April Slaughter

by Ghosthunting Texas

  ONE OF THE THINGS I LOVE most about my husband is his willingness to just pick up and go with me to random places I want to visit. It is not at all uncommon for me to discover information online about some obscure place in Texas, and ask Allen on a whim to take me there; not tomorrow, not next week, but right that second. I am blessed to have a husband who enjoys going on little adventures, especially paranormal ones.

  Marathon, Texas, is not exactly a major tourist destination. It is far removed from the big sprawling metropolises like Dallas, Houston, and Austin. It is nestled in the wide open frontier of west Texas, near the north entrance of the Big Bend National Park.

  “Honey, I want you to take me to Marathon,” I said to Allen.

  “You want to run a marathon? Since when?” he teased me.

  “I want to see the Gage Hotel,” I said. “I hear they have a fantastic restaurant.”

  “It’s a little far to travel to Marathon just for a meal, hon.”

  “They have ghosts, Allen.”

  “When are we leaving?” he asked.

  Within an hour or so after that conversation, Allen and I were in the car and on our way from Dallas to west Texas. I knew that the hotel had a restaurant in-house, as I had perused the menu online just a day or so before. Luckily, we had an entire weekend to make the trek out and enjoy ourselves. The drive was nearly nine hours each way, so heading to the Gage Hotel for dinner after work one night during the week was definitely not an option.

  After we had been on the road for a few hours, the scenery became bleak, so I thought I would read a little more about the Gage Hotel online. Thanks to our modern-day ability to access information on-the-go, I was quickly able to locate the hotel’s website on my cell phone.

  Businessman Alfred Gage moved from Vermont to Texas in 1927 and acquired 500,000 acres to operate a ranch. The Gage Hotel was originally built as headquarters for the ranch, but Mr. Gage was only able to enjoy it for one year before his death in 1928.

  J.P. Bryan and his wife Mary Jon purchased the building in 1978 for $30,000 and spent nearly twenty years pouring their time and money into making the Gage Hotel the beautiful reality it is today.

  The closer we got to Marathon, the more desolate things began to look. I’ve been through some pretty sparse-looking terrain before, but west Texas definitely takes the cake. I grew up in Utah where there were all sorts of places to roam around and discover, including deserts and such, but I am much more of a mountain girl. I like hills and trees, lakes and rivers; all of those things seemed fairly far off in the distance out here.

  We reached Marathon at about 5:00 P.M. that evening, and we drove around a bit to get a feel for the area. I chuckled when I saw a tumbleweed dance across the street. It felt genuinely “old west” to me.

  “Want to move to west Texas?” asked Allen.

  I shot him a look, and without having said a word he knew what I was thinking.

  “We’ll stay put, then,” he said.

  “I don’t mind visiting. In fact, I think it’s quite fun to find places like this,” I said. “Life gets so busy and we’re always so wrapped up in technology and whatnot. Out here, that stuff isn’t so important. It’s kind of nice to be somewhere that doesn’t make you feel so rushed.”

  “So, can we leave your phone in the car when we go in for dinner?” he asked.

  “What? Are you crazy? No.”

  A big grin stretched across his face, as if he’d made a point in asking about the phone. I suppose he had, but I did my best to ignore it.

  We pulled up to the Gage Hotel and I was instantly taken with the place. The landscaping was pristine, and I particularly enjoyed the letters spelling out the name of the hotel on the roof of the building. We walked inside, and I approached a lady working at the front desk.

  “Are you here to check in?” she asked.

  “No, actually, we’re just here to have dinner,” I said. “But would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions about the hotel first?”

  “Please do. What can I help you with?”

  “I’ve done a lot of reading up on the Gage Hotel lately, and a lot of people claim the hotel is haunted. Is that true?” I asked.

  “We have a couple of friendly ghosts here, yes,” she replied.

  An older gentleman had overheard my conversation with the woman at the desk and tapped me on the shoulder.

