Hollow Hill

Houston, TX – Haunted Patterson Road

Patterson Road in Houston, Texas may be haunted. This road borders Bear Creek Park and runs between Highway 6 and Eldridge Road. [Google Maps]

Haunted Patterson Road, Houston, TX It’s a lovely location. Arrive in the afternoon and plan a picnic or barbecue in the park. Visit the zoo, read the historical markers, and get a sense of the landscape and its heritage.

Some of Bear Creek Park’s ghost stories are related to Civil War activity.

Others are from 1900, when the infamous hurricane displaced an entire community. After that, county workers literally changed the landscape to prevent future disasters.

Homes were lost. Landmarks and memorials vanished. The area was safer from future floods, but at a terrible cost.

After a heavy rainstorm, this location still floods before other areas. Always check road conditions before driving to Bear Creek Park.

Marching in the woods

Much of Bear Creek Park is overgrown with dense foliage. At night, frogs make noise too loud to ignore.

You’ll hear other sounds in the woods, too. They’re probably woodland animals, but they are very odd noises.

To some, they sound like people marching or trudging. Lots of people, and heavy steps. Soldiers…? People fleeing the hurricane that came in from Galveston?

No one knows.

That’s why, one evening in early May 2005, two of us investigated Patterson Road.

First, we visited it during the day, to check it for EMF, and so we’d be familiar with anything odd – but easily debunked – after dark.

Compass anomalies at Langham Creek bridge

Right away, we saw anomalous needle swings in excess of 30 degrees on the right side of the Langham Creek bridge as you’re facing Eldridge Road.

That’s significant. The most likely explanation was EMF, but we couldn’t find a logical source. That area is very rural.

Most of our daytime photos were normal, except at this location:

Patterson Road, Langham Area — Photo at Langham Creek. Everything’s crisp except a white mist in the upper left corner.

Close-up Langham Creek mist — Arrow points to white mist in my photo, similar to a mist in others’ photos, taken at the same time. (Photo lightened for this website.)

The sun was quickly setting when I took this photo with a digital camera.

There was no light to create that “misty” effect at the upper left corner of the photo. There was no fog, no rain… nothing to account for that mist.

Could it have been breath? Possibly, except that others have captured a similar white mist at that same stand of trees.

So, we have no reliable explanation.

I have no idea if any “hanging tree” legends exist at that location.

One friend – more familiar with the area – said he’d heard that kind of legend, related to a soldier who wanted to desert his military group. But he wasn’t certain of the exact location.

Langham Creek soldiers?

Langham Creek, Houston, TX — Signs at Langham Creek, Houston, Texas

Langham Creek bridge has the most haunted reputation.

According to local legends, ghosts of Civil War soldiers tap on your car if you park on the bridge with your lights out.

**I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS!**

Patterson Road is busy at night with sporting events at nearby Bear Creek Park. Traffic is intermittent, and some people drive faster than they should.

In other words, it’s a dangerous place to stop your car.

But, yes… on that evening, we did pause on the bridge after dark. (Our headlights remained on.)

At that bridge, we heard tapping noises.

All of it could be explained by the car settling and the bridge shifting slightly under the weight of the car.

So, please do NOT pause your car on Langham Creek bridge, or on any road, with your lights off.

Our next stop was Bear Creek bridge and that’s where things got weird…

ghostbat

Houston, TX – Ghosts of Glenwood Cemetery

Houston, Texas’ Washington Avenue cemeteries are a series of cemeteries, varying in age, on nearby and adjoining properties. Some have a more “haunted” reputation than others.

Glenwood Cemetery is sixty acres of lovely rolling hills and beautiful monuments, including an authentic Tiffany window in one mausoleum.

The cemetery was established in 1871 and is the home of notable graves, including Howard Hughes’.

The cemetery caretaker of adjoining Washington Cemetery (formerly Deutsche Gesellschaft von Houston cemetery) was murdered in 1977, and this remains an unsolved mystery.

On our first visit to Glenwood Cemetery in 2003, we found a grave with EMF anomalies right away: The Wettermark plot (photo above), which is a memorial to two children who died in Sweden, and their American mother.

The EMF registered as a 30+ degree compass swing, just to the right of the entrance to the family plot.

Our photos showed no orbs or anomalies, but we were there in bright sunlight at about 4:30 p.m.; the cemetery closes at 5 p.m. It is gated, and — due to laws and the neighborhood — not recommended for ghost hunting at night. You should not visit this cemetery alone during the daytime, either.

Watch for fire ants when you visit this and other Texas cemeteries. Wear sneakers, not sandals. (We speak from experience. It was easy to tell that we were not locals.)

Old Town Katy, TX – Ghosts, Pt 1

In June 2005, we began investigating the “old town” area of Katy, Texas. We began with no reports of ghosts in Old Town Katy, but a gut feeling that it might produce some good orbs.

(Frankly, a lot of my work involves predicting & investigating haunted sites before any other website does. And, as of mid-2005, no other ghost website — and no ghost-related TV show — had reported anything about the ghosts of Old Town Katy.)

So, I was ready to see if my “gut feeling” and my prediction methods (including ley lines) were correct.

I began by looking for clues in Katy’s history.

HISTORY OF KATY, TEXAS

Katy was originally called Cane Island and is about 25 miles west of downtown Houston. It was the hunting ground of the Karankawa Indians through the 1820s.

The town was settled in the mid 1890s. The Katy post office opened in 1896, and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad (MKT – called the “KT”) depot was finished in 1898.

Unfortunately, a lot of the town’s early efforts were swept clean by the Galveston Flood of 1900. (Many people don’t realize how far inland that water spread.)

Most of the early settlers in Katy were farmers. By the early 20th century Katy was best known for its annual rice crop.

In 1934, the discovery well of the Katy gas field was drilled. That led to new business opportunities in Katy and vicinity.

Today, Katy’s population is about 12,000 and growing with upscale developments opening steadily, especially in the Cinco Ranch area.

However, the historic side of Katy is the focus of our early ghost investigations.

All but two of the original Katy homes were lost in the 1900 hurricane that caused the Galveston Flood. We started our research at the oldest buildings with the most interesting history.

Here’s our initial report:

KATY TRAIN DEPOT

Our first stop was the old train depot (5710 Highway Boulevard, near East Avenue and 1st Street). This wonderful old building is being restored by the Katy Historical Society. Only a few of our depot photos show orbs, but those that do are notable.

Here’s a close-up of one of the orbs:

I’m not going to claim that one orb means anything. It’s pretty, and it’s odd that there’s just one orb at a site that feels so connected to its history. However, that’s not nearly enough to say that a site is haunted.

Despite that, the site is convenient, not far from I-10. Also, it’s a quiet area, and a comfortable spot for ghost hunting. So, we’ll continue to explore it.