Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country (America's Haunted Road Trip)

Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country (America's Haunted Road Trip)

Go Ghosthunting in and around San Antonio! Settled by Spanish explorers more than three centuries ago, San Antonio has a rich haunted history. Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country, by local author Michael O. Varhola, covers 30 haunted locations in or around the cities of San Antonio and Austin and throughout the region known as Texas Hill Country. Each site combines history, haunted lore and phenomena, and practical visitation information. The book is organized into four geographical sections: "City of San Antonio," "Greater San Antonio," "Austin," and "Texas Hill Country." This hands-on guide also includes an introduction to the subject of ghosthunting in the Lone Star State and all the information readers need to visit the places described within it, including descriptions of nearly 100 other haunted places. Sites covered include bridges, churches, colleges and universities, cemeteries and graveyards, government buildings, historic sites, hotels, museums, parks, restaurants and bars, and much more. They include the Crockett Hotel, built on the spot where David Crockett and the final defenders of the Alamo are believed to have been slain; the Ghost Tracks, where spectral children are known to move people's stopped cars; and the Devil's Backbone, the haunted highway that wends through the hills north of San Antonio. Michael O. Varhola is a writer who has authored or co-authored 34 books and games―including Ghosthunting Maryland and Ghosthunting Virginia, the swords-and-sorcery novel Swords of Kos: Necropolis, and two fantasy writer’s guides―and published more than 120 games and related publications. He is the founder of game company Skirmisher Publishing LLC, editor-in-chief of d-Infinity game magazine, and editor of the America’s Haunted Road Trip series of travel guides. He has edited, published, or written for numerous publications, including the New York Times, is a combat veteran who served eight years in the U.S. Army, and lives in the Hill Country north of San Antonio, Texas. He also has an active online presence, notably through Facebook, Twitter, and a variety of blogs, forums, and sites. Chapter 2 Alamodome Downtown San Antonio When one considers what sorts of places are most likely to be haunted, they might not necessarily think of large, public, relatively new structures like event arenas constructed during the past two or three decades. But almost everything is built where other things with their own histories used to be and on ground that may have already been a site of spiritual activity. And even places that are the brightest under the best of conditions sometimes have dark pasts of their own. Short of a battlefield, there are perhaps few places where so many people congregate in one place and express such strong emotions as a sports stadium. It should thus not be too surprising that people have, over the years, reported so much paranormal activity at the Alamodome. Located at the southeastern edge of downtown San Antonio, the Alamodome is a domed, five-level, multipurpose, rectilinear venue that has been used for everything from basketball and football games to musical concerts to conventions and trade shows. It was designed so that it could easily be converted into a basketball or hockey arena, and, in this configuration, it can seat 20,662 spectators if only the two lower levels are used, and up to 39,500 if seats in the upper level are also opened. It can seat up to 65,000 spectators for a typical football game but be expanded to accommodate a full 72,000, meaning it is able to host a Super Bowl game if that opportunity should arise. “The Alamodome is what is known as a ‘third-generation’ facility,” according to its official history. “It features column-free spans for unobstructed viewing and curtain wall system for configuration flexibility. [It has] the advantage of both a convention center and a dome without the drawbacks of either [and] is large enough to easily accommodate assemblies and trade shows. The column-free design makes it unlike other domes in one very important way: It has an intimate, ‘human’ scale.” This $186 million brick, concrete, steel, and glass facility, owned and operated by the city of San Antonio, opened to the public on May 15, 1993. Among other things, it was intended to increase the city’s convention traffic, attract a professional football franchise, qualify the city to host the Olympic Games, and placate demands by the San Antonio Spurs basketball team for a larger arena. The city did briefly have a professional World League of American Football team, the San Antonio Riders, in 1991–92, but after the organization withdrew from North America, the team collapsed and never had a chance to play in the new stadium. And, for better or worse, San Antonio has not been able to attract an NFL team. The Spurs, however, did actually play in the Alamodome for a decade, 1993–2002, but became disenchanted with it and cajoled Bexar County int