HauntBound Press Fact Sheet · Updated September 2026
The Most Haunted Places in Texas
Texas has 424 documented haunted locations in the HauntBound index.
Top 10 identified after source-level analysis of the 26 strongest Texas candidates.
By the numbers
- Total documented
- 424
- Museum / Historical Site
- 74
- Haunted Hotel / Inn
- 62
- Other Dark Tourism Site
- 48
- Family-friendly
- 405
- Bookable
- 129
- Oldest documented site
- Mission San Francisco de la Espada (1690)
- Most-reported phenomenon
- apparitions
Ranked
- 1. The Driskill Colonel Jesse Driskill, a Tennessee cattle baron, opened this hotel on December 20, 1886, hosting Governor Sul Ross's inaugural ball less than two weeks later before drought losses forced him to sell in 1888; he died in 1890. Staff describe cigar smoke in the lobby tied to Driskill himself, and guests report a gentlemanly 19th century figure near the lobby and a heavy presence on the grand staircase. 9 original accounts · documented across 4 decades, 1886-1990 · retold in 5 later publications
- 2. Menger Hotel William Menger, who ran Texas's first brewery, opened this hotel on the Alamo Plaza site on February 1, 1859; Theodore Roosevelt later recruited his Rough Riders at the hotel bar in 1898. Staff describe Sallie White, a chambermaid killed by her husband in 1876, walking the Victorian Wing in her work clothes, and guests report Roosevelt seated at the bar and Richard King, who died at the hotel, entering his former suite through solid walls. 7 original accounts · documented in 2025 · retold in 6 later publications
- 3. Thistle Hill (Wharton-Scott House) Cattle baron W. T. Waggoner built this Georgian Revival mansion in 1903 and 1904 as a wedding gift for his daughter Electra, who sold it in 1910 to Winfield and Elizabeth Scott; the house was saved from demolition and restored in 1976. Visitors report a woman in white on the staircase landing, identified variously as Electra or Elizabeth Scott, a young man in tennis whites on the grounds, and music from the closed third-floor ballroom. Documented since 1903 · 9 independent sources · 3 media mentions
- 4. The Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero) Mission San Antonio de Valero, established in 1718 and relocated to its current site in 1724, became the Alamo, where Santa Anna's army ended a thirteen-day siege on March 6, 1836, by killing nearly all of the roughly 189 Texan defenders, including William Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett. A legend with no known primary source holds that weeks later, Mexican soldiers sent to burn the chapel encountered robed, sword-wielding figures who warned them not to touch the walls and fled, and the story has circulated in Alamo lore ever since. The most substantiated tradition traces to the San Antonio Express-News, which between 1894 and 1897 reported moans, footsteps, and the sound of a marching sentry when the complex served as a police station and jail, and park staff today report a buckskin-clad figure identified with Crockett along with a cowboy apparition in the mission gardens. 5 original accounts · documented across 8 decades, 1724-1990
- 5. Miss Molly's Hotel The building opened in 1910 as the Palace Rooms, an upstairs boarding house for cattlemen, and later operated as a Prohibition-era speakeasy and, in the 1940s, a bordello called the Gayatte Hotel before its restoration as a bed and breakfast. Guests report Miss Josie, identified with the building's last madam, appearing at the foot of beds around 3 a.m., a cowboy named Jake seen as a full apparition, and a Tipping Ghost that leaves change. 4 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 1910-2008 · retold in 6 later publications
- 6. Walter Tips House Walter Tips, a German immigrant hardware merchant and Texas state senator, built this house in 1876 and lived there until his death in 1911. When it faced demolition in 1975, the two-story structure was moved intact to its South Congress Avenue site. Psychic mediums hired by a tour company reported an older trapped-feeling woman, a mustachioed man matched to photographs of Tips, and a sense that the building had been moved. 3 original accounts · documented across 7 decades, 1876-2021 · retold in 3 later publications
- 7. Victoria's Black Swan Inn Built in 1867 on the site of the 1842 Battle of Salado Creek, Victoria's Black Swan Inn is a two-story Greek Revival house above Salado Creek in northeast San Antonio, where Texas militia under Capt. John Hays and Col. Mathew Caldwell repulsed Adrian Woll's Mexican Army incursion. The venue's own history ties that battle to reported phenomena on the grounds: Native American figures said to chase off boys fishing in the creek, and a Confederate soldier apparition reported near the gazebo along with the sound of a bugle. Other reports describe two more figures unconnected to that history: a young woman seen in an upstairs room and a man described as an angry presence in the house. 6 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1991-2015
- 8. White Rock Lake Dallas built White Rock Lake as a municipal water-supply reservoir in 1910 and 1911, then developed the surrounding 1,015-acre park beginning in the 1930s with the Civilian Conservation Corps. The accounts attach to the Lady of the Lake, a vanishing-hitchhiker legend published since at least 1943, in which a young woman in a soaked 1930s evening dress flags down drivers along East Lawther Drive and asks for a ride home. Drivers report picking her up only to have her vanish from the car before they arrive, leaving the seat wet, and in the oldest published versions a man at the address she gave says his daughter died at the lake years earlier. 2 original accounts (known through later citation) · documented across 5 decades, 1927-1960 · retold in 5 later publications