  “Excuse me ma’am, I just thought I would tell you that I know there are ghosts in this hotel,” he said.

  I introduced myself and shook the gentleman’s hand. I didn’t think to ask his name (which I regret now), but I remember thinking to myself that he looked an awful lot like my late grandfather. He was chewing on a toothpick, which is something my grandfather always did. He asked me if I had a minute to hear his story, which I most certainly did.

  “My wife and I come to drive through Big Bend every year, and we stay at least one night every time,” he continued. “One evening, my wife excused herself to the lady’s room just after we had checked in, and as I was opening my overnight bag on the bed, I realized I had left my wallet at the front desk.

  “When I came back to the room, my wife was just coming out of the restroom and everything that had been in my overnight bag was neatly stacked outside of it on the bed. I asked my wife if she had unpacked the bag, but she hadn’t come out from the restroom until I came back from retrieving my wallet.”

  “Do you remember what room you were in?” I asked.

  “No, that was several years ago. Not sure which one of them it was now,” he replied.

  “Did anything else odd occur that night?”

  “Yes. My wife and I go to bed fairly early, so we were already asleep by nine o’clock or so that night. At just after two in the morning, I woke up thinking I heard someone’s radio going off in another room because I heard someone softly singing. I sat up in bed, and nudged my wife.”

  The gentleman told me that he and his wife sat for several minutes and listened to someone signing. The strange thing was, they realized it was not coming from a radio, rather from somewhere in their own room! The voice was muffled, and they didn’t understand the words or know the song, but he said that he and his wife were not able to fall asleep again for quite some time after that incident.

  The gentleman’s wife approached him and indicated it was time for them to leave. I thanked him for taking the time to tell me his story, and bid him and his wife a good evening.

  Just as the restaurant opened at six o’clock, Allen and I were seated for dinner in the hotel’s Café Cenizo. Allen enjoyed the Bison Rib Eye and I the Sautéed Shrimp. While the meal was not inexpensive, it was certainly delicious and well worth the drive all on its own to experience.

  The drive back home was a long one, and we didn’t get in until nearly three o’clock the next morning, but we had enjoyed our impromptu trip to the historic Gage Hotel. When we finally rolled out of bed at close to noon, I went right to my computer with my mandatory cup of coffee to look up more of the ghostly lore associated with the hotel.

  Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I exchanged e-mails with various hotel staff about the paranormal activity they have experienced. None of them wished to be named, but they offered several stories of encounters with the unknown inside the hotel.

  One woman who has worked at the Gage Hotel for thirteen years told me about an apparition seen in the hotel in the middle of a slow business day.

  “It was about five years ago, and I remember that we only had one room booked out for that day,” she said. “I was in the basement when a couple of children came down to ask me who the lady upstairs was. I told them that there was no one else in the hotel at the time, so I wasn’t sure who they were talking about.

  “They told me that she had long hair and she was wearing a floor-length dress. She had patted them both on their heads, but said nothing to them. The children told me that they watched as she went in and out of several of the guest rooms. I went upstairs to look aro
und, but I found no one else there.”

  I asked if she had any idea who the woman may have been, but she did not.

  “One of my night auditors also mentioned to me that he believed he had a visitor on some of the evenings he was working,” she continued. “One of the leather chairs would make the sound like someone had just sat down in it, and he could even see an indention in the cushion as if someone were really sitting there.”

  Several past guests of the Gage Hotel have reported that just after dark, partial and full-body apparitions are seen in the hallways and out on the patio. Personal items are often moved from one area to another while guests are sleeping, but beyond that minor inconvenience, the guests have never complained.

  Perhaps on some lazy Saturday in the future, Allen and I will once again make the journey out through the west Texas plains to stay an evening at the Gage Hotel. I’ve done my research and I already know that when I get there, I’m going to personally request a night in room #10.

