Published by Arcadia Children’s Books

  A Division of Arcadia Publishing

  Charleston, SC

  www.arcadiapublishing.com

  Copyright © 2021 by Arcadia Children’s Books

  All rights reserved

  Spooky America is a trademark of Arcadia Publishing, Inc.

  First published 2021

  E-Book edition 2021

  ISBN 978-1-4396-7337-9

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2021938346

  Print edition ISBN 978-1-4671-9820-2

  Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or Arcadia Publishing. The author and Arcadia Publishing disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  All images courtesy of Shutterstock.com; p.72 Ritu Manoj Jethani/Shutterstock.com;

  p.94 Rob Crandall/Shutterstock.com

  TABLE OF CONTENTS & MAP KEY

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Introduction

  Chapter1. A Flood of Tragedy

  1 Moonshine Grill

  2 The Great Granite Dam

  Chapter2. Hope from Beyond the Grave

  3 Hornsby Bend

  Chapter3. Old Souls

  4 3710 Cedar Street

  Chapter4. The Mysteries of Mount Bonnell

  Chapter5. The Ghost Wagon of Westlake

  6 Eanes Creek

  Chapter6. Swen Beryman: Settler, Store Owner . . . Specter?

  Chapter7. The Driskill Hotel

  Chapter8. Unusual Undertakings

  9 Hannig Building

  Chapter9. The Governing Ghosts of the Texas Capitol

  Chapter10. Last Words

  Introduction

  Texas has a big personality, and no city embodies its soul more than its capital, Austin. Set deep in the heart of Texas on the banks of the Colorado River, Austin is known for its live music, rich history, and lush hiking and bike trails. Through the years, it has become a popular place to visit, and many people enjoy their time here so much they decide to stay. That’s why this Central Texas town was named the sixth fastest-growing city in America in 2020.

  A person with a day to spend in Austin might start with a visit to the Bullock Texas State History Museum, followed by a stroll through the beautiful grounds of the University of Texas—home of the Longhorns— which is just across the street. Then, after a taco or some mouthwatering Texas barbecue, they might walk the trails of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in southwest Austin or get some sun in Zilker Park, where the popular Austin City Limits Music Festival is held each year. After that it will be time for a dip in Barton Springs, the natural pool that’s sixty-eight degrees year-round (and much appreciated during the oppressive heat of Austin summers).

  When the sun goes down, the nightlife begins. A guest can catch a concert at Stubb’s or visit the shops and restaurants along Congress Avenue. One of the most unique sights to see in Austin is beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge, which houses the largest urban bat colony in North America. Yep, bats. One and a half million Mexican free-tailed bats call the bridge home, and every year from late spring to early fall, people come from all over to watch the colony emerge from its roosting place at dusk and sweep across the sky in a giant cloud. It’s a sight you’ll never forget.

  But Austin is not just about guitars, good food, and fun. There are more than a few creepy characters you must watch out for in the city, and we don’t just mean the rattlesnakes. Amidst the live oaks and limestone, restless spirits walk. Ghosts of murdered men and victims of tragic natural disasters lurk in some of the city’s most famous streets and sites. Even the capitol building is haunted! So if you decide to visit, keep your eyes peeled for strangers who are extra strange.

  After all, the city’s motto is “Keep Austin Weird,” and the ghosts are definitely doing their part.

  A Flood of Tragedy

  Nature can be scary. Hurricanes sink ships, tornados rip roofs off houses, and earthquakes topple buildings. These disasters and the memories they create can cause nightmares. In fact, one of the most haunting things ever to happen to the city of Austin started out with just a little rain.

  In 1900, the part of the Colorado River that’s known today as Lake Austin was called Lake McDonald, and this popular recreation spot was formed by the Great Granite Dam. The dam had been completed in 1893, and it was something Austinites were proud of. The massive structure was longer than three football fields, and it was four stories high and just as thick. It was so famous it was even featured on the cover of Scientific American magazine.

