The Haunted Goatman's Bridge

There is mention of the Ku Klux Klan and lynching, so if you're sensitive to that, it's just very brief. It's good to warn. It's always good to warn about that stuff. Welcome to Scary Mystery Surprise, where we talk about scary things that surprised us around the Internet. I'm Edwin, I'm Michelle. I don't know if I ever told you, Michelle, but everyone around me knows that I have this weird fear of structures like buildings, like I would probably not live in like a tense story building. Huh is it heights. It's not heights, but it's like, for example, even crossing over a bridge, which has to do with the topic of today's story. I don't know if it's some fear that developed from like playing with Legos or something back of the day, but there's no way, Like I just even chairs, Like I sit in a chair and I'm like, is this gonna hold? Is it gonna hold? Interesting? I mean, could you sue Legos for emotional damage for the rest of my life? Yeah, I mean I'm wondering if you have a case here. Well, this story is about a bridge. It's called the Old Alton Bridge and it's in Texas, your favorite state. It was built in eighteen eighty four to provide access between the Alton community and Denton, Texas. Back then, towns would start and then disappear and then start again, or a new one would start, and then they would name them whatever they wanted, and then people would leave like a boom and a bust. Anyway, in case you haven't heard of the old Alton Bridge, the Goatman's Bridge might ring a bell. It's a home of a dark entity, a demon that is told to be half goat, half man. And it's kind of like that mythical creature what's the name of it with the horse and the oh, a centaur. I thought you were going to go minotaur, centaur. Centaur's half horse. It's the lower half. It's a horse, that's a centaur. Yeah, oh, what's a minute tar or whatever? And the minotaur is the bullhead. You know, it's got the buller goat head, and then it's got the body of a man. That's what I mean. Centaur is the like torso head and torso of a man. Yeah, you know it's funny that that thing. I always imagine that it's gonna flip over because it doesn't look balanced at all. The horse guy looks like it's leading. Doesn't it look like it's eaveing to forward like it's just like, I don't think they're are ergonomically correct. Also, there's a lot of questions. There's a lot of questions about centaurs like mermaids. It just looks like it's gonna flip forward like it's walking, and it's it just hits its head. I don't know. I mean, what happens when a centaur and a mermaid want to get together? Like? Can they Is it possible? I guess fish and a horse. Nope, they would just make a sea horse maybe, And that's how we got the seahorse kids. The stuff you learned every day on the show. The goat man is this entity that has been set to lurk around that area where the bridge is, and it's summoned by many Satanic rituals that are carried in the place. Now, Satanic rituals to me creep me out because you don't know if it's real. First of all, if they're actually summoning something, and even if they don't, it's still creepy things that they're doing. Chopping off heads and blood, and I mean the thing is the belief behind it. Like the belief makes it real. Like if you believe you're cutting a chicken head off to like open a gate to Hell or whatever you're trying to do. The power of intent is really something. So walking into anybody's power of intent would be a little scary because you don't know what they actually intended. Yeah, it's always creeped me out. It has all He's always always creeped me out. It's been like a huugh. I think I blame movies for that kind of thing, like all the Satanic stuff. Remember when I found out that the Church of Satan is a real thing or whatever. I don't know the name of it. Yeah, they fight for a separation of church and state. They're more of like a political party as opposed to I mean the current iteration. I mean before like if you're gonna go like Alister Crawley and stuff like that, where they're actually doing sex, magic and things like that, that's different. Anyway, back to the Goatman's Bridge. Locals tell a couple of stories that have been popularized over the years, and one of them has only local folklore tales to back it up, so maybe it's not. I don't know. It's a story of Oscar Washburn. Okay. Mister Washburn was a goat farmer who arrived with this family to an area located just north of Old Alton Bridge. Soon after it was erected. I like that word erected, because no, it just sounds like well, I guess if you'd think of it that way, then it just sounds weird. But like it was like put up, like boom, there you go. Set That's what I imagined. But sure, mm hmmm, yeah, okay, soon after it was put up, built, made erected. Soon after was erected anyway, with the many goats that mister Washburn had in his property, and it was his successful source of income. Like he made a lot of money off of that. So he placed a sign on the bridge that read this way to the goat mans, not goatmen, but like goat man's But not everyone was happy for him. You know, you have haters. Everybody has haters. Some of his success was not well received by a group of the locals, and members of the Ku Klux Klan were among them. One night in the summer of nineteen thirty seven, While mister Washburn was asleep, klansmen took him by force