Well this Saturday night we are doing one of my favorite locations to investigate it will be my 4th trip there and everytime there has been some activity. The second trip last October was the best by far. Due to privacy issues of the location I cannot give out its location.
Last October when we were there I was team lead of a team of 7 we were on the top floor and were sitting in total darkness. We heard a noise to my left at the end of the hall, but just played it off. About 5 minutes later one of my team members got freaked out and turned her flashlight on shining it down that hallway. The door on the end was wide open. I had closed it earlier when we got on the floor, I got up and started moving to the door it slammed shut. I got about halfway down the hall toward the door and I could see the face of what appeared to be a young girl looking in the window of the door. The area outside the door was at one time a childrens playground according to my research.
When in operation this place had about 4000 deaths in its time many were children.
Is Jefferson the most haunted town in Texas? Many in the small East Texas town think so. Jefferson was founded sometime between 1836 and 1840 along the banks of the Big Cypress Bayou. It quickly became a major riverport in Texas since a massive log jam on the Red River allowed riverboats to come up that far from New Orleans. By 1860 Jefferson was the second largest town in Texas only Galveston was bigger.
In the 1870s Railroad Tycoon Jay Gould visited Jefferson to discuss with the town council about bringing the railroad to town. The council refused and insulted Gould so badly that when he left he signed the guestbook at the Excelsior Hotel and put the words "Die Jefferson Die" by his signature. This is still displayed today in the old hotel. Some say his curse was fulfilled a few years later when the Army Corps of Engineers led by Captain James Shreve used dynamite to blow up the log jam blocking the Red River. This began a process of lowering the water level in Caddo Lake making riverboat traffic impossible. The railroad was built about 20 miles to the southwest in Marshall and to the southeast in Shreveport. All these factors began a decline for Jefferson.
In the 1880s the murder of Diamond Bessie captured the attention of the nation the subsequent trial of Abe Rotheschild ended in his acquittal. To this day he is the only suspect for her murder. The 1880s also saw the sinking of the Mittie Stevens in nearby Caddo Lake. The boat was one of the last that could make the trip it was carrying a large amount of gold and silver when it caught fire. The money has never been recovered.
Today Jefferson has only about 2000 people living there, but the old downtown is as alive as ever.
Some of the most famous haunted locations in the town are:
The Jefferson Hotel- This building was originally an old cotton warehouse that was converted to a hotel/brothel in the late 1800s or early 1900s. There has been activity reported in much of the building. Me and my wife stayed there a couple of years ago and I thought she had already gone into our room. As I started to open the door the toilet flushed in our room then saw my wife coming to the room from the other end of the hall.
The Excelsior House- This is the oldest Hotel in Jefferson and has had several Presidents stay there. It is where Jay Gould cursed Jefferson. In the late 1970s Steven Spielberg was in the area scouting locations for a movie he was doing. About 2AM he and his crew left the hotel. He later revealed that he was in the Jay Gould suite and woke to a woman sitting in the rocking chair in the room. He also said he used the event for inspiration in Poltergeist. To this day the hotel denies their ghosts and also denies Spielberg ever stayed there.
The Grove- This is an old house that was built in the 1870s. There are so many ghost stories attached to this house its hard to pick just one. To many this is the most haunted house in Texas. One of my favorite stories is about 6 years ago before author Mitchell Whitington(shameless plug for a friend) bought the house radio personality Kid Kraddick sent Big Al Mack to the house when they got there they knocked on the door. Nobody answered as they were leaving an old man apparently came around the corner of the house and chased them off. This old man has been seen numerous times and is always chasing off unwanted visitors. I have heard another story where someone knocked on the door a few times then looked in a window only to see him staring back at them.
There are several other places and stories about Jefferson that adds to its lore. A trip through the local cemetary you will see 2 graves chained together. Story on this is that 2 men were fighing over the same woman. One decided to kill the other. It ended with one killing the other but not before the other got a shot off on the other. The other guy ended up dying from his wound. As punishment the town buried them side by side and drove 2 metal rods through their caskets and chaining them together.
In 1998 me and my wife Christy were really first getting into the paranormal investigation field. At the time we were cemetary hunting. I had heard of a cemetary about 30 miles from our house. It was nicknamed in local folklore "The Witch's Tabernacle."
The story is that in the 1880s a minister at a church on the site killed his wife and buried her in the floorboards of the church. I nail down the exact location of this cemetary and we head out. When we arrive Christy has an overwhelming feeling of dread and refuses to get out of the car. I am parked to where the headlights are shining into the cemetary which is about 60 yards away from the car. I get out and start walking toward the gate. I get about halfway there and Christy honks the horn on my car, I turn around and she is pointing at the cemetary. When I turn back around I feel a cold blast of air hit me and pass through me. I turn back toward my car and I cannot see the car or lights due to some black cloud moving between me and it. The cloud hits my car and moves over it. At that time everything returns to normal. I immediatly go back to the car and we leave. When I finally got Christy to talk about what she saw. She saw the same thing except she saw it emerge from the cemetary pass through me and over the car.
Christy refuses to go back out there. I have been back a couple of times and so far have not experienced anything even close.
Keep watch I have more spooky and interesting tales coming soon.
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