  Spotlight on hosts: Marfa Lights

  In the 1950s, reports of a strange phenomenon occurring in Presidio County began to attract lot of attention. Strange balls of various-colored light appeared at night—sometimes moving erratically or hovering completely still in the air. Witnesses have often reported that these balls of light appear in pairs or even larger numbers and can be seen ranging from a matter of seconds to hours before finally disappearing.

  The Marfa Lights, also known as the Marfa Ghost Lights, have never appeared in the daytime and seem to be a strictly nocturnal phenomenon. No clear explanation has ever been provided, but many believe the lights to be a manifestation of spirit activity and contend that they are indeed a paranormal occurrence. Skeptics often attribute the phenomenon to passing vehicles or lights from nearby homesteads or changes in atmospheric conditions, but the strange and unpredictable pattern of movements make it difficult to say one way or another.

  The lights appear randomly in the nighttime hours, and occur year-round. They are not easily approached, however, as they appear above private property. They are often seen at varying distances and have been captured over the years in both still photography and video footage. Some visitors contend that upon witnessing the Marfa Lights, they have had profoundly personal spiritual experiences and do not believe they should simply be dismissed as a scientific mystery.

  Whatever the explanation may be behind the Marfa Lights, they continue to attract curious onlookers and visitors from all over the state of Texas. A fascinating display of color and movement, the Marfa Lights may indeed be something purely environmental, but what if they’re not? Perhaps the ghosts of Presidio County often gather together in an attempt to make themselves known in the late-night hours. We may not ever know what the lights truly are, but as long as they continue to appear we are sure to be continually mystified by them.

  Central Texas

  Austin

  Driskill Hotel

  Lockhart

  Caldwell County Jail Museum

  Marble Falls

  Dead Man’s Hole

  San Angelo

  Old Fort Concho

  Schulenburg

  Von Minden Hotel

  Waco

  Oakwood Cemetery

  CHAPTER 14

  Old Fort Concho SAN ANGELO

  Headquarters building at Old Fort Concho (April Slaughter)

  WHAT IS MY DREAM as a paranormal investigator? What am I really looking for? Is it all about stalking around in the dark with my digital voice recorder and camera, hoping to have something unseen scare me out of my wits? No. Honestly, I am frightened by very little when I am ghosthunting. Crazy things can and do happen, but when it comes right down to it, I am far more afraid of the living than I am of the dead. Ghosts aren’t going to mug me or steal my car. They aren’t going to be talking on their cell phones in traffic and cause a major accident. Those of us who have a pulse seem to cause far more trouble than those who don’t.

  My dream is that one day, as time and our understanding of the paranormal progresses, we will be able to have real-time, two-way conversations with those on the other side without having so many obstacles to overcome. Imagine all of the mysteries we could solve—the knowledge we could gain about life after death! Until that day comes, I’ll keep diving in head-first with the knowledge I do have and sharing what I know with anyone who wants to hear it.

  If I could suggest any one type of location for new ghosthunters looking for practice, it would definitely be historic forts. Why? Well, forts are usually spacious with a mix of buildings and open space. They are often well preserved and contain living quarters, hospitals, working areas, and even cemeteries—all places where a lot of human emotion and experiences can imprint on the environment. Of course, not all forts are haunted, but if you can find one with a reputation for being paranormally active, it might be a fantastic place to start.

  One such place in Texas is Fort Concho. If you do a little searching online, you will find all sorts of stories about the fort and theories as to who might be haunting it. I hadn’t known that ghosts resided on the fort property at the time of my first visit, but I would come to hear stories of them as my research for this project began. It has been two years now since I was introduced to Fort Concho, but the afternoon I spent there left such an impression on me that when the opportunity to write Ghosthunting Texas presented itself, I had to make sure this particular fort was included.

  One of Allen’s high school friends had moved out to San Angelo from east Texas, and on our way out for a visit one summer afternoon, Allen suggested we stop in at Fort Concho to have a look around.

  “We’ve got a little time to kill. Let’s walk around and see what the place is like,” he said.

