These 8 Urban Legends In Texas Will Keep You Awake At Night

In Texas, you go big or you go home.

This applies to everything in this state, including its urban legends.

Updated 2/11/2020 – Yes, urban legend in Texas are known to be the most terrifying across the country.

From roads you shouldn’t travel to a revengeful headless spirit, there’s just so much you should fear while moving around the state.

Not convinced?

Then here are eight of the scariest urban legends from all around the state.

Be forewarned – don’t try investigating these alone.

The last thing we’d want is to lose a reader to the paranormal entities we write about in this blog.

8) The Screams at River Legacy Park Will Keep You Awake All Night

River Legacy Park in Arlington, Texas

lynne jacobs/flickr

Arlington’s River Legacy Park has two urban legends.

And both involve blood-curdling screams that’ll prevent you from ever sleeping again.

The first legend revolves around a trail that leads to two old fence posts.

Known as Hell’s Gate, this gate is the last thing Union soldiers saw before being hanged.

Visitors to the area hear the soldiers’ sobbing, especially at night.

You may also see a red-headed confederate soldier and other spirits if the cries don’t scare you off quickly.

The other urban legend takes place at the Screaming Bridge.

In 1961, a car filled with teenagers swerved off the bridge and crashed into the river.

Since then, the bridge has been closed and the roads leading to it were blocked off.

However, if you walk the trail leading to it, you’ll hear the screams of the teens as they burned to death.

Some visitors also claim seeing the dates and names of those who died glowing in the river at night.

7) La Llorona is out to Get People Near the Rio Grande

Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas

ray chiarello/flickr

If you’re ever hiking or camping near the Rio Grande at El Paso, be careful or you’ll get caught by La Llorona.

According to the legend, the Weeping Lady was a beautiful woman named Maria.

After her husband left her for a younger woman, she stabbed and threw her two children in the Rio Grande.

However, she felt remorse and drowned herself in the river.

When the gates of heaven prevented her from entering the afterlife, she was forced to wander the earth forever.

Even today, she’s constantly searching for her children, weeping as she can’t find them.

But her crying doesn’t last long.

Once she spots someone wandering around, she kidnaps and drown them to take the place of her own.

While many of her victims have been children in the past, she’ll take anyone who crosses her path.

6) Watch Out for the Drenched Hitchhiker at White Rock Lake

White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas

joseph dalcour/flickr

If you ever have to stop around White Rock Lake in north-east Dallas, Lady Luck may not be on your side.

You just gave the Lady of the White Rock Lake the chance to step into your vehicle and, possibly, do worse.

Legend has it that the lady of the lake was a 20-year-old girl who committed suicide in the 1930s.

No one knows what drove her to drown herself in the lake.

However, till this day, people report encountering a young woman wearing a wet white dress.

If someone fitting this description asks you to help her get home, don’t refuse her.

She’ll vanish once she gets into the car, leaving a wet puddle in the back seat.

5) The Headless El Muerto Forever Terrifies Campers in South Texas

Headless El Muerto in South Texas

laney’s world/flickr

If you’re ever camping in South Texas, especially in San Diego or Freer, expect a headless horseman to charge at you.

Back in 1850, a cattle rustler by the name Vidal stole some of the prized mustangs of Texas Ranger Creed Taylor.

The man who tracked him down beheaded him and latched his body onto the saddle of a wild mustang.

As for his head, it was tied to the saddle with a strip of rawhide.

While the head and body were buried near Alice later, the headless one, El Muerto, still rides across South Texas.

But don’t be too eager to see him.

Legend has it that he brings evil and misfortune wherever he goes.

After seeing him, a camper fell back into the nearby campfire.

Another tried going near to the headless figure only to be thrown in the air by a hidden force.

So, be careful.

4) Invisible Children Push Vehicles on San Antonio’s Railroad Tracks

Ghost Railroad Track in San Antonio, Texas

michael underwood/flickr

The intersection of Shane and Villamain in South San Antonio is the site of one of the most gruesome urban legends in Texas.

The story goes that a train collided with a bus full of children in the 1930s The train’s engineer tried pulling the break, but couldn’t stop in time.

Ten children lost their lives then and there.

These children, however, make sure that others don’t meet the same tragic fare.

Any car parked over the tracks will be pushed off them, out of the way of any trains.

You can cover your car’s bumper with baby powder to see the children’s handprints once you’ve rolled to safety.

But you may not need to go that far as you may hear the voices and laughter of the children.

3) Don’t Take Sweets from A Stranger While at Ellis County

Terrell State Hospital in Ellis County, Terrell, Texas

margaret/flickr

Ellis County locals, especially in Terrell, warn against taking candy from strangers.

And for a good reason too.

Back in the early 1900s, many children went missing at night.

Legend has it that someone left candy on their windowsills.

After the children ate them a few times, they received notes on the wrappers.

Then, suddenly, they up and disappeared.

The town held Clara Crane responsible.

Nicknamed The Candy Lady, she had killed her husband with poisoned candy after he accidentally killed their only daughter.

Many believed she was involved as her release from the North Texas Lunatic Asylum coincided with the first wave of disappearances.

Even if you’re not a child, be scared.

Adults have discovered rotting teeth in colorful candy wrappers.

Some were discovered stabbed to death, with pockets brimming with candy.

So, if you cross paths with The Candy Lady, don’t take any of the sweets she offers.

2) The Black Eyed Children Still Roam Freely Around Abilene

Old Building in Abilene, Texas

nicolas henderson/flickr

The first stories of the Black Eyed Children started in Abilene, Texas.

A journalist by the name Brian Bethel came across two of them in the late 1990s.

The children wanted a ride back to their house, but he was too scared of them.

Once he took a good look at the children, though, he began to scream.

Their eyes were pitch black and their smiles were extremely sinister.

Bethel wrote that had he let the children in the car, he wouldn’t have been alive to tell his tale.

So, if children approach you anywhere at night, look deep into their eyes.

If they’re completely black, don’t wait any longer and get as far away as you can.

1) Never Travel Down Bowden Road Alone

Bowden Road in Huntsville, Texas

pennymc59/flickr

Bowden Road in Huntsville is infamous due to its paranormal activity.

But there’s much more to this road, which is why it earned the nickname ‘Demons Road’.

According to the urban legend, traveling down this road will disturb the spirits lingering around it.

If you intentionally disturb them, they’ll haunt you forever.

A woman traveling down the road saw a man near Martha’s Chapel Cemetery.

She intently watched him until he turned her way.

She didn’t pay much heed to him afterwards, but remembers feeling chills down her spine.

A few days later, as she was getting into the shower, she saw the same man standing in her bedroom.

She saw him a few times until they called in a priest.

But one thing’s for sure – she never traveled down Bowden Road again.

And neither should you, especially when alone.