and dragged him to the bridge. He placed the rope around his neck and hang them over the side of it. When the other man came to confirm the death of mister Washburn, his body had disappeared and was never seen again. Oh shit, but the terror didn't stop. Then the angry group, in a panic, went to the house of mister Washburn and murdered the rest of his family. Those memories would soon begin to haunt the community, both in their minds and the form of a ghost. As it should. I feel like they kind of deserve it. It's weird that, I mean, they kind of brought this on themselves by just not letting anybody prosper. That's why you shouldn't do anything bad, because you're gonna get haunted. I always thought like, as a kid, I used to have these weird thoughts like what if I do something or say something that gets someone killed. And I'm like, it doesn't even have to be something bad. It could be like me accidentally trying to cross the street with the when the little man isn't active or whatever, you know, the walking guy and somebody tries to dodge me and then goes and dies. I always thought of stuff like that. When I started driving, it got worse. I used to be like, like thirty seconds can make a difference. It was this weird thought that was it wasn't really like it's like a little OCD, a little like anxious thought, like it's like it's it's a thing, it's your brain, it's your brain attacking. Anyway, with him dying in such an angry state because Oscar was like being dragged right like he was like yeah and scared and panicking, they say that now his ghost wanders the area of the bridge and the woods that surround it in order to keep visitors safe safe. Yeah, but what about the demonic stuff, Like is this the same thing? Is this something else? I don't know, because they say that there are like there's been investigators that have been there and they've caught stuff. Oh yeah, Zach begins, Baby, that's a big Zach begins. Yep. The guy's at BuzzFeed did they go to Govin's They went, wow, crazy, I don't know. And also Aaron got put so Zach said he got pushed too. Well. It's a pretty good episode. That's good. I've never seen it. It's a good Ghost Adventures episode, but yeah, it's pretty nad oh man, Well, okay, the actual story, like people like paranormal investigators, like non famous ones that have been there, they've actually found they actually have recorded information about Satanic rituals like actual oh shit, historical stuff or like you know, recorded reports I guess of satantic rituals taking place that have opened a passageway. This they add their own thing right, that opens a passageway for the goat man to explore another realm. But they also found like so many things, like let me see there was one with electronic voice phenomenon where they say that they they assume that it's this ghost of a woman that is searching for her missing children always. And yeah, there's a book called Ghost Hunting Texas by April Slaughter. I don't know, that's a cool name, if that's her real name. It was near dusk when April is from that book. It was near dusk when April and Allen arrived at the bridge for the first time. April was not feeling well, so she asked her husband to go ahead on his own to meet with her other friend Jerry for a while before she left the car, so completely alone in the car. After a few minutes, something weird happened outside of the windshield. A tiny orange light was flickering. So April after seeing you know, fireflies, and she's familiar with this stuff. She's like, it's just a firefly. However, the light stretched into a long, illuminated beam that shot straight up into the air and stayed there for a few seconds and then went away. Oh why did they give me chills? Just now? I don't know why that gave me chills, but uh, and I have an issue with lights, like I've seen weird lights too. Yeah. Anyway, in the next couple of minutes while she was there, the exact same phenomenon occurred, so she was confused. She was like, what is this? But still she convinced herself that it was just a lightning bug, like it was just there. A short while afterward, April decided to leave the car and go toward the bridge where her husband was exploring, to tell him about the incident. You know, like, hey, I just saw a light. But even more stuff happened when they were walking around the areas, Like that night it was still it was one of those still nights. They heard rustling in the brush. Things were moving around in the bushes, and no matter where they looked or where they turned to, they could not identify the source of the noise. Something was just around. Imagine that, like, geez, yeah, I mean that's why I would never go out into the woods at night, or to a bridge at night, or anywhere at night, or leave your house at night, leave in my house at night. I mean, if I'm not out before five pm, I'm not going out. You know. It was just a fact. It's just a fact. But also the woods and of noise, no thanks. I would be like, let's get back in the car. And if it's not a ghost, it can be an animal and they or like, yeah, you know, or a weirdo, a weirdo. It could be. It could be a weirdo. Honestly, weirdos might be the worst one. Yeah, you see a guy in a tank top coming out stretching his belly, just yeah, Hey, oh god, I just want to say, Hi, where are you going? Hey, what's up? What do you what do you guys do it? Hey, guys, what do