  However, the dam had a problem. Three years after construction, the Austin mayor received a letter from the dam’s former chief construction engineer, Joseph Frizell. Frizell had been forced to leave his job before the dam was finished, but now he wrote to warn the mayor of a problem on the dam’s east side. The following year, a fisherman noticed a hole beneath the dam that was six feet long. And in 1899, a leak on the east side of the dam was patched with clay. But no one took these discoveries seriously. The Great Granite Dam was a marvel of human engineering. They decided not to worry about a few small imperfections. But they should have, because what happened next changed Austin forever.

  On April 6, 1900, it started to rain. At first, it was just a normal spring rainstorm, but it soon turned into something much worse. The water kept falling harder and harder. By the morning of Saturday, April 7, when the storm finally dried to a light drizzle, seventeen inches of rain had dropped on the town, and the water had risen eleven feet above the top of the dam. It poured over in a great, turbulent waterfall. The sight was so remarkable that people flocked to see it. No one saw any harm in visiting the mighty structure. After all, the rain had stopped. What could go wrong?

  By mid-morning, hundreds of people stood on the banks of the Colorado River, watching the awesome sight. They were still standing there at 11:15 a.m. when a deep boom emanated from the concrete structure. The dam split down the middle, and the east side collapsed.

  The dam’s job was to hold back Lake McDonald, a thirty-mile long, one-mile-wide body of water. When the dam crumbled, the lake came through. A fifty-foot wall of water rushed downstream into an already flooded river, swallowing everything in its path.

  Several dozen people lost their lives in the 1900 flood. Many of those who came to see the gushing dam were swept away, as were the families who lived on the banks of the river. But countless tragedies occurred downstream, as well. The river rose seventeen inches an hour until 3:00 that afternoon. Nearby Shoal Creek and Waller Creek rose twenty feet in just two hours. The impact of the water was devastating. The bodies of humans and animals, as well as farm equipment and even buildings, were all caught in the vicious torrent and washed away, never to be seen again.

  Onlookers saw one man running for his life from the advancing flood waters. At the last minute, he reached a telephone pole and hoisted himself to safety. The people watching cheered in relief, but the man’s good luck soon ran out. A house that was caught in the surging river struck the telephone pole, and the man lost his grip while onlookers watched helplessly.

  At the hydroelectric plant just downstream from the dam was an even more ghastly scene. Nine people, three of them just young boys, were working in the lowest level of the powerhouse when the dam broke and water started pouring in. Only one man survived. He threw his belt over a piece of metal above him and pulled himself above the water, where he could breathe. The other eight drowned. Their bodies remained trapped for more than a day until the water receded and a hole was blasted in the wall, finally allowing the corpses to escape.

  Amidst the scenes of heartbreak and horror, heroes could be found as well. Henry Robell was one of the people who went to visit Lake McDonald on the fateful morning of April 7, 1900, but when the dam started to collapse, he leaped into action. When Henry saw the first signs that the structure was crumbling, he jumped on his horse and raced along the northern bank of the river into the city. As his horse galloped ahead of the raging waters, Henry shouted, “The dam has [broken]! Run to high ground!” It’s unclear how many people Henry Robell rescued with his warning, but it’s certain his quick thinking saved lives.

  Unfortunately, the peril didn’t end when the waters receded. In the wake of the flood, Austinites had to deal with new concerns, such as homelessness, disease, and fire danger. Those who could opened their homes to neighbors, and nearby cities sent supplies and extra fire trucks to the suffering town.

  Piece by piece, Austin put itself back together. The victims were buried, and houses and buildings were repaired or rebuilt. The sun returned to Central Texas and shone down on a city of resilient people determined to move forward from the catastrophe.

  But the great storm and the tragedy sown in its wake would never be forgotten. People often visited the former dam to look at the rubble left behind and to remember the good times they’d had at Lake McDonald, which was now gone.

