Not only is the Old Alton Bridge a picturesque historic site, but it is also said to be haunted by the Goatman, hence the nickname of the bridge. Before the new bridge, drivers had to signal with their horns before crossing the single-lane bridge, as there was room for only one vehicle to pass at a time. Next to the church is the cemetery. [1] One of the more disturbing variations of bridge experiences tells of a man waiting on the other side of the bridge with a goat head under each arm. I would spend countless hours there and watched all this happen every night from the bridge. A week and a half after he went missing, two of his children filed for conservatorship to get control of his assets. Others were totally unrelated, and just seemed to have a keyword that made it come up in a search. Nature lovers and paranormal enthusiasts alike will love checking out this remarkable historic landmark and the beautiful scenery surrounding it, just be sure not to cross after three a.m. https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/buzzfeed-supernatural-investigators-visit-denton-bridge-to-see-if-its-really-haunted-by-a-half-goat-half-demon-10051546, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-alton/, https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/goatmans-bridge, https://wedentondoit.com/blog/2013/10/18/back-in-the-day-goatmans-bridge, https://texashillcountry.com/goatman-bridge-history-hauntings-denton-alton-bridge/. Throughout the years multiple origins for the Goatman have spread but the one that remains consistent is the feeling that the demon is watching.<br /><br />Listen to all the origins and find . It was just me, my equipment, my dog and the Spirits.. who grew more accustomed to my energy presence the longer I spent out there and got to know what this place was, how beautiful it truly was at night, when the rest of the world just came looking for a quick jump-scare or half-man half goat/ghostly headlights/knock 3 times to summon the demon/goat hooves sounds/shadow figure etc (the Legend quickly began to spin and soon I would realize I set events in motion that nobody EVER couldve expected. But when they checked the noose to ensure that Oscar had died, they were in for quite the shock: the noose was empty. On a dark night in the late 1930s, a lynch mob of Kluxers stormed Washburn's shack and dragged the screaming Goatman to their noose waiting on the bridge, tightened the rope around the begging Oscar's neck, then mercilessly flung him over the side. Apparently this commenter left a link a website, goatmansbridge.com which repeated the claim with no citation. By 1856, the small town boasted several homes, a blacksmith shop, three stores, a school, a saloon, a hotel, two doctors, and several lawyers. The turn of the century brought a black goat farmer and his family to a residence just North of the bridge, and a few short years later, Oscar Washburn was known as a dependable, honest businessman. Goatman's Bridge is the common nickname for what's formally called Old Alton Bridge, an iron-truss span that once connected Denton, Texas, to Copper Canyon. He also mentioned the bridge in a handful of his tweets, but the tweets werent coherent enough for me to glean anything from or for them to be worth reading from here. Before the new bridge was built, motorists were required to honk their horns on the one-lane bridge to let other travelers know they were coming. if (theYear < 1900) Peering over into the water, his murderers saw a rope, but not his body. The comment also said that the car was a Mustang, because of course it was, and it says that there were lots of people that reported other missing persons linked to the Goatmans bridge and the Goat man with no additional detail. [4], According to University of Maryland folklorist Barry Pearson, the Goatman legend began "long, long, long" ago and were further popularized in 1971 when the death of a dog was blamed on Goatman by local residents. It is open only to pedestrians today. The location has already been featured on Ghost Adventures: Extra Pulses. Though Commissioners were appointed and directed to lay out a town and sell lots, no records were ever done, and no public buildings were ever erected. Lermon Jones. In the meantime, Alton began to die as many of its businesses moved to the new county seat. According to the most circulated version, an African-American entrepreneur named Oscar Washburn and his family tended a farmstead goat herd near the bridge that was renowned for quality meat, milk, cheeses and hides. On February 19, following a community-wide search, Cathy's 1990 Toyota Corolla was found abandoned in the Placentia Linda Hospital parking lot. Today, the Baptist Church and the Alton cemetery are all that remains of the Alton village. According to her autopsy report, she was stabbed dozens of times, with puncture wounds all over her head, face, and upper . Around 2:30 p.m, his son in-law drove off to Home Depot to pick up supplies. The third county seat location was designated in November 1850, about five miles southwest of present-day Corinth on Hickory Creek. A vicious and hateful group of Klansmen working in the local government began to conspire against him, waiting for Oscar to slip and give them some excuse to be rid of him. Townsite lots began to be auctioned in January 1857. Visitors hear hooves beating across the bridge, splashing in the creek below, maniacal laughter, and an inhuman growl that emanates from the woods. Harrod was last seen at his residence in the 500 block of Carnation Drive Placentia, California sometime between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. on July 27, 2009. There are no definitive records of Washburn or Kendall, but as a Denton local said, that