San Antonio Ghost Stories

I hear about San Antonio ghost stories a lot, all over the city and all over the region around San Antonio. I have never been one to believe in ghosts but some of the stories are interesting. Many people believe strongly in ghosts. There are books, magazine articles, TV shows, and even ghost tour companies that make money by giving tours in downtown San Antonio. So let's explore this spooky phenomena together...

It all started one day in the lunch room where I work. One of the girls mentioned an area ghost story. Since I was new to San Antonio, I had not heard it. She went on very excitedly sharing with our table about how she went down to some railroad tracks to see if the ghosts would push her vehicle across the train tracks and she said they did! She seemed to believe what she was saying.

Shortly after hearing this, I read an article in a magazine about some ghosts in San Antonio. I then heard that people downtown have businesses to show tourists all of the places where the ghosts haunt us. There are also clubs here in San Antonio that meet to discuss and find spooky stuff. This was news to me.

While visiting Leakey, Texas, where my husband's parents live, a local girl was telling us some ghost stories that happened there and in nearby Rio Frio. My family and I lived in Leakey while my husband pastored a church in Rio Frio for ten months and we never saw any supernatural goings-on there, but several others filled us in on what we should be looking for. My husband moved to Leakey when he was 12 and lived there through high school and he never saw anything ghostly then either.

There are San Antonio ghost stories about spirits in and around the Alamo. We have made quite a few trips down to the Alamo, exploring the well-kept grounds, but have never seen anything spooky. Employees and volunteers say they do not want to go down to the basement because they see ghosts.

The Menger Hotel was built near the Alamo back in the 1800s and it is supposed to be filled with ghosts. We visited there and never saw anything spooky, but it is a beautiful old hotel.

The Gunter Hotel is also supposed to be haunted, there is a Donkey Lady Bridge legend and some apparitions in San Pedro Springs Park, just to name a few more.

There is also the legendary Chupacabra, which may not be a ghost, but many locals swear that it exists and news stories are run on it here in San Antonio several times a year. So let's have some fun and explore, even if we do not believe...

According to San Antonio legends, Alamo ghosts abound. Priests, fallen soldiers, children, and others killed during the fall of the Alamo as well as other battles haunt the buildings and grounds in downtown San Antonio.

Back in 1724, the Alamo was established, not as a fortress during war, but as a church mission. It was known as Mision San Antonio de Valero and the Spanish missionaries would minister to the Mexican natives, educating and converting them to Catholicism.

In 1793, the Spanish gave the property over to the native Indian people for their own use. It was no longer to be used for religious purposes.

In the early 1800s, troops fighting in the Mexican war of Independence moved in and called the place Alamo, which means Cottonwood.

In December of 1835, there was a five day battle between Texan and Mexican troops. Then the famous battle of the Alamo happened starting on February 23, 1836 until the Alamo fell on March 6, 1836. During these battles, many lost their lives.

The first ghostly story that I could find happened in April of 1836. Santa Anna told his men to completely destroy the Alamo. When his men went to do just that, six ghosts appeared at the mission doors holding swords made of fire and told the soldiers not to touch the Alamo. This scared the soldiers away. The six ghosts holding the swords were believed by some to be priests who had built the mission.

Colonel Sanchez did not listen to his men and went to destroy the long barracks that still stands today next to the Alamo. A very tall ghosts holding a ball of fire in each hand appeared before the Colonel, rose above him and his men, just hovered there until they retreated, terrified.

In 1846, the San Antonio police moved in and used the Alamo as their headquarters and jail. Employees and prisoners complained about seeing and hearing Alamo ghosts. The police soon found another place for their headquarters and jail.

Today, there are many who claim to see various ghosts in and around the Alamo buildings. Some of these ghosts are frequent flyers and others have shown up just once according to reports. The ghosts are most active at night, but some show up during the day.

The employees and volunteers hate to go down to the basement which is used for storage because that is where a scary Indian ghost has been encountered repeatedly.

Another frequent flyer Alamo ghost is a little boy with blonde hair who shows up a lot in the gift shop. I have never noticed him, but I was not making it a point to look for him either.

A soaking wet cowboy has reportedly been seen by night guards out in the gardens. A female ghost is often seen by the well outside the Alamo at night.

They say the ghost of Davy Crockett wearing his coon skin cap also wanders the Alamo. The ghost of James Allen, who was sent to get help before the fall of the Alamo, comes galloping in at night and people have claimed to hear the gallop.

Since John Wayne passed away, people even claim to see his ghost haunting the Alamo. It is said that he loved the Alamo building and history after he made his 1960 movie, The Alamo.

Investigations of ghosts and supernatural occurrences are not allowed on Alamo property.