  Now, where you find tragedy, you often find ghosts, and many people lost their lives in the 1900 flood, meeting their untimely end. But some say that spirits still linger. After the flood, rumors began circulating about mysterious lights shining beneath the water at the site of the collapsed dam. The gossip gained momentum as more and more people saw the eerie glow. The lights came from under the water. They were round and clear and moved around near the surface before disappearing again.

  Searching for the lights became a popular hobby of teenagers. On summer nights, they would visit what is now Red Bud Isle. Sometimes they brought fishing poles, but it wasn’t really fish they were interested in. They wanted to see the lights, and sometimes they did. But what were these ghostly orbs floating up from the depths of the river? No one knows for sure, but many people believe they were the spirits of those lost to the 1900 flood.

  One of the structures that survived the Austin flood was the sturdily built Hofheintz-Reissig building, at the corner of Third Street and Red River. When most of the neighboring houses washed away, this stone structure remained, and its owners did what they could to care for those suffering nearby.

  Today, the Hofheintz-Reissig home is the site of the Moonshine Bar & Grill, where Austin serves up some of the most delicious chicken and waffles you can find. Stop in for brunch and sink your teeth into a piece of crispy, golden chicken followed by a bite of buttery waffle dipped in maple syrup. While you are enjoying your food, if you hear a crash in the kitchen, it’s likely that someone has dropped something. Most of the time, anyway. Strange things can occur at the Moonshine Grill.

  Mason jars have been known to shatter while sitting at the restaurant’s empty tables, and glassware sometimes flies off the shelves for no reason. A pitcher of water seated securely on a rubber mat once flew four feet into the air before plunging to the floor, creating a terrible mess as well as a fright. The owner of the restaurant once saw the tray of the office printer launch itself at him after he attempted—without success—to print something. Other times, staff members have heard the sound of breaking glass without ever finding evidence of any.

  An Austin tour guide named Monica once stopped into Moonshine on a cold February night only to be greeted by a mist that formed near the hostess stand. The misty figure drifted past Monica, touching the side of her face as it slid by, sending a shiver down her side. The mist moved down the hall toward the cellar stairs, then disappeared.

  Some believe ghosts of flood victims are to blame for the chaos and creepiness at this popular Austin restaurant. Waller Creek flows just east of Moonshine, and in 1900, it carried away the bodies of nearby residents unable to escape the waters. It makes sense that the spirits of these lost souls would be drawn to the life and energy of the only remaining building from their time on Earth. Maybe they’re just looking for a little warmth . . . and some chicken and waffles.

  Hope from Beyond the Grave

  Consider yourself warned: the tale you are about to read is chilling and gruesome and not for the faint of heart!

  Several Native American tribes were present in Central Texas when Austin was founded, including the Tonkawa and Apache, but the most skilled warriors were the Comanche. The Comanche began moving south from Wyoming in the 1600s and had settled in Texas by the 1830s. The members of the tribe were accomplished riders, and their young men were trained from an early age to be warriors. Unfortunately, some of the encounters between European settlers and Comanche tribes resulted in violence.

  In 1833, Josiah Wilbarger and Reuben Hornsby owned homesteads east of Austin, farthest from the heart of the city. Reuben’s property, known as Hornsby’s Bend, was especially beautiful and the envy of many. In the summer of that year, several new arrivals to Austin were camping on Hornsby’s property. Their names were Mr. Haynie and Mr. Standifer, who had just arrived from Missouri, and Mr. Christian and Mr. Strother, who had recently settled in Austin.

  In August, Wilbarger and the four campers boldly rode out into the frontier, following Walnut Creek straight into Comanche territory. It wasn’t long before the men rounded a bend and saw a lone Comanche warrior. Comanche were known to be fearsome, but there was only one of him and five of them, and some of these men harbored bitter feelings from past encounters with the tribe. Fueled by their anger and encouraged by the safety in numbers, the group chased the young Comanche, cutting him off and surrounding him with their horses. They taunted him, poked at him with their rifles, and dared him to fight before letting him go.

  This was a very bad idea. The young warrior was not as alone as he had appeared. In fact, he was a scout for a war party that was only an hour’s ride away.