- 9. Granbury Opera House HauntBound identified two distinct published accounts at this working theater, across three kinds of published source. Six later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include disembodied voices and phantom footsteps. 2 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 1990-2011 · retold in 6 later publications
- 10. Old San Patricio Courthouse Site San Patricio de Hibernia, founded in 1829 as an Irish Catholic colony under empresarios James McGloin and John McMullen, was where Chipita Rodriguez was tried and held in the county courthouse on circumstantial evidence in the 1863 murder of horse trader John Savage. She was hanged near the Nueces River on November 13, 1863, long remembered in Texas as the only woman legally executed in the state. The Texas Legislature formally exonerated her in 1985, and a 2010 historical marker now stands near the mesquite grove traditionally identified as the hanging site. 5 original accounts · documented in 1863 · retold in 4 later publications
By city
- San Antonio: 39 documented sites
- Galveston: 28 documented sites
- Dallas: 27 documented sites
- Austin: 22 documented sites
- Houston: 18 documented sites
- El Paso: 13 documented sites
- Corpus Christi: 12 documented sites
- Fort Worth: 11 documented sites
- Abilene: 10 documented sites
- Laredo: 9 documented sites
- 224 more across the rest of Texas
Press images
- The Driskill Matthew Rutledge from Seattle, WA, CC BY 2.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Driskill_Hotel,_Austin_(3947307238).jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/texas/the-driskill/hero.jpg
- Menger Hotel Riis2602, CC BY-SA 4.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Antonio_-_Menger_Hotel_-_20220820134908.jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/texas/menger-hotel/hero.jpg
- Thistle Hill (Wharton-Scott House) Carol M. Highsmith / Library of Congress hauntbound.com/images/locations/texas/thistle-hill/hero.jpg
- The Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero) Zygmunt Put, CC BY-SA 4.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alamo_Mission,_San_Antonio,_Texas,_USA.jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/texas/the-alamo/hero.jpg
- Miss Molly's Hotel Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fort_Worth_Stockyards_June_2016_38_(Star_Cafe_and_Miss_Molly%27s_Hotel).jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/texas/miss-mollys-hotel/hero.jpg
- Walter Tips House Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:East_Elevation_Walter_Tips_House_Austin_2019.jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/texas/walter-tips-house/hero.jpg
- Victoria's Black Swan Inn Nicolas Henderson, CC BY 2.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Swan_Inn,_San_Antonio,_Texas_(50798465356).jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/texas/victorias-black-swan-inn/hero.jpg
- White Rock Lake Shiva Shenoy, CC BY 2.0, via https://www.flickr.com/photos/shivashenoy/48733859012/ hauntbound.com/images/locations/texas/white-rock-lake/hero.jpg
- Granbury Opera House Kairos14, CC BY-SA 3.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Granbury_Opera_House_at_Twilight.JPG hauntbound.com/images/locations/texas/granbury-opera-house/hero.jpg
Images listed here may be republished with the credit shown; all other HauntBound images are not offered for press use.
Superlatives
- Oldest documented site: Mission San Francisco de la Espada Documented since 1690.
- Most documented: The Driskill 9 distinct published accounts.
- Top haunted stay: Miss Molly's Hotel Overnight stays bookable.
- Most family-friendly: Oakwood Cemetery (Fort Worth) Family Comfort rating: High.
Methodology
For purposes of the HauntBound Index, "most haunted" means the location with the strongest documented record of reported haunting phenomena. We evaluate the quantity, independence, persistence, and documentary quality of published reports. We do not attempt to determine whether paranormal phenomena are real, and we never count a source that only establishes a building's history as evidence of haunting claims. Repetitive coverage is subject to diminishing returns, so a story retold many times does not outrank a story independently documented. Rankings never consider commercial relationships.
The 2026 Index reflects sources identified and classified as of September 15, 2026.
Updated September 29, 2026: documented totals now exclude the private homes, operating hospitals and venues with nothing left to visit that were withdrawn on September 25 and 26. The ranked ten are unchanged.
Corrected October 15, 2026: the Hamilton Hotel in Laredo was withdrawn because it is now senior housing, so Laredo's count is now 9. Texas's documented total stays at 424 until the November update.
Updated October 19, 2026: listings that could not be sourced, or that are private or have no public access, were withdrawn after an October review, so some of the state's town counts are lower. The documented total stays as published until the November update.
Updated October 23, 2026: more listings were withdrawn after a dignity and sourcing review, so some of the state's town counts are lower. The documented total stays as published until the November update.
This is a documentation ranking, not a visitation guide; sites not open to visitors are marked on their entries.