On a recent Sunday afternoon, the Postcards Magazine crew joined a very interesting tour offered by Historic Tours of Texas–the Local Haunted Places Tour.  This particular tour came about because of the arrival of the Halloween holiday, but it is also available during other months. This tour visits different Huntsville Downtown District haunts, the Walls Unit, Oakwood Cemetery, and the Sam Houston State University campus, all within minutes of one another. Each of the locations are riddled with rich history and a little mystery.

While the Local Haunted Places Tour information relates claims the Huntsville community has gathered through experiences at the many different locations, it is up to each tour participant to decide whether to believe what is revealed or to justify occurrences through other explanations.  Following are just a few snippets from our tour…of course, there’s much more than what we can share in this space.

The condensed tour begins at the Gibbs-Powell Museum, where Lee Anne Wiseman and guests claim to hear music playing, along with creaking and moving in the two upstairs bedrooms.

Founders Park has a spring, which Huntsville founder Pleasant Gray, the indigenous Bedias Indians, and hundreds of original settlers all used as a water resource. Today, the spring is capped with the water being rerouted underground. One of the park’s features are indigenous statues, and some people claim that noises of the Bedias can be heard chanting and wandering around in search of water.

The old Walker County Jail building downtown has a storied past, including hangings that happened on the premises. The jail is said to be haunted by two little boys, Daniel and Ernest, and the nine cells upstairs are apparently haunted. There have been claims of people being hugged and having their arm squeezed when visiting.

Visitors to the basement of Texas’ eighth oldest lodge, the Forrest Masonic Lodge, report getting goosebumps and uneasy feelings.

At different downtown locations near the Walker County Courthouse, there have been several unusual occurrences. Some reports include a woman disappearing in Nitsch in Time after asking to use the bathroom, followed by statements that the door was locked from inside with nobody there. A local bed and breakfast has people too afraid to spend the night due to mysterious noises. At Bluebonnet Square Antique Mall, historical objects, like trunks, have even moved without explanation.

Off University Avenue are many relocated and preserved historic homes. Henderson Yoakum’s home is one of those. The energy at Yoakum’s lends to claims of happy and playful spirits, while the Ashford Home, a former funeral home, reportedly has confused spirits. A nearby log cabin has people noticing a smell of fire.  The tragic history is a mother burned to death inside the home, where her children later succumbed to starvation—it could have been months before anybody discovered the scene.

There is a tombstone on the Sam Houston State University campus on the hill near the Old Main ruins marking the grave of a dog called Tripod. He wandered around campus in life, but students have claimed to hear dog panting and barking near the location. Across the street from Tripod’s tombstone is Belvin-Buchanan Hall, where an elevator door has quickly shut and closed, along with rumbling of movement in the basement. This reportedly could be the spirit of Caroline Belvin, one of the first settlers in Huntsville, watching the halls.

Built in 1848, the Walls (Huntsville) Unit has seen over 300 executions, both by electrocution and lethal injection, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that people say the walls talk. At the morgue, workers prefer not to work at night, because of the noises heard and the numerous claims of a white orb floating around like a flashlight.

Next to the Walls Unit is the old cotton factory, built in 1937. While there aren’t white orbs, 1.2 million bats come out at dusk and have been there for about twenty years. The Huntsville group is a maternity colony, meaning 60% of the bats are females and pups.

The last stop of our tour was the Oakwood Cemetery, where Sam Houston is buried. However, what is best known about this place is not Sam Houston’s ghost; rather it’s the life-sized statue of the “Christus,” or comforting Jesus. After the unexpected death of five-year-old Rawley Powell, son of successful lawyer Benjamin Powell III and his wife Marian, the statue was placed in an effort to help others grieve. On cold and misty nights, people have claimed to see the outstretched arms of Jesus close, like a comfort to the five people buried below him, one of them being Rawley, who lies directly in front.

For anyone who has the time coupled with an interest to learn about the vast history of Huntsville, these tours are full of information and intrigue. The one absolute you will walk away with is there’s never a dull moment in history!  Thank you, Historic Tours of Texas for giving us the opportunity to understand how enlightening it can be.

Since 2016, the Historic Tours of Texas catered to those interested in touring different parts of Texas. Founder of the independent corporation is former Sam Houston State University history professor, Dr. Caroline Crimm, who started by driving friends around during tours. In 2019, Robin Logan, a former advanced EMT for twenty years, joined the company and says, “Huntsville has such a diverse history, and whether we agree with some of this history or not, it’s still our history and needs to be kept alive so people learn and respect the history.”

Historic Tours of Texas offers a large variety of local, day trip, multi-day, and even international tours that can be found on their website, www.historictoursoftexas.com, along with the pricing per person. Their large party bus with limo seating holds up to twelve people.

During the summer months, Historic Tours slows down since students and families are traveling, moving, or graduating. But this could pose the opportunity for people to do private tours that, with the help of Dr. Crimm and Ms. Logan, can offer custom tours based on your interests.