  Wilbarger and his group stopped for lunch near Pecan Springs. Wilbarger, Christian, and Strother unsaddled their horses and hobbled them, meaning they put restraints on their legs so they couldn’t run away. Haynie and Standifer, who were new to Texas and nervous about their recent confrontation with the young Comanche, kept their horses saddled.

  This decision saved their lives.

  When the men were resting beneath the trees, war cries pierced the air, quickly followed by arrows and bullets as the Comanche war party attacked. The men scrambled for cover and tried to return fire, but some were not quick enough. Strother was the first to fall. Then Christian took a musket ball to the thigh, shattering his femur. Wilbarger pulled him behind a tree, but it was too late for Christian, who died from his wounds.

  Wilbarger had been injured too; he had an arrow in his calf and a wound on his side. He saw Haynie and Standifer mount and begin riding away. Wilbarger cried out for them to stop, calling, “Take me with you!” When Haynie and Standifer heard their friend scream, they turned, considering the risk of going back for him. But right at that moment, Wilbarger was shot through the neck. He collapsed on the ground, and the attackers surrounded him. Assuming their companion was unable to be saved, Haynie and Standifer galloped away to safety.

  However, Josiah Wilbarger wasn’t dead. The bullet through his neck had not killed him. It had temporarily paralyzed him. He lay on the ground—unmoving and unblinking but alive— while the Comanche warriors robbed and scalped the victims around him. When it was Wilbarger’s turn, he lay there while the men stole his clothing and then carved off a piece of his scalp. Comanches did not take the whole scalp, only a portion, about the size of a silver dollar. Wilbarger later said that his paralysis kept him from feeling the blade slice his skull, but the sound of the skin being ripped off his head was like distant thunder in his ears. The Comanche finished collecting their rewards and rode away, leaving Wilbarger unconscious in the afternoon sun wearing only one sock.

  When Wilbarger woke, he was feverish, his whole body was aching, and he was intensely thirsty. He crawled to Walnut Creek and lay in the water for an hour, soothing his many painful wounds. Then he slept until the sun set. When he woke after dark, he tried to regain his strength by eating acorns and snails along the shore of the creek. His plan was to stay alive until someone found him. Then he made a grim discovery: there were maggots in his wounds.

  Wilbarger realized he needed to get treatment as quickly as possible and resolved to crawl all the way back to Hornsby’s Bend. But the ranch was six miles away. That’s twenty-four laps around a track. In his weakened and wounded state, Wilbarger made it less than half a mile before he collapsed from exhaustion. He leaned against an oak tree, closed his eyes, and accepted that the end was near.

  The next time Wilbarger opened his eyes, his sister, Margaret Clifton, was standing in front of him. He was shocked. His sister lived in Missouri. How could she be here, in Texas, standing before him? “Brother Josiah,” she said, “you are too weak to go by yourself. Remain here and friends will come to take care of you.” He begged his sister to stay, but she left, walking away toward Hornsby’s. Wilbarger didn’t understand what he’d seen. He was unsettled by the sight of his sister but also encouraged. Her words gave him the strength he needed to hope for rescue.

  Meanwhile, Haynie and Standifer had made it safely back to Hornsby’s Bend and told everyone there of the attack. They planned to wait a couple of days before returning to bury their friends’ bodies. They wanted to make sure the coast was clear.

  But that night, Rueben Hornsby’s wife, Sarah, had a dream in which she saw Wilbarger wounded and scalped and without any clothes sitting by a tree. She woke in a panic, telling her husband that Josiah was alive and they needed to rescue him. Rueben tried to calm his wife, saying it was only a nightmare brought on by the disturbing story they’d told her. He coaxed her back to sleep, but the dream came again, even more real than before. This time, Sarah would not take no for an answer. She woke the men before dawn, hurried them through breakfast, and sent them on their way with sheets to wrap around Wilbarger’s wounded and broken body.

 

1 2 3 4