Haunting Road Trips

Hit the road for these 6 spooky trips to Central Texas

With Halloween approaching, it's time for a spooky road trip. In general, road trips are a fantastic way to break up the monotony of daily life and simply escape. Add a little seasonal spooky to that, and you're in for a real treat.

The following destinations come with history and lots of lore, they are creepy and interactive, and — best of all — they are all in Central Texas.

Grand Central Cafe
The Grand Central Cafe wasn’t always a cafe — or even located in Kingsland. The Queen Anne-style Victorian cottage was the principal location in the 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was shot in Round Rock. In 1998, the current owners purchased, dismantled, and moved the house to Kingsland, across the street from the historic Antlers Inn. The cafe offers American-style breakfast, lunch, and dinner options — with Leatherface nowhere in sight.

1010 King Ct., Kingsland

Victoria's Black Swan Inn
Chances are you’ve never heard of Victoria’s Black Swan Inn. The Victorian-era mansion was built in 1867 on the site of the 1842 Battle of Salado Creek (now called The Battle of Rosillo Creek). The inn, which functions more as an event venue these days, has a history rife with tales of tragedy, and, purportedly, the hauntings to back it up. Experience it for yourself every Friday night on one of the inn’s popular ghost tours. If creeping around a haunted house at night isn’t your thing, the inn also offers brunch every second Sunday.

1006 Holbrook Rd., San Antonio

The Devil's Backbone Tavern
Blink and you might just might miss this tiny roadside beer joint and live music venue. The Devil’s Backbone Tavern was built in 1932 and is situated at one of the most picturesque lookout points along FM 32 in Comal County. Inside you’ll find a charmingly aged aesthetic with old hardwood floors, stone walls, and even a bullet hole above the front window. Over the years, the Devil’s Backbone Tavern has garnered an almost cult status through its appearances in song (Todd Snider’s “The Ballad of the Devil’s Backbone Tavern”) and film (Drop Dead Sexy). It’s the tavern’s reputation for being haunted, however, that gives the bar an added, spooky draw. Be warned, this establishment is cash-only and shutters at midnight.

4041 FM 32, Fischer

Liberty Tree Tavern
The Liberty Tree Tavern is the epitome of a Hill Country dive bar: old and friendly and replete with cold, cheap beer. The building dates back to the early 1900s and, at one point, was the site of the town funeral home and mortuary. Presumably, this fact is where the bar draws most of its ghost stories.

117 N. Main St., Elgin

Old Coupland Inn & Dancehall
The Old Coupland Inn & Dancehall is probably the most popular place in Coupland. The building was constructed in 1904 and, over the years, housed a drug company, hardware store, newspaper offices, grocery, and possibly even a brothel. It is the latter that many blame for the alleged haunted activity onsite. Nevertheless, the Old Coupland Inn & Dancehall is a rare historical treat to behold, a slice of Texas history and culture about 40 minutes outside of Austin.

102 Hoxie St., Coupland

Caldwell County Jail Museum
Spend the day locked up at the historic Caldwell County Jail Museum. The dominating red brick structure, built in the Norman castellated style of architecture, served as the fourth Caldwell County jail from the early 1900s until 1983. The five-story building contains nine main cells on the second, third, and fourth floors, as well as a basement, which served as solitary confinement (and storage). The jail cells are foreboding, claustrophobic, and quite spooky in their aged, untouched state.

314 E. Market St., Lockhart

Victoria's Black Swan Inn, in San Antonio.

Victoria's Black Swan Inn/Facebook

Victoria's Black Swan Inn, in San Antonio.

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News for campers

Lake Palestine in East Texas will be home to new 650-acre state park

Photo courtesy of Texas Land

Lake Palestine will be the site of a new state park.

East Texas is gaining a new state park at Lake Palestine that will include amenities like hike-and-bike trails, campsites, and lakefront access.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation has paid more than $10 million for a 650-acre ranch at Lake Palestine that will be converted into a state park, the agency says. If the park opened today, it would be the 90th state park in Texas.

The ranch, roughly 100 miles southeast of Dallas, had been on the market for a little less than $10 million. Roughly 60 percent of the ranch is wooded, and about 40 percent is pastureland.

The foundation will make improvements to the site, about 18 miles west of Tyler, before handing it over to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in late 2027. That’s when funding from the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund will become available for the department to acquire the property.

The deal preserves one of the last large habitat sites in that part of East Texas and will ultimately expand public access to Lake Palestine. The lake encompasses more than 25,500 acres and touches four counties. White-tailed deer, bobcats, and waterfowl are among the creatures that populate the habitat.

“Opportunities to protect a property like this don’t come along very often, and when they do, timing is critical,” Anne Brown, the foundation’s executive director, said in a release. She said the land will “ultimately become a place where generations of Texans can enjoy the outdoors.”

The Pollard family had owned the ranch, which housed their pecan farm, since 1940. Aside from the pecan orchard, the property includes pine forests, ponds, a seven-acre lake, and Lake Palestine frontage.

Sam Pollard, president of Texas Pecan Nursery, said the property “is part of my soul. It means a lot to me that we can leave a legacy for people to enjoy.”

The foundation says visitors to the future park will be able to enjoy blufftop views of the lake, watch wildlife and birds, and walk around the pecan orchard. They’ll also be able to take advantage of boating, paddling, swimming, and fishing at Lake Palestine.

Rodney Franklin, director of the state park system, called the site an “East Texas gem” and thanked the Pollards for enabling “this special slice of the Pineywoods to be accessible for generations of Texans.”

The parks and wildlife agency plans to create the park in phases, starting with guided access, followed by daytime access and then full-day and overnight access. The agency will invite public input about the park’s development.

Planned amenities include hike-and-bike trails, traditional and primitive campsites, day-use areas and lakefront access.

The NextEra Energy Foundation, a philanthropic arm of NextEra Energy and NextEra Energy Resources, chipped in $100,000 to support the future park. NextEra supplies electricity to about one million customers in Texas, mostly through its Gexa Energy subsidiary.

In addition, the wildlife foundation tapped into the state’s Land Conservation Loan Fund for the ranch purchase. The voter-approved, donor-supported fund aids land conservation efforts. Dallas-based Lyda Hill Philanthropies was an inaugural backer of the loan fund.

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