The story of the Haunted Tracks in San Antonio near the famous San Juan Mission is in books, magazines, online, and told in stories to me by co-workers who say they have had personal experiences there. So I decided to do a little research.

Supposedly back in the 1940s, a school bus with some children, Cindy Sue, Bobbie Allen, Laura Lee, Richey Otis, and Nancy Carole, on their way home from a long day at school, stalled on the railroad tracks where Shane and Villamain Streets meet, just outside of Loop 410. A speeding locomotive crashed into the bus, killing the driver and all of the children.

After this, the streets in the neighborhood were named after the children killed on the bus. Since the crash, the ghost children push all cars over the tracks so no one else is killed like they were. Research does not show a bus crash here, yet the locals will tell you it is true.

This story is tested all the time by the curious. Be sure and watch the video above. It is interesting. The people on this video claim that they ghosts say, "Watch it," and "Watch out." Dust the back of your car with baby powder before approaching the haunted tracks. Then drive up, stop your car about 20 feet before the tracks and shift your car into neutral. Cars are said to roll forward up a slope and across the tracks, being pushed by the juvenile ghosts. Once across, drivers stop their cars, get out, and see tiny handprints in the powder. Some stories also include a demon that helps the children push vehicles, leaving hoofprints behind.

I have not tried this myself, but as I said I know some people who claim this has happened to them, both at night and in broad daylight. This particular spot is especially popular in San Antonio as Halloween approaches. Cars are said to line up in late October, waiting for the children to push them over the tracks.

Some haunted tracks visitors claim that the children break their car windows in an attempt to get them over the tracks. I do not know anyone personally who has claimed this. Others say that each afternoon, around the time the crash happened, that they can hear wailing and moaning as the children relive the crash each day.

Even though it looks like you are going up a slope to reach the tracks, there is a small 2 degree decline right before the tracks. Doubters say that anytime you sprinkle a car with powder, hand prints will come through from the oil of live human hands who have touched the car previously.

Snopes claims the bus accident did not happen in San Antonio, but in Salt Lake City, Utah, in December of 1938, the year my mother was born. According to Snopes, 26 kids, from age 12 to 18, were on a school bus that was hit be a freight train, killing all of them. Snopes says for ten days, the country was blitzed by reports on radio and in newspapers about the horrible accident.

Snopes also says that the streets nearby were named after the neighborhood developer's grandchildren, and not the children who were killed on the bus.

If you would like to try out the Haunted Tracks while visiting San Antonio, be careful. Know that car jackers and robbers are sometimes there, to get what they can get from unsuspecting tourists. Use caution, roll up your windows, and lock your doors. Area residents report frequent traffic congestion to the authorities, especially around Halloween when more folks want to have a close encounter with things of a paranormal nature.

There are several tales about the Donkey Lady of San Antonio and about her bridge.

First, there is the story of an old woman who lived near a bridge. It seems none of her neighbors liked her much. So one night while she was asleep in her house, some troublemakers burned her house down. As she escaped, the troublemakers noticed that the fire had burned her so she looked like a donkey. She then died in front of them and now haunts the nearby bridge, seeking her revenge.

Another story says a Chinese woman lived in a house with donkeys and performed witchcraft, making her neighbors afraid of her. They boarded her house up, torched it, and she and the donkeys died in the fire so she haunts the bridge, half donkey and half woman.

A third story says a woman owned a pet donkey. The donkey bit a boy and the father of the boy along with neighbors went after the donkey to kill it, chasing it into the river where it drowned. Then they went after the woman, and she was chased into the river as well, where she drowned and now haunts the bridge, angrily seeking revenge.

Yet another version is that the donkey lady's husband started the fire and burned her along with her two children in the house.

Here is a video showing the famous Donkey Lady Bridge, located at the corner of Applewhite Road and W. Jett Road on the South side of San Antonio, not too far away from the Toyota Plant. It is a narrow one-way bridge so be careful if you visit. Part of it has been blocked with posts so vehicles can no longer drive over it, but you can walk over it.

It is said that the donkey lady haunts the bridge on all fours at night, looking to get revenge on the people who killed her and her donkey.

Some say you have to flash a flashlight five to ten times to summon her. Others say you are supposed to drive to the bridge, stop, and honk the horn and yell for her.

Soon you will her the clippity clop of a donkey running and then you will hear braying. For the very brave who have stayed this long in the dark, here she comes, charging forward, violently crashing into vehicles, throwing herself on the hoods, denting the vehicles, taking the paint off, and cracking windshields, leaving behind horse-like footprints without horse shoes.

There are a lot of convincing stories out there. Would you like to visit the bridge at night?