Friday, May 3, 2024
With a plethora of history that lies within Granbury roots, residents may not be the only ones walking around the city, as there have been many sights of ghosts around the town.
Granbury has held a ghost tour for 13 years now after it was first started by paranormal enthusiasts Brandy Herr and her mother Coletta Henderson.
Herr and Henderson didn’t expect these ghost tours to have lasted this long but have had many unique experiences and have made many unforgettable memories along the way.
The two worked at the Café Nutt in the Nutt Hotel and encountered a spirit there who they believe to be Mary Lee Watkins, who was the owner of the hotel.
The idea of a ghost tour coming to Granbury was mentioned to Herr by a visitor at the hotel, and the mom and daughter duo turned the idea into a reality.
“Since this is such a history heavy town, we thought it would be perfect to do this, and we started doing the research from there and going door to door and asking people their experiences and had no idea what we would uncover. So many places we went to would say, ‘let me just tell you what happened last week,’ and so we were astounded at how many stories turned up,” Herr said. “We started looking at the historical background in books and magazines and newspapers. We had no idea how well it would be embraced by the town.”
The tours are year-round on Saturday’s and Sunday’s and are an hour-long walking tour. The tour features many ghost stories and legends of Granbury ghosts. Herr noted that typically paranormal activity doesn’t happen on the tour, but many times, guests will see spirits or unusual things in photos they take on the tour.
The most famous ghost story is the belief John Wilkes Booth haunts the Granbury Opera House. The television series, “Ghost Lab” on the Discovery channel even made a visit to the opera house to investigate this story in 2009. They obtained a clear recording during their investigation where they heard a spirit say he was John Wilkes Booth, according to Herr.
Herr explained that many believe Booth was not killed after h assassinated of Abraham Lincoln. They believe that he escaped and fled to Granbury under the name John St. Helen and used to tend bar at what is now known as St. Helens next to the opera house.
Booth became sick and, on what he thought was his death bed, confessed that he was Booth. He ended up getting better and realized he needed to leave Granbury.
In Enid, Oklahoma, a man named David George committed suicide after confessing he was John Wilkes Booth.
Herr also told of a ghost encounter at the Langdon Center formerly known as the Gordon House where it is said to be haunted by a young girl named Audrey Gordon. Gordon was the granddaughter of A.P. Gordon, who was the owner of the house.
Audrey is very active and responsive to the ghost hunters that come to visit, according to Herr.
“We actually had a women take a picture at the center during a tour, and she called out ‘bye Audrey’ and you can clearly see a little girl in the picture with pigtails,” Herr said. “We also have had three different times on the tours where someone’s cellphone will just start playing music.”
Another well-known ghost is the “lady in red” at the Square Café where it’s believed that she was a proprietor of the men upstairs where she accompanied them for the evening.
“One of the most popular ghosts is the faceless girl who is over on Houston Street at Oz Coffee bar. Back in the 80s, they had a photo booth in the building. The workers were opening up one morning and found the photo booth in disarray. The camera was on the lowest setting on the tripod, and the antique chair had been removed. There was a blue dress draped across the chair, but everyone that had a key was inside the building at the time, so they had no idea what was going on. They happened to find a picture in the trash can, and it was a picture of a little girl sitting in the same chair in the same dress holding flowers and wearing a bow, but you couldn’t see her face,” Herr said.
Herr and her mom have loved being able to keep these tours going for this long and don’t plan to stop.
“It’s been great, because we have been able to be a part of so many people’s experiences. We’ve had bachelorette parties, birthday parties, anniversaries, and we have even had a proposal happen on the tour. It’s really cool thinking that we’re providing a unique and fun experience, but we’re also an important part of people’s memories,” Herr said.
Herr even created a book about the ghosts of Granbury and was originally told it wasn’t a good market by a publishing company.
Two weeks later she got an email from a bigger publishing company asking her to write a book about the ghosts of Granbury. She then wrote a proposal, and then “Haunted Granbury” was born in 2014. She also adapted that book into a children’s book titled “The Ghostly Tales of Granbury.”
Herr is also part of the Granbury research and investigation of the paranormal (RIP) group where a team seeks to find paranormal activity.
The group was founded by Greg Stephens and his son Brandon back in 2007. Stephens formerly served 26 years in the United States Army and was part of a previous investigation team but left after the group was too focused on getting a television show.
The RIP group is made up of six members currently and will go visit houses of people who want to get their house checked for spirits and visit places with historic tales. Stephens likes to keep the group small and personal.
Stephens will gather the background history on where they are going to investigate to know the entire story and know what they could be dealing with beforehand.