  The fort was originally established in 1867 as a small collection of tents where the Middle and North Concho rivers met. Soldiers patrolled and kept the peace in west Texas, protected settlements, and mapped out the expansive frontier. The fort’s boundaries stretched over sixteen hundred acres of land, but in 1889 it was abandoned. In 1961, Fort Concho was deemed a National Historic Landmark. Today it stands as one of the most beautifully preserved forts in the state. Twenty-four buildings remain on the property, seventeen of them original, and all of them restored and well maintained by the city of San Angelo.

  Looking back on my initial visit, I wish I would have stopped and asked someone at the fort if it had a haunted reputation. Many forts do, but it hadn’t really crossed my mind at the time. Allen and I spent an hour or so walking around and enjoying the grounds. I was particularly enthralled with the E.H. Danner Museum of Telephony, where several models of telephones from the past to the present were displayed. I remember commenting to Allen that if we could come that far in communicating with each other as living, breathing human beings, certainly we had hope of establishing a better connection with those on the “other side” someday.

  Little did I know that a couple of years later, I’d be researching Fort Concho for a book about Texas haunts. The story that I first ran across was that of a little girl named Edith Claire Grierson, the daughter of Colonel Benjamin Grierson. He had been post commander and lived in Officers Quarter’s #1 (also referred to as OQ1) with his family. In 1878, at the age of thirteen, Edith became seriously ill with typhoid fever and died after thirteen agony-filled days. Apparently, she wasn’t ready to leave the house even then.

  Sometime in the early part of the 1990s, B.D. Shaffer, a delivery driver assisting local florist Tom Ridgway, arrived at Fort Concho to help deliver flowers following a funeral. As B.D. entered Officer’s Quarters # 1 (the former Grierson residence), he was asked to place one bouquet in two of the upstairs bedrooms while Tom continued to work downstairs. B.D. placed one arrangement in the west bedroom and walked across the hall to the east bedroom to place the other. He had lost his right eye in a previous accident, which helped him to develop excellent peripheral vision in his left eye. As he entered the second bedroom, he noticed a young girl sitting on the f
loor to his left. After putting the flowers on the dresser, he turned toward the girl, but she suddenly disappeared from sight.

  When B.D. returned to the fort for their Christmas program the following December, a docent working in OQ1 approached him and they began talking about the house. After B.D. told her about his experience with the little girl in the bedroom upstairs, the docent escorted him into another room to show him a picture of Edith Grierson. The girl he had seen months earlier was the same girl in the picture.

  That incident was not the only one where someone encountered the little girl’s ghost. In June 2003, the new assistant city manager for San Angelo, Harold Dominguez, and his family stayed in OQ1 as they waited for their permanent home to become available.

  As reported by Perry Flippin in an August 2003 article published in the San Angelo Standard Times, Harold’s wife, Andrea, had come face-to-face with the specter of a little girl in OQ1. She had been busy gathering and packing the family’s things when she looked up and saw a young girl about the age of twelve descending the staircase. She was wearing a long, peach-colored dress and had long brown hair pulled back from her face. They stared at each other for a brief moment before the girl’s image disappeared. Neither Andrea nor her husband, Harold, had known about the history of OQ1 or that a girl matching the description Andrea provided had passed away in the house.

  Not being a big believer in the paranormal, Andrea convinced herself that it must have been a trick of the eye, or an optical illusion produced by the afternoon sun as it shone through one of the home’s windows. It hadn’t happened in the middle of the night, rather late in the afternoon, and so she made no mention of it to her husband until he asked her if she had experienced anything strange during their stay.

  As they discussed it further, more and more strange occurrences seemed to stand out in their minds. A desk chair had been moved out of its position, and neither of them had moved it. As the couple slept one evening, both were awakened at close to midnight by the sound of a loud female voice wailing just outside the bedroom window. After just four days in OQ1, the Dominguez family decided to relocate to a motel. When Mr. Flippin presented a picture of Edith Grierson to the couple, Andrea indicated that she looked like the young girl she had seen on the staircase.