doesnt mean its not haunted.The bridge is seven miles south of Denton, if you ever get the urge to visit just keep your headlights on and dont knock on the bridge, unless you want to visit with the Goatman. But heres what I can tell you: I just searched for him again and I have discovered that he made a Tiktok back in July and hes posted two videos, both of which show a shirtless man wearing a cow mask and hanging out in the woods. Most notably, one that occurred November 15th 1967. While the Goatman is said to sleep beneath the Old Alton during the day, he habitually creeps out from under it to hunt for food at night, returning only at the sound of his name. Halloween is upon [6] The 16-minute, $6,000 film premiered on December 29, 1988 at the Uptown Theater. The church is located at 5724 Teasley Lane ( F.M. When approached, the woman is said to vanish. Last time, I talked about the possibly apocryphal story of the murder of Oscar Washburn, a Black man who was supposedly lynched by the Klan in the 1930s. And also, as far as Ive been able to tell, thats when the Goatman was given the name Oscar Washburn. Lermont Stowers-Jones' body was found in a Denton County creek in 2018. STOP..GOINGTHERE..PEOPLE! There is little remaining of the old townsite today, except for the Hickory Creek Baptist Church and the old Alton Cemetery, which contains graves that date back to 1852. Notably, the article mentions neither Oscar Washburn nor a disappearance in 1967. Treat has written about numerous local places and personalities at his. Watch the new and 7th season of BuzzFeed Unsolved: True Crime! Placentia Police Department Join the discussion on our new social platform Texjas.com! I would laugh and think to myself (Another one bites the dust I guess) Many times however, I would get lucky and not have a single other person come visit the bridge, OR even a car drive by for an entire night. There are many Denton ghosts The bridge and surrounding woods is said to be haunted by a demonic creature with the head of a goat and the body of a man as well as other reported . The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in July 1988 and closed to vehicle traffic in 2001. When Denton County was formed in 1846, the first pioneers chose a place along Pecan Creek for the first county seat and named it Pinckneyville in honor of Texas first governor, James Pinckney Henderson. Unfortunately, I wasnt able to watch the video that he posted, but I was able to read the video description on the Wayback Machine. The legend goes that they then fitted a noose over his head and threw him over the side of the bridge but when they looked to see whether he was dead, his body had disappeared. Most who were brave enough to even make the 30 second journey to the bridge, would stand on it (and im dead serious) for a minute or two and would immediately leave, not even bothering with the well-traversed-in-the-daytime hiking trail to either side along the river. Apparently, in 2010, there was a person who commented on a bunch of websites, basically anything that mentioned the bridge that year. Its just a bizarre synchronicity, because Im only still in touch with two people who I went to high school with, and both of them grew up on the same street as this person. The church is located at 5724 Teasley Lane ( F.M. The following is a description of the legend in her own words: There's a bridge in Denton, Texas called Goatman's Bridge. Bagans, Goodwin, Billy Tolley and Jay Wasley watch the subject episode and add candid commentary about behind-the-scenes moments. legendary ghost stories. Some say that the bridge was once the site of an execution, another of a lynching; others say that an old goat herder was murdered on this spot, while still others believe it is the earthbound spirits of those killed in the Sam Bass Texas Rangers shootout nearby. now = new Date The Big Book of Texas Ghost Stories by Alan Brown, published in 2012, doesnt mention the Old Alton Bridge. However, it wasnt so well-known for a long time. The bridge is located about seven miles south of Denton. The legend goes that he had a wife, who died mysteriously and that one night a group of drunken cowboys found the old man out crossing the bridge, herding his goats and drove the animals off the bridge, killing them in the fall. Apparently, hearing about this, the County Sheriff went out to check on the mans welfare, but found neither the man nor the goats, dead or alive. However, no goatman. Related: Goatmans Bridge is a reminder of the cowardly Klansmens dastardly deed. If I can just summarize the research I did, which I talked about in ep 1 of this series: the Old Alton Bridge and the Goatman werent mentioned in the older books that I have access to about the paranormal or urban legends in Texas: I have two books by folklorist J. Frank Dobie, Legends of Texas Volume II: Pirates Gold and Other Tales, and Tales of Old-Time Texas, and the only stories they have about the area are about Sam Bass. His living was raising and selling goats. Due to the great number of unexplained happenings at the Old Alton, the bridge has been the subject of a number of investigative paranormal shows. Half a century after the bridge was built, an African-American man named Oscar Washburn settled with his family near the bridge. The couple had met and become engaged in 1950, but they were separated when Harrod joined the military and eventually both of them married other people. There are even claims of satanic devil worship being performed on the site, raising the specter of the devil himself on the bridge. These tales are obviously old, as the bridge has been closed to vehicle traffic since 2001. This series is the true story ofhow I became The Goatman. Old Alton Bridge aka Goatmans Bridge,' is