Comanche Lookout Park (Northeast San Antonio)

"Although one of San Antonio's smaller municipal parks, 96-acre Comanche Lookout Park has the sense of being a microcosm and frequently seems more isolated than it really is despite being surrounded by major roads, shopping plazas, and housing developments. Those who visit it during normal business hours are likely to get an accentuated sense of this and, other than a few headphone-wearing people who jog by wraithlike and without acknowledgement, are likely to have the place pretty much to themselves. That, of course, can be the best way to explore and appreciate this profoundly historical site, to investigate the legends associated with it, and to possibly come into contact with some of the many ghosts who have long been believed to haunt it. And, as strange and haunting as it might feel on its face to the casual visitor or ghosthunter, an investigation of its history will reveal some genuinely strange things about it." 

This is the  first paragraph for the chapter on Comanche Lookout Park that I wrote for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country! It is a very mysterious and interesting site and, as I learned more and more about it, became the basis for the largest chapter in the book. 

 

 

Spanish Governor's Palace (Downtown San Antonio)

"Soon after the Spanish viceroy founded the city of San Antonio in 1718, Martín de Alarcón, governor of Coahuila and Texas, established the Presidio San Antonio de Bexar. This fortress served as the center of Spanish military power in Texas and as defense for the San Antonio de Valero Mission (known later as the Alamo) ... Plans for the house that became known as the Spanish Governor’s Palace originated as early as 1722 and, upon its completion in 1749 — the date given on the keystone above the front entrance bearing a carved, double-headed eagle — it served as the commandancia, the office and residence for the captain of the presidio. ... In 1772, the importance of the presidio grew when the capital of Spanish Texas moved from the presidio at Los Adaes, east of Nacogdoches, Texas, to the settlement at what is now San Antonio. From this point onward the Spanish governors stayed in the commandancia and it was thereafter referred to as the Spanish Governor’s Palace." 

That excerpt is from the chapter on the Spanish Governor's Palace in San Antonio that I wrote for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country," the travel guide on haunted sites in the title area that I am working on for Clerisy Press's America's Haunted Road Trip series. Pictured above is Allison Schiess of Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours. 

Enchanted Rock (Gillespie County, Llano County)

"For as long as anyone can remember, and perhaps even longer, Enchanted Rock has been a special place, from the earliest human inhabitants of the region as much as twelve millennia ago right up to the people who visit it today. Native Americans believed it was a portal to the otherworld and there are countless legends, ghost stories, and paranormal phenomena associated with this wondrous natural site, whose name is not arbitrary or just meant to be colorful." 

Those are the opening words I wrote to the chapter on Enchanted Rock that will be appearing in Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country. It is just one of about 30 sites that will receive feature treatment in the book, along with about 40 that will be more briefly covered in an appendix of Additional Haunted Sites. 

 

A cave entrance can be found a little ways down the far side of the slope. Initially it is well lit during the day because of gaps between the rocks but then drops off into a darkened chamber that can be entered, allowing visitors to travel 20-30 minutes and emerge further down on the rock. This feature brings to mind stories of a Spanish priest who took refuge from Indians on Enchanted Rock and spent two days wandering a labyrinth below it and encountering the spirits residing there ...