You ever hear something and think, “Wow that was really messed up. I’m glad it’s not real and just a story…” As a horror aficionado, I’ve run into my fair share of hoaxes and inflated ghost stories, but every now and then there are some that you just really want to be fake.
Some ghost stories just stick around even if there is no real reason or rhyme for how these stories pop up. Having grown up in a small town, it was not unusual to be told to come inside before the (pick a cryptid) got to you. As such, I find the regional difference between ghost and ghoulish stories quite fascinating, especially as a believer in ghosts (having had an experience as a child). So here for the holiday Turkey season are some of the stories I grew up with in the small towns of East Texas and the bordering areas of Louisiana and Arkansas. Or the traveler’s guide to the local legends.
East Texas has stories ranging from precolonial accounts of sightings of spirits from the indigenous peoples who lived by Caddo Lake to the recent sightings of the Boggy Creek monster in Fouke. This area has a certifiable menagerie of strange urban legends and whether or not anyone believes these tales, they still make a great fireside story.
Pretty much a French-Louisianan werewolf, the story goes if you ignore Catholic Lent for seven years in a row, you are transmuted into a flesh-eating wolf man and set loose into the swamps for your sins. Sadly, it’s not just during the full moon and you don’t change back after sunrise; once a Rougarou always a Rougarou. This one is more Louisianan than Texan, but there are rumors of sightings of them that occasionally make the rounds of the rangers in the bordering parks. However, there is a chance that these are also just messed up wolves. If you’ve ever been to a swamp or wetland, it’s pretty easy to see why monsters are said to haunt them. The Rougarou has many stories and sightings attributed to it and there was a restaurant named after it in the town of Atlanta Texas (Roux-ra-Roux), that served mudbugs or crawfish as the polite folks call them. Thankfully no actual Rougarou attacks have been reported in east Texas, as far as I know…
We’ve all heard this one. What more can I add to this infamous goat sucker story that hasn’t already made the circuit on social media? It was a sort of a joke in the area that if you stayed out at night the Chupacabra would come get you or variations of the sort. This was mainly due to the coyotes in the area that wouldn’t shut up at night. The version that circulated was the mistranslation that described the creature as a hairless dog instead of an E.T.-looking kangaroo that had originally been sighted in Puerto Rico. My mother would say “Come inside before the coyotes get you,” and when that didn’t work, she would tell us about the Chupacabra. Needless to say, me and my siblings were not too excited about playing outside after dark. As far as I know, there has not been an official sighting of Chupacabra in East Texas, but the story was recent enough that people with internet and cable were able to learn about it so it wasn’t unusual to hear someone boasting that they had seen it thanks to the coyotes.
The ghost pirates of Caddo Lake
I don’t really think the river pirate ghosts are real, but it was too funny not to include. If you have not been on a boat tour, I recommend it. Especially if your captain is an old man in a funny hat who starts the tour by introducing their first mate as an animal named after another animal. Even so, every time I’ve ever talked with the boaters out by Caddo Lake, they would mention the sunken ships of pirates and smugglers who would often dump stolen cargo into the lake and connecting rivers back when steamboats could sail through. The exaggerated story goes that those who died in the sunken ships were never found again. This part of the legend of never being found is completely true. Jefferson, the nearby town, has quite the record of ships that were either robbed or sunk before entering port which you can explore further at the resident museum. Coupled with the fact that the river and lakebed of Caddo are constantly shifting making it impossible to map or even dredge the lake at times, almost all of the boats that sink are never ever recovered. So, while the boats may never surface again, it’s impossible to know how many scallywags were claimed by the water during this time. As you expect their spirits haunt the lake, at least according to those that work it for a living.
The Curse of Jefferson Texas
A popular local legend you could hear from just about anyone who has been to Jefferson is that time the town got cursed by an angry railroad tycoon and then a series of disasters somehow conveniently followed. It’s said that back in 1872 a railroad baron named Jay Gould who was looking to build a railroad through the town cursed it after being denied by the city. Now imagine you’re in the fifth largest city in Texas in the 1870s completely sustained by the bounty of rivers; the last thing you need is a railroad. Then in 1873, the bayou’s water dropped dramatically as a result of the Army Corpus halting the steamboats in their path wrecking the economy. A massive flood devastated the town shortly after, flooding the streets and resulting in massive fatalities and damages. For the people of Jefferson Texas, it felt like the angry little man’s curse had come true. It’s more of an old joke for the residents these days that the town never became the commerce hub it once was as a result of the curse. As far as history goes the town of Jefferson does like to have fun with it. You can still visit the preserved railroad car, The Atlanta, Gould traveled in when he came to Jefferson which sits across from the Excelsior, the town’s famous hotel which is almost completely unchanged from its days of operation back in 1858. Both locations are rumored to be haunted.
The Phantom Killer of Texarkana and the Mysteries of Lake Wright Patman
Also known as the Moonlight Murders, this serial killer terrorized the city’s teenagers and young couples in the summer of 1946, claiming the lives of five and leaving three survivors. All were couples on their own at the local lover’s lane or at their home when the attacks occurred. The eerie attacks resulted in city-wide curfews and a massive influx of police into the city. Texarkana at this time had a reputation for violent crime, earning the name Little Chicago. Nobody calls it that anymore, but it was cool while it lasted. The Phantom killer was never caught, and it was believed he could still be roaming the streets after the attacks stopped. The lover’s lane is close to the Wright Pattman Lake which has its own rather fowl reputation. It’s said to sit on top of a flooded town, though as far as I know this claim is unsubstantiated. Every fall, the city of Texarkana hosts a temporary drive-in theater that shows the cult horror film inspired by the events of that summer in 1946. (The Town That Dreaded Sundown)
Fouke Swamp Monster or Boggy Creek Monster
Reports matching the creature’s appearance go back for about a century supposedly, but it wasn’t until the 70s that the reports made the national circuit after a family claimed to have been attacked in their home. The city of Fouke, Arkansas has had multiple sightings since then and it has resulted in a dreaded fear of the Sulfur River and the surrounding woods. Matching a Bigfoot description but with a much more vicious personality, the Fouke monster has a number of theories and stories surrounding its appearance and unusual distinctions from the traditional Bigfoot encounters, leading many to believe this is a separate creature.