10 Texas Waterfalls Where Drowned Children Call Your Name

Few things in the world inspire more awe than a waterfall; the majesty and splendor on display are hallmarks of this natural and beautiful phenomenon, and they have been impressing human beings since perhaps the dawn of time.

But these cascading testaments to the fundamental nature of gravity often conceal other, more frightening truths.

Updated 2/11/2020 – Sometimes there are things in the water, things that shouldn’t be there.

Sometimes the spirits and forms of children – always the most frightening of apparitions to come across – linger near waterfalls.

Here are the top ten examples of places you can find in Texas.

But be warned: not everyone who visits these comes back the same…and some don’t come back at all.

Beware: These 10 Waterfalls in Texas Are Plagued by Evil

10) McKinney Falls State Park – Austin

In 1985, three hikers were found dead near the waterfall located in McKinley Falls State Park.

Examinations by a dumbfounded coroner concluded that all three – one man, one woman, and one little girl, had died of heart failures.

They were all found floating near the waterfall.

A fourth hiker from the group – a young woman – was found three days later, wandering through the woods in a panicked fright.

When authorities questioned her, most of what they got was the gibberish produced by an unhinged mind.

One through-line, however, was a chilling phrase, which she repeated over and over throughout the interview:

“The vampire children…they kept grinning at us.”

9) Krause Springs – Spicewood

Spicewood is home to Krause Park, wherein lies a particularly beautiful waterfall with a particularly horrifying story attached to it.

Between 1923 and the present day, over forty paranormal sightings have been reported.

Most people will simply say that they see a child being led by a woman toward the waterfall, and that both of them disappear as they get near it.

But a few accounts – too many to be a coincidence – have included the following odd detail: the child, who looks back at them with dead and unfocused eyes, is wearing what looks like a gas mask from the first World War.

An odd trophy, perhaps?

No one knows, or at least no one is telling.

8) Pedernales Falls State Park – Johnson City

The ghosts of children apparently abound at Pedernales State Park.

Legend has it that the first time a hiker came across one of these apparitions, he nearly stepped in a pile of human intestines.

A short spate of following a bloody track brought him to a still-warm body lying on the ground, the face of which looked identical to that of the ghost in front of him.

According to that hiker, the ghost sought justice, as did the ghosts of a number of children in the park, all of whom had been murdered by the same killer, often by drowning.

Said killer was never apprehended, and today it is said that the spirits of his victims still wander the grounds, seeking a champion to avenge them, calling out for help.

7) Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center – Round Mountain, TX

Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center is a fun place to go, as long as you go during the day.

According to a number of people who live in the area, going out there at night could get you killed.

As of 2017, the latest count of people who had seen the floating apparition of a screaming twelve year-old girl with a knife was well over a dozen in the past twenty or so years.

This doesn’t seem like a lot, until you realize that the number of unsolved stabbings in the same time frame is fifteen.

Some rumors state that the girl was playing with a knife she found near the falls and ended up hurting herself and losing consciousness, leading her to go over the falls.. but only her spirit knows the truth of what happened.

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6) Chalk Ridge Falls Park – Belton, TX

Accounts of incidents at Chalk Ridge are scattered, and many of them are probably untrue.

However, one consistent story which pops up again and again is that of the faceless teenager.

Reputed to be the victim of a 1983 rear-end collision with a semi truck, the faceless teenager is by all accounts a young man who walks aimlessly through the park, and tends to stay near the waterfall.

Some say the truck driver had been drinking, and the boy may have still been alive after the initial collision, until the driver took him over to the falls and finished the job.

Those who have seen him claim that he is most frequently seen feeling along the ground, presumably trying to find the skull which was removed from his shoulders during the accident.

5) Lucy Park – Wichita Falls, TX

Lucy Park may well be the most bizarre place in the world when it comes to waterfalls.

Over the years, many have claimed to see both the bodies and – in many cases – the spirits of children rising from the ground into the sky, as though being abducted by some extraterrestrial force.

Some have said the bodies make it to the peak of the falls and then just suddenly drop, as if there’s some additional force preventing them from leaving as they fall violently into the water.

Sightings of UFOs in the area tend to corroborate this theory, at least as it applies to the bodies of the missing children.

The souls, some in the area speculate, are accidents: perhaps the aliens don’t know the difference between the two.

4) Twin Falls – Austin, TX

If you’re ever in Twin Falls, and you begin to hear music – particularly after sunset – it might be time for you to run.

Local legend tells of a tragedy which happened there sometime around the turn of the twentieth century.

If the stories are true, Twin Falls was the site of a massive church Easter picnic and music jamboree, during which fourteen children went missing during the course of a massive egg hunt.

Later in the day, after everyone had begun to panic and had fanned out to form a search party, someone stumbled across their bodies; the children had been abducted and left for dead at the falls.

Today, it’s said that if you hear music near the falls, it means the spirits of the children have come out to hunt for the murderer, who was never found.  And when they hunt, they like to play music.

3) Prairie Creek Park – Richardson, TX

What would it take to convince you that you were being haunted by the lonely spirit of a dead girl in the middle of a wooded area?

Probably not much; the woods in general often have a terrifying quality about them, and those around Prarie Creek Park are no exception.

Madeline, the aspiring flapper girl who in the summer of 1928 died at age nineteen when a rotting tree fell on her and pushed her over the edge of the waterfall, is said to wander the park, crying out as if she is still in pain.

And who know?

Perhaps she still is.

Those who have seen her say that she never seems to be menacing, but rather just sad.

2) Sculpture Falls – Austin, TX

In 2014, two hikers were making their way through Sculpture Falls – were, in fact, just about to stop for lunch – when the apparition of a teenage girl appeared before them.

She was, they would later say, translucent and floating just above the surface of the ground, with dark black eyes and an expression on her face that mixed both anger and horror.

Before either of them could react, she walked right through them and disappeared.

Four hours or so later, on the other side of the park, someone discovered the body of a teenage girl hanging from a low tree limb; a suicide note had been pinned to the lapel of her dress.

When the two hikers were later shown the girl’s face, one of them suffered a minor stroke.

It was, he said later, the same girl they had seen earlier that day.

The really weird part is that the note mentioned that she wanted to feel the air rush through her hair as she dove off the waterfall to rocks below, and in that moment she would feel more alive than ever.

So it appears someone, or something, else got to her before she had the chance to take her own life.

1) Devine Lake Park – Leander, TX

Devine Lake Park may be a portal to another world, if the rumors surrounding it are to be believed.

On several occasions over the past decades, there have been reports of strange disappearances near the waterfall.

More mysteriously – and certainly more terrifyingly – there have been a number of appearances, as if beings were materializing in our world from some other.

Those who have witnessed this phenomenon unerringly produce the same story: phantasmagorical children, appearing at first to be several bodies combined into one, manifest themselves suddenly, then disperse to the four winds at great speed.

No one has ever been able to stop them or even slow them down long enough to get a complete idea of their purpose in this world, but those who have seen their faces for even a second or two agree on one other thing: whoever or whatever they are, they are a distillation of pure evil.

Have you ever had a creepy encounter in Texas with a ghost, especially the ghost of a child?

There’s something extra sad, and frightening, about the ghosts of children, although they tend to be more on the playful side than malicious – you would be wise to be careful nonetheless.