Canyon, Texas — home of the Sarah Jane ambulance wagon
2503 4th Avenue, Canyon, TX 79016
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Standard museum admission; check the official site for current rates and hours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Standard museum galleries
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1933 · Largest history museum in Texas · West Texas A&M University campus · Significant Panhandle and Western art collections
The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum is the oldest and largest history museum in Texas, located on the campus of West Texas A&M University in Canyon. Its galleries cover Texas Panhandle history from Native American occupation through ranching, the oil boom, and twentieth-century life, with significant fine art, paleontology, and transportation collections.
Among its transportation holdings is a horse-drawn ambulance wagon, identified by museum staff as a Red Cross wagon associated with World War I and which arrived at the museum in March 1958, according to Michael Grauer, the museum's Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Art and Western Heritage. The wagon was on display in the carriage and wagon gallery for decades and is currently in storage.
Sources
Local tradition associates the museum's horse-drawn Red Cross ambulance wagon with a presence called Sarah Jane. According to accounts repeated in West Texas A&M student journalism and regional ghost writing, the spirit attached to the wagon goes by the name Sarah Jane and is said by some retellings to have been struck and killed by the wagon, though no documented incident has been verified.
Custodial worker Ann Bacon described seeing a young woman in her twenties standing near the wagon, wearing a long full cotton printed dress, with dark reddish-brown hair and at times swinging a bonnet by the ribbons. Other staff and visitors have consistently described the same appearance. Reported sensations near the wagon include sudden panic, headaches, and the smell of blood. Buster Ratliff, the museum's Director of Operations, has been quoted as saying the spirit is attached to the wagon itself rather than the museum building.
Notable Entities
Tour Texas's largest history museum, located on the West Texas A&M campus in Canyon. Ask staff about the Sarah Jane Red Cross ambulance wagon; the wagon itself is currently in storage but exhibits about Texas Panhandle history span Native American, frontier, ranching, and oil-boom eras.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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