a now infamous old haunted bridge near Denton Texas. Other strange happenings recorded at the bridge include strange lights appearing in the surrounding woods, along with reports of visitors feeling hands grab at them in the dark, o a rain of rocks pelting them as they cross the bridge. I want to know what happened to my son." In a time predating cars, massive cargo carriages drawn by hefty workhorses became the bridges most frequent users. Dallas Observer's The Morning After Brunch, virtual remembrance and fundraising event. \r\rAfter numerous abandoned automobiles and missing persons, a new bridge was constructed directly downstream. Running across the bridge back to the car and then on that gravel is damn scary. In fact, the only residence that existed was that of a man named W.C. Baines, who established a farmstead long before the designation of the new county seat. On the other hand, the book Haunted Plano, Texas by Mary Jacobs, which was published in 2018, has a whole section about the Old Alton Bridge, even though it isnt in Plano. . All there is is one single piece of information on the about page which is that he joined YouTube on July 15, 2022. A half a century later a legend of a monstrous half-goat, half-man demon was born. They returned to his home and slaughtered his family, according to the legend. I always thought that the Goatman was a black goat farmer, lynched by the KKK for putting a sign up on the bridge. The Hickory Creek Baptist Church was organized in 1855, and by 1856, there were several buildings including a school and a saloon. Old Alton Bridge, AKA Goatman's Bridge, in the daylight. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. The residents of what are now the cities of Argyle and Denton thought the man to be a bit of a loner and rather odd, but no one really knew all that much about him. It might have just been a racoon or somethingbut it was moving in our direction, and we all bolted out of there! The person said: "There have been several disappearances on and around Old Alton Bridge. Treat has written about numerous local places and personalities at his Denton Haunts blog, and is forever indebted to the great work of the fine folks with the Denton County Historical Commission and local keepers of history like Mike Cochran and Laura Douglas at the Emily Fowler Library for their tireless work in helping preserve Dentons intriguing past. The tiktok account just has the two videos, and it has like five followers so you are missing anything there. We walked down one of the paths, and I swear something started chasing us! On a dark night in the late 1930s, a lynch mob of Kluxers stormed Washburns shack and dragged the screaming Goatman to their noose waiting on the bridge, tightened the rope around the begging Oscars neck, then mercilessly flung him over the side. and help keep the future of the Observer, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. Earning his living raising goats, he was soon called the Goatman by the locals. Oh, also, it seemed like he tweeted a lot in early-to-mid June 2022 and hasnt tweeted since, which also matches the pattern. In 2014, after Harrod's family had him declared legally dead and inherited his home, Heeter was evicted. DO THE DENTON HOLIDAY LIGHTING FESTIVAL LIKE A PRO, THE MANY FACES OF DENTON'S FINE ARTS THEATER. From tragic and riveting tales of murder to the somewhat vague stories of a ghostly goatherder, its sure to give you the chills if you ever visit heading out there after dark probably isnt advisable, in any case! There have been four known lynching events of white people in Denton County since its founding, and the reason for white lynchings was typically horse theft. Same types of people, same cliche expectations and same reactions tonothing really. . Take I-35E S/US-77 S to exit 463 and merge into the I-35 Frontage Rd. The original video was called The First Goatmans Bridge Video Ever Uploaded on Youtube 2011 YouTube.. November 15th 1967: police discover an abandoned car beside Old Alton Bridge, five miles south of Denton, Texas. When they looked down to see if he had died, the noose was empty. In an account that may go back as far as the 1860s Texas Troubles, some Copper Canyon cowboys lynched a Creole slave goat-herder named Jack Kendall from a tall creekside tree near where the bridge now stands, but ineptitude separated the runaway slaves head from his body. local news and culture, I want answers. The Old Alton Bridge is a historic iron bridge that spans over the muddy waters of Hickory Creek and connects the city of Denton to the city of Copper Canyon, a little less than an hours drive from Dallas. Most ghosts are given names because we need to feel like we can know them. Then he talks about his videos that he posted in 2009: I take issue with his claim that no legend at all existed, but I have been able to confirm that it seemed to be a much lesser known urban legend (for example, I lived there for years and had never heard of it), and the stories of hauntings seemed more scattershot. Donations are accepted but not expected; the site remains free-access to all. Id like to loop back to some of the trickster stories I mentioned in the first episode of this series. But be warned, the creature is said to appear whenever someone mentions its name. Many who have crossed at night. contribution from Shaun Treat, founder of the, historical ghost tour. In a panic, they returned to his family home and slaughtered his wife and children.[4]. Copyright 2008 - So this is a person who perhaps at one point in his life felt very inspired by Godsmack, see you can just use that to paint a mental picture in your mind palace of what this person might be like. 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