you guys do it? Can I hang out for a bit Oh that sounds cool, eh, let me just hang out got weirdos? No thanks jeez. Later on that evening, they started taking photos of the area along with capturing audio, and their friend Jerry was with them that night to serve as a witness of something bizarre that really scared them. While they were walking along the bridge with the recording devices, they asked questions to try and trigger a response from a paranormal entity. They were all shaken by the response to the question is there anyone else here? I would like to talk to us? And right there they all heard a distinct woman's voice and her answer baby And they were like, what does that mean? And I was like baby, baby, baby, yeah. And they just started singing Bieber And then they were like oh yeah yeah, And there was an improv anywhere everywhere. She's a yeah thing like lights came on, they started dancing. Justine Bieber came out of the car and he was like, hi, guys, and then it was a TikToker just kidding. Imagine that's what it was the whole time. It was just a TikTok video. But they weren't the only ones that talked about a woman that haunts the Old Alton Bridge. Some investigators have caught photos of smoky apparitions of what they believe to be a woman floating across the bridge. Ghost of Denton let me find what it is. Yeah, it's a website. They actually do ghost tours. Shelley Tucker from Ghost of Denton was interviewed by reporter Tim Roberts talk about some of the local legends, and she says that even though there are no historical records of the story of the goat Man aka Oscar Washburn or the Demon, the Goatman, the goat Man, the half goat half whatever have goat half man, it doesn't mean that the place is in haunted, so there's no historical record of that guy ever existing. But out of the many stories that we heard over the years, one of them stands out to Shelley the most, and it's the story of another local encounter. A young man and his friend had come out one night to check out the bridge, and just as he stepped on the bridge, he heard a deep voice growl at him to tell him quote get off the bridge, so he turned, he turned back and ran for a few steps. God, it's such an eloquent ghost, you know, like it just it's just very direct, very direct. No, like Nuance here, he tells you exactly what it needs. Just get off. Yeah, just get off the bridge. Oh man. So he turned back and ran for a few steps, but when he turned around to look at his friend, he saw him fly up in the air and land fly on his back. What the fuckck Invisible hands then grabbed his friend's legs. As the young man watched it all unfold, his friend was dragged backwards until he was flipped over and went straight through the railings and into the water below. Oh my god, they live, Yeah, I guess so, yeah, yeah, Well this is funny because this was clearly what Zach and Aaron were referencing about the story, Like they clearly must have heard this story because Aaron got really pushed and then Zach got fomo pushed. I want to be pushed too. Yeah, that's basically what it was. I was like, Oh, me too, it happened to me too, me too, see me too, Like you said earlier, like the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures BuzzFeed, all these YouTubers have been there, just local people too that you know, there's a lot of paranormal investigators that don't actually record stuff for YouTube and stuff, like they just go literally just for the hobby of it. Like they go and take notes and share among the friends like what they found and stuff, but they don't publish stuff. And a lot of them have been there too. Now it's part of a hiking trail and it's marked as a historical site so they can't mess with it. But also like I wouldn't. I'm like, oh, I'm just on a hike and then you end up on the Satanic Goatman's bridge, like what, Like I don't want that. I want to look at vistas. I want vistas and like canyons. I don't want a devil bridge. At least you get hiking. I don't at all. I mean I only intellectually get it. I do not need to go to a bridge. I do not need to go anywhere that even is potentially hot. Anyway back to Texas from La Yeah, you know they say that because again there's no historical records for all this stuff. But to me personally, like I think that the the golt Man's story, which might not be true or isn't true, there's no records of it, but we don't know combined with some kind of somebody heard that story and turn it into a golt man like an actual half like a monster. But maybe that led to satanic rituals in that place. I don't know. Sometimes the answers are really obvious to why, Oh this sounds like a goat man. Oh that's a monster. Oh let's go do satanic rituals. Yeah, let's do the rituals there. Yeah, I think you're right. Also, like the fact that there's no record of what's his name, the goat farmer Oscar. Yeah, there's the fact that there's no record about him doesn't mean he didn't exist. It means that the town was racist maybe, yeah. Yeah. And like really believable that there was probably lynchings on that bridge. So like the stories don't exist for no reason, they just might not be written proof. And what about the ghost woman. I mean that's weird too, but also very common. There's a lot of there's that bridge in Pasadena. Have you heard of the suicide bridge? Have you done anything on that? But there's supposed to be a ