Haunted in San Antonio (Mission, Gatesville: new home, elementary school, restaurant)

[johnrex62]

Thank God!

I lost a fingernail last Saturday! Ouch! But I figured the blood would add to the scary effect.

[LiveUrban]

How haunted is Fort Sam?

[majormadmax]

The Harlequin Dinner Theater at Ft Sam is allegedly haunted...

But otherwise, things are pretty dead over at Ft Sam but only because Lackland is such a happening place!

Cheers! M2

[Mrs.Rangel <3]

Okay so I just came back from they've haunted hotel downtown The Menger Hotel,
WOW my and my fiance went and just walked around. I kens something was going to happen tonight because as soon as we walked in I felt a tap on my right shoulder thinking it was something dangeling from my fiancé then I realized he would have nothing like that on him. Well we start walking on the first floor once we got to the second floor we started to hear noises like keys moving and footsteps in front and behind us so we turned on our cameras on our phones and started talking picture after picture and some videos! Let's just say we came home and finally looked at the pictures come to find out someone was in the halls with us a maid it seems like we have two pictures one on each if our phones of the same maid his you can see her walking in a room and mine you can barley see her cause she has begun to enter the room! We went outside to the patio well I was just trying to take a picture of the fountain well you can litterly see a man in a white tux with a black tie you can see is zoomed in just as perfectly as if it weren't zoomed in! It was really cool though nothing bad happened I will go back to get more pictures!

[mpd33]

Hows about you post some of these see-through maid pictures?

[wCat]

Originally Posted by mpd33

Hows about you post some of these see-through maid pictures?

I'd like to see them too!

[Mrs.Rangel <3]

I'm not to sure how to post them but I will ask my fiancé!
Seriously clear pictures I didn't think that it will show up but I was still snapping pictures of everyhing
I honestly took half of the pics on accident cause I was trying to record on my phone but instead taking great pictures

[aj007]

so no pics yet?

[GWhopper]

Yeah, I really want to see the pics!

Best way to post them is to save them on your hard drive, open up a new post in this forum and click on "Go Advanced" at the bottom of the post before you "submit" it, then click on the little paper clip icon at the top of the advanced post box. This gives you a window from which you can browse and upload your pictures.

[moparrush]