“Our first goal is to try and debunk everything we were told. I don’t want to put anything out there that people don’t believe, or think is fake,” Stephens said. “I always get more interactions with entities than a lot of investigative television shows, because I’m legit and not doing this for entertainment purposes. Our main goal is to help people, and I’m very big into history. Historic preservation is big with me,” Stephens said.
Stephens has had a passion for ghosts since he was four years old; he has always been able to see the dead walking and would talk to the spirits.
When he was seven years old, he cracked his head from a backflip and couldn’t see full figures anymore but could still see shadows and hear and sense spirits.
Stephens said he has dealt with mostly friendly spirits, but sometimes there are more negative ones that can be dangerous.
“The talent I have is that I deal with the dark side and negative entities better. Those dark entities don’t like me, and they know where my heart and faith is at, so I can help people,” Stephens said. “When I’m dealing with a dark spirit, I get a very heavy pressure in my head.”
Stephens has done hundreds of investigations around Texas and the entire square of Granbury and outside of it.
With Stephens being a veteran, he strives to help other veterans that may have post-traumatic stress disorder. He holds a charity ghost hunt biannually on the square to raise money for societal awareness and mental health awareness.
Since Stephens has traveled all over the state, he has had many bizarre ghost encounters, noting one of the craziest happening at the Motley County Jail in Matador, Texas.
“We ended up encountering a very dark entity. We already had an encounter right before we started, and one of my investigators got scratched right across her back. All of the team was in a half circle, and one of my investigators started saying how it stunk really bad and smelt like burnt rubber. I knew that wasn’t good. All of a sudden, the smell hit me, and it was sulfur,” Stephens said.
He thought one of the investigators was walking toward him and saw a big shadow. Stephens put his arm out and let his friend know he was right there, but there was nothing there. Another investigator told Stephens she was holding his arm, but Stephens said she wasn’t touching him. The team had more instances like that throughout the night.
He and his team also dealt with a demonic entity at a house in Fort Worth that caused one investigator to get scratched all over as well as other investigators to start feeling sick and disoriented. In situations like that, Stephens sends out the team, but he remains to deal with the entity.
A place that has stuck out to both Stephens and Herr in Granbury is the old Granbury hospital/opera house dormitory.
“One of the first times we were there, we got some of the craziest stuff. We were hearing voices and seeing stuff on our camera. All of our equipment was going off like crazy the whole time. I felt like I was talking to a low-level demon type thing,” Stephens said. I was looking down the hallway and I could see something, and I was telling it I could see it and touch me. When you look on the camera you can see this long smokey arm coming out trying to reach out to me, that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done there.”
“I had something following around touching me all night. I felt something brushing the side of my face, and when I moved the tower (a paranormal device that lights up when activity is sensed) to my face it lit up bright red,” Herr said.
Stephens has had a lot of activities happen at the Hood County Jail on Crockett Street, as well as above Paradise Bistro on the square which used to be the mortuary.
“Most of all the spirits on the square we have encountered are friendly, and lots of the time it’s the same spirits roaming the square,” Stephens said.
Stephens also has visited the Langdon Center many times and once had Brandon, an investigator, with him playing the guitar and recording audio. When the other investigator stopped playing the guitar in the audio recording you can hear Audrey saying, “please don’t stop playing Brandon.”
Another experience Stephens will never forget took place at Farina’s Winery and Café. B.M. Estes is the original owner of the building who was a lawyer who didn’t like women, according to Stephens.
“I was calling him out and, all of a sudden, this little pebble hit me in the head. I went over and looked, and there was a little box of decorative painted pebbles, and that was one of them. I guess he didn’t like me talking about him, so he hit me with a rock,” Stephens said.
The ghost hunt charity is open to the public and will take place on Nov. 11 on the square plaza where there will be vendors and live music. Later that night, the ghost hunt will take place with a ticket costing $99 that will go toward Pecan Valley Center Services.
Stephens recommends to people that, if they happen to encounter a spirit that they are uncomfortable with, it is best to talk to it and acknowledge it. If someone is very worried, Stephens recommends saying prayers or reaching out to the RIP group.
Herr suggests those who are skeptical of the paranormal to stay open to the idea of spirits.
“I always think it’s interesting to keep an open mind. You never know what you can experience. Otherwise, if you just close yourself off to it, then you might miss out on some really great opportunities and experiences,” Herr said.
For more information on Granbury’s ghost tour, visit granburytours.com or email GranburyGhosts@gmail.com.
For those interested in learning more about the paranormal in Granbury or one’s house, reach out on Facebook under the group’s page Research and Investigation of the Paranormal.
