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What’s that creeping around the corner? Why, it’s Halloween, season of spectral shenanigans and haunted hijinks. Tonight, little boos and ghouls will stalk the streets in the form of trick-or-treaters.

But do real spirits of Brazos Past haunt Waco? Some think so, if local legends have any sway.

Cameron Park

Cameron Park, site of innocent childhood games and picnics by day, is a rumored stomping ground for the post-existent after dark. 

The Texas Collection at Baylor University has a tale on file in Carroll Library’s files chronicling how Lindsey Hollow Road earned its name.

According to the legend, local ranchers in the 1880s apprehended two alleged cattle thieves, the Lindsey brothers. The ranchers chased the brothers up to what is now Lindsey Hollow, where the boys were captured and hung.

Frightened about the potential consequences of murder that would follow if townsmen were to discover the deed, the ranchers supposedly buried their victims in shallow graves at the site now called Lindsey Hollow. The restless spirits of the brothers are said to haunt the area.

According to various ghost story collection sites online, another haven for supernatural activity in Cameron Park is Witch’s Castle, near Lindsey Hollow Road. Marked by what was once a stone archway and the remains of a house, the area is said to reek of dead bodies. Screams, gasps and banging noises are said to accompany the smell.

Baylor haunts

Baylor’s Armstrong Browning Library — known for its astounding large and diverse collection of works from famed lovers, the British poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning — is also rumored to be haunted by their spirits. There’s also the tale of the phantom known as “Preacher Johnson,” supposedly a construction worker who was killed when the malfunctioning elevator in Browning Library hurled him to his doom. 

In old Brooks Hall (1921-2006), the school’s oldest male dormitory in its day, a ghost was said to “live” on the abandoned fifth floor. Students give various accounts of close encounters of the spectral kind, such as flickering lights on spooky nights, but the commonality in all their wild tales spoke a violin-playing phantom, in top hat and cloak, who sometimes carried a candle during his adventures.

In one story, the ghost struck a dorm window in a fit of rage on a stormy night. Witnesses said the phantom peered down through the shattered window. However, the next morning, after the storm had passed, no damage could be found.

Sources: The Texas Collection at Baylor University, TexasGhostHunters.com, TheShadowlands.net, FarShores.org

tjryan@wacotrib.com

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