Even though this string was started a couple of years ago, I just wanted to interject my experiences at the Hot Wells. I grew up on the Southside back when, as a kid, you could ride your bike all over without fear of whatever. For some of you that can remember, you could even swim at Espada park and slide down the damn into the water below. That was a favorite swimming hole for many southsiders. In the mid seventies my grandmother told me a story of the old hot wells hotel as she had stayed there as a young woman. This was of course after she was taking me up south presa to take my grandpa lunch as he worked at the Lone Star brewery and pointed out the hotel. A few weeks later a friend and I made our way to the ruins of the Hot Wells Hotel. The majority of the Hotel was still standing as it had only suffered one fire at that time. We went all through the hotel, and there was even signatures on the walls from some of the famous visitors, which were still visible. One that we found was Errol Flynn, who was a famous actor from the 30's and 40's. There was a big game room that was still in tact that had some of the shuffle board pieces still there, as well as table bowling, which were in mint condtion, but covered in dust. Down, in what used to be a cellar/garage, was an old 20's truck, which had been pretty much stripped, but the shell was sitting there in the dirt. The sulfur springs were still flowing into the pools out back and you could still read all the signs. Some which said No Diving and Pool with arrows pointing the way.
My buddy and I made several trips into the hotel in the following years, and always found unique and unusual things. So one night we decided to camp out in the hotel. We had heard creaks and footsteps while we were in there before and only to find that we were alone. So our sense of adventure and curiousity had led us to want to try and stay the night. We camped out in the game room area, and sat around and waiting for something to happen, but were disappointed till about 3am. We were both dozing off when all of a sudden what sounded like a bullhorn and someone speaking was clear and coming out from the pool area. Thinking we were busted we went around through the brush to check out what was going on only to find that we were still alone. Over the course of the next hour, until I had had enough, there were foot steps, voices, and moving shadows. It wasn't until I had heard a door slam on the end of the room we were in, and no one there, that I told my friend that, "I'm outta here"! I never went back until about six months ago. After finding it again, and only seeing it from South Presa it looked alot worse than when I had explored it. After some research I found that it had burned again, which claimed what was left. Very Sad, because this place was a gorgeous hotel/spa.
I took my kids, who live out of town and are visiting, around to all the old haunts of the southside. Which there are numerous, but that old hotel was one of my favorite hot spots. While looking up info to show my girls I came across this thread and decided to leave a post. I've read the books written by authors who are content to write about the Menger, and crocket hotels, some of the inns, and a few other things, but don't have a clue about some of the famous hot spots of the south side. For those of you reading this and don't know, the banks of the San Antonio River which run past the missions, Espada park, and especially the Mission/San Jose burial grounds are extremely haunted areas. Of course the Hot Wells hotel also sits on this stretch of the river. I could write a whole book of mine and others experiences, which are quite amazing in themselves. Things like the suicide bridge on Applewhite road, Donkey lady, the bottomless grave, Villamain Road (which leads to the Haunted railroad tracks) has haunting up and down that whole road, and the chinese graveyard to name a few. Not to mention the many houses that are on the southside that are haunted. You won't read about these in these nice books which are published and talk about the touristy inns, or pricey hotels.
The southside is riddled with the unexplained and paranormal. I've always had a facination with ghost and the afterlife since I was very young, and have had the great pleasure of growing up in a time when we could explore these places as a kid and a teen. I left San Antonio in my early twenties back in 1984, and joind the Navy. I retired back in 2006, and moved back to San Antonio in 2008. I am still amazed at how much the city has grown, and how developed the southside has become. Not to mention how run down the southside has become. The city has developed what it could to make a buck, but hasn't done much else in my opinion. Today was the first time I had been back to Mission Espada with my girls in probably 25 years, and they have really turned the missions into something else. Mission Espada was barely standing 25 years ago, and outside of a few priest that stayed there, there wasn't much else. Today there was all sorts of walls, buildings, and parking lots there that wasn't there those many years ago. The haunted tracks were trashed, and littered with garbage, and bottles all over the place. It broke my heart to see just how messed up it was. So if your reading this and are going to visit these places, please preserve these famous landmarks, and don't trash them. San Antonio used to be a sleepy little town, if you can believe it, and has grown into something that is starting to resemble Houston. God help us if that happens. Sorry Houstonites, but that is why I live in San Antonio. My daughters, who live in Maine, come and stay with me every summer. Both of them were born in Wilford Hall, and consider themselves to be Texans even if they do live and go to school in Maine. They go back to Maine every year and are probably San Antonio's two biggest ambassador's to Texas that you will ever meet. They love this city as much as I do, and are very proud of this old town. I've taken them on the ghostly tours of the southside and through other places in town. They love the Alamo, sunken gardens, the coast, garner state park, and just anything Texas has to offer. When they go back to Maine they talk it up so much that they have everyone that knows them in Maine wanting to come visit San Antonio. My daughter even got in trouble when her bus driver who had visited san antonio once, but had relatives that lived in Dallas had told my daughter that San Antonio was a trashy barrio town, and my daughter called her a ***** and said she was retarded. I got a phone call on that one, ha ha, but that just shows you what a couple of true Texans these girls are. So every chance I get I show them a side of San Antonio that isn't in the travel brochures, and show them the true spirit of this city. So it is sad to see some of the landmarks fixed up while other places are getting trashed. They love the ghost stories, and haunted places. I only wish I could take them up to the old Hot Wells hotel, but I'm glad we didn't try after reading these post of getting shot at. That didn't happen 25 plus years ago, but it was an experience that I thought I would share. Thanks for reading my post.