[1], According to some variations of the legend, Goatman is said to have once been a scientist who worked in the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. There is a Plano Goat Man legend dating to at least the 70s or 80s which she mentions in the book, but in the subsection about the Old Alton Bridge Goatman, theres no date given for when that legend began. Built in 1884 by the King Iron Bridge Manufacturing Company, it originally carried horses and later automobiles over Hickory Creek at a location that once was a popular ford for crossing cattle. So what I see here, is someone who you know read joined YouTube and made his new Tiktok account within two days of each other and is done nothing with them since. However, given the condition of remains, the deaths may more likely have been the result of passing trains. The following is a description of the legend in her own words: There's a bridge in Denton, Texas called Goatman's Bridge. The Denton County location is notoriously haunted by the spirit of Oscar Washburn, or "Goatman," who was believed to be a former goat farmer. But, unfortunately, some did not welcome a successful black man within their midst. If his name is uttered during the day, he is awakened and is often even more vicious due to the disruption of his sleep cycle, or so the story goes. And I am pretty sure that it took place in the 1930s, not 1800s, because the bridge wasnt built until 1884 i think. Liminal areas of crossing can be full of possibility and danger, present injustices are informed by past prejudices, and there are critters like snakes or gators down in the creek that younguns might outta be leery of. I would spend countless hours there and watched all this happen every night from the bridge. Some attribute the work of Satanists who opened a portal for a hellspawn demon, while others say the Goatmans wife is eternally searching for her murdered children. So whether the Old Alton is named after a terrifying demon or a particularly resilient goat farmer, the bridge is certainly worth the trip. This location did grow, and before long, it boasted a hotel and two stores. Washburn was never seen again, they say, but a vengeful spirit has haunted the Old Alton Bridge ever since. While some bridges are inhabited by pesky creatures such trolls, the Old Alton Bridge harbors a monster of a much darker nature. Others report seeing a ghostly man herding goats over the bridge, while others say they have seen an apparition staring at them, holding a goat head under each arm. Some say the two ghosts are connected, and that years ago, the Goatman stole the young womans baby. "For the last several years I've given ghost tours on the Square, usually on the weekends. Whenever a sighting of this ghastly figure occurs, a string of mysterious disappearances is sure to follow. The bridge is located about seven miles south of Denton. It hasnt been proofread, so please excuse typos. It might have just been a racoon or somethingbut it was moving in our direction, and we all bolted out of there! But the success of a black man was still unwelcome to many, and, in August 1938, Klansmen in the local government crossed the bridge and kidnapped Washburn from his family. All my old favorite TV/YouTube Ghost Hunters are falling victim to this energy vortex!!. Built by the King Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio, the 145-foot long bridge would serve area travelers for more than a century. \r\rAfter numerous abandoned automobiles and missing persons, a new bridge was constructed directly downstream. A fan-favorite episode in which the crew took on Goatman Bridge will be featured on Ghost Adventures: Screaming Room. He also mentioned the bridge in a handful of his tweets, but the tweets werent coherent enough for me to glean anything from or for them to be worth reading from here. They returned to his home and slaughtered his family, according to the legend. A week and a half after he went missing, two of his children filed for conservatorship to get control of his assets. Harrod was last seen at his residence in the 500 block of Carnation Drive Placentia, California sometime between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. on July 27, 2009. Finally, water shortages forced the county seat to move to a new site in June 1848. Some reports describe the Goatman's fur as a deep, fiery red, while others describe his coloring as black as night, so black you can hardly see him as he moves through the edges of the trees. It isn't clear whether this woman or the debt had anything to do with his disappearance. However, it wasnt so well-known for a long time. Hed had the account since 2018, but the only other visible thing that hed posted was something on a World of Warcraft subreddit. For decades, the Goatmans remained as consistently in use as it had in the 1880s. To continue reading from the video description: Back to my video This one here is the first of 2 videos that for several years, if you were to search Goatmans Bridge on Youtube , only 3 results appeared -Leland-s, and the 2 you are about to watch in this series. To this day no one knows exactly how Oscar was able to evade the mobs wrath, but legend holds that the name Goatmans Bridge came about to honor him. They were later released pending . They wanted to put up a reward for his safe return, maintain his home and pay his bills. Ghostly figures and strange lights are said to appear in the surrounding woods, as well as reports of visitors being touched, grabbed, and having rocks thrown at them. Whether its Washburn or Kendall haunting the bridge, lots of strange things have happened around the Alton Bridge. I bet youre excited to find out what happened next! [1] Despite evidence to the contrary, stories of Goatman's existence continued to circulate, especially among local students. So, anyway, starting from this initial rumor that was immortalized in the form of a YouTube video, the new version of the legend started to spread widely. If youre interested in the moth man at all, youre probably familiar with silver bridge collapse. Along with hikers, bikers, and horseback riders, the Old Alton Bridge and surrounding wooded areas have become a popular destination for bird watchers and nature photographers. When Washburn posted a sign on the bridge that advertised this way to the Goatman, it angered local Klansman. Best Tales of Texas Ghosts by Docia Schultz Williams was published in 1998 and has plenty of stories of ghosts in the Dallas area, but no mention of Denton County or the Old Alton Bridge at all. There have been four known lynching events of white people in Denton County since its founding, and the reason for white lynchings was typically horse theft. Well, thats it. Folks online have said that the video just added some additional background details to the existing legend. Harrod was last seen at his residence in the 500 block of Carnation Drive Placentia, California sometime between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. on July 27, 2009. . THE HISTORY of goatman's bridge: November 15th 1967: police discover an abandoned car beside Old Alton Bridge, five miles south of Denton, Texas. The legend goes that he had a wife, who died mysteriously and that one night a group of drunken cowboys found the old man out crossing the bridge, herding his goats and drove the animals off the bridge, killing them in the fall. I would laugh and think to myself (Another one bites the dust I guess) Many times however, I would get lucky and not have a single other person come visit the bridge, OR even a car drive by for an entire night. Before he got involved with Heeter, he had been seeing a younger woman. Due to the great number of unexplained happenings at the Old Alton, the bridge has been the subject of a number of investigative paranormal shows. Id like to go through a timeline of the Goatmans Bridge legend as its now known. On July 25, 2008, someone who Im going to call Leland (not his real name) posted a 2-minute youtube video telling the story of the Old Alton Bridge. But for this particular bridge, those feelings may be more grounded than not. According to the most circulated version, an African-American entrepreneur named Oscar Washburn and his family tended a farmstead goat herd near the bridge that was renowned for quality meat, milk, cheeses and hides. Harrod had planned to put Heeter's name on some of his assets, including some of his properties, but he disappeared before he could do that. The Old Alton derives its name from the now-abandoned town of Alton, which from 1850 to 1856 served as the seat of Denton County. The monster was the subject of a 1988 film by Louisville filmmaker Ron Schildknecht called The Legend of the Pope Lick Monster. Most notably, one that occurred November 15th 1967. My paranormal experiences became a local sensation in Denton, TX and remained the most viewed videos for awhile , even after others began to upload their own experiences. According to her autopsy report, she was stabbed dozens of times, with puncture wounds all over her head, face, and upper . There are many spirits calling this place home, but . Years later, in 1884, long after Alton had died, an iron through-truss bridge was built over Hickory Creek on Copper Canyon Road, south of the old townsite. You wont find the names of Oscar Washburn or Jack Kendall in any historical records. According to Micah Carlson Crittendens University of North Texas masters thesis published in May 2020, The Tall Grass West Of Town: Racial Violence In Denton County During The Rise Of The Second Ku Klux Klan: Due to shifts in the public perception of white criminality and lynching as a violation of due process, white lynchings in Denton County stopped in 1880 and never resumed.This meshes with some other older reports I found on the bridge, in which the goatman seems to be white (or at least his race isnt mentioned). Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. Old Alton Bridge, also known as Goatman's Bridge, is a historic iron truss bridge connecting the Texas cities of Denton and Copper Canyon. The investigation led to some terrifying moments for the crew. After his second marriage, Harrod asked to be repaid. And luckily for us, the video description was a wall of text almost 900 words long. A rash of mysterious disappearances are becoming alarmingly routine on a chilling stretch of road that is known by locals as the Goatmans bridge., https://web.archive.org/web/20100617152737/http://www.goatmansbridge.com/, Weirdly, November 15th 1967 is exactly 1 month before the Silver Bridge collapsed in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. If I can just summarize the research I did, which I talked about in ep 1 of this series: the Old Alton Bridge and the Goatman werent mentioned in the older books that I have access to about the paranormal or urban legends in Texas: I have two books by folklorist J. Frank Dobie, Legends of Texas Volume II: Pirates Gold and Other Tales, and Tales of Old-Time Texas, and the only stories they have about the area are about Sam Bass. The turn of the century brought a black goat farmer and his family to a residence just North of the bridge, and a few short years later, Oscar Washburn was known as a dependable, honest businessman. On the other hand, the book Haunted Plano, Texas by Mary Jacobs, which was published in 2018, has a whole section about the Old Alton Bridge, even though it isnt in Plano. Though the community is no more, the name remains. But its wild that those details have congealed into this almost monolithic urban legend nowadays. These units are usually stressed from tension, compression, or both in order to support heavy loads. The legends and mysteries of Goatman's Bridge (including the infamous story of a goatman roaming the forest in search of those who killed his family) and the reports of abandon cars and missing persons make this place one of the most sought-after locations for those in the paranormal field. Its just a bizarre synchronicity, because Im only still in touch with two people who I went to high school with, and both of them grew up on the same street as this person. Road 2181), Denton, Texas. To me, one of the funniest parts of this story is that the witness went on Mumsnet to share her story. On February 19, following a community-wide search, Cathy's 1990 Toyota Corolla was found abandoned in the Placentia Linda Hospital parking lot. The first few years I spent out there it was mostly barren at night, void of all life or cars driving by or people coming to visit. We walked down one of the paths, and I swear something started chasing us! On a dark night in the late 1930s, a lynch mob of Kluxers stormed Washburn's shack and dragged the screaming Goatman to their noose waiting on the bridge, tightened the rope around the begging Oscar's neck, then mercilessly flung him over the side. If you park outside the bridge at night and honk your horn three times a goatman will appear. Although as far back as the 1930s, the bridge has taken on a second, much more sinister nickname: Goatmans Bridge. Dallas Observer's The Morning After Brunch, virtual remembrance and fundraising event. 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