haunting spot of a terrifying ghost. So his story goes, he was a pastor possessed by evil who brutally murdered his wife and two children by decapitating them, then killed himself. His family’s heads were never found, but their bodies were discovered in the water tower nearby. The ghost is said to hang out at the intersection jumping onto car hoods and scaring passersby.
