Hunting for the Goat Man

Date: November 2, 2013

Location: Old Alton Bridge, Denton, Texas

Rumors of hauntings at the Old Alton Bridge in Denton, TX abound. Built in 1884, the bridge was used to connect Lewisville to Alton. According to local legend, just after the turn of the century an African American goat farmer, Oscar Washburn, and his family moved to the north side of the bridge, and Oscar began regularly herding his goats over the bridge, earning the nickname “the Goat Man.” While Oscar was an honest, dependable farmer, local Klansmen were not fond of him, leading to his lynching on the bridge in August of 1938. Legend says that when the Klansman looked over the bridge, Oscar’s body was no longer hanging from their rope. In anger and panic, they went to Oscar’s house and murdered his entire family. To this day many claim that if you cross the bridge in total darkness, the Goat Man will be waiting for you on the other side. Along with the legendary Goat Man haunting, there have also been reports of a female ghost around the Old Alton Bridge who is looking for her lost child.

On a chilly night soon after Halloween while my parents were visiting from Arkansas, we decided to check out this legendary bridge for ourselves. Despite there being a very large gathering of local paranormal investigators as well as local kids at the bridge, we were able to find some peace and quiet in the surrounding woods to do some EVP work. Unfortunately, the Goat Man decided not to reveal himself to us through audio evidence, but we did end up with some rather intriguing photographs from the woods, a few orbs around the bridge, and some video evidence to support my mom’s personal experience of the light on her video camera going turning off and on at random.

Two orbs occur in this photo, a moving white one on the right and a small red one on the left.

This video evidence (featured below) was captured towards the end of the night. My dad, John, and I had all walked down to the west end of the bridge without any equipment on in an attempt to recreate the legendary sightings of the Goat Man that occur when you cross the bridge in total darkness. While this effort didn’t reveal the Goat Man to us, just before we returned to where my mom was standing at the east end of the bridge, the light on her video camera began to flash off and

Photo of my mom (Beverly) taken while the camera light was flashing.

on unexplainably. She had been using the camera to film the KII meter while she asked questions about whose spirit was present at the bridge. The KII and her audio recorder yielded no results, but the flashing of the camera light was quite intriguing since my mom was very unfamiliar with how to work the camera and the three of us witnessed the light flashing several times after we returned. The light stopped flashing as soon as she aimed the camera away from the KII meter. This experience fit rather well with reports we had heard earlier in the night from another group of investigators who claimed that all of the electronic devices had been drained while they were on the bridge.

The red streak of energy on the bridge.

Our only other evidence from the night came from photos. In several photos I captured orbs around the bridge and in the woods. While most of these were typical white/translucent orbs, in a couple of photos the orbs appeared reddish-orange. On the bridge, one picture even showed a bright red streak moving across the bridge. The streak of energy seems to be moving over the middle of the bridge because several bridge beams can be seen beyond the light, and despite my best efforts I could not replicate the photo when cars passed by. These red/orange orbs are in line with many reports of a flying orange light being spotted in the area. 

More interesting, though, were two of the pictures I took in the woods on the east side of the bridge that featured several white streaks of light or energy seeming to move through the air above John. The two photos were taken only seconds apart and seem to show the light/energy moving across the path. In the second photo, some have seen a face forming in the upper blob of energy.

Two photos showing the mysterious energy moving through the woods. 

Zoomed in view of the upper energy blob from the second photo. A face seems to be forming in the misty lower part of the blob.

So while we got no EVPs to help us determine if the Goat Man or the wandering lady do linger around the Old Alton Bridge, we did find evidence of some sort of paranormal energy in the area. We strongly believe the bridge is worth a return visit, just maybe not so soon after Halloween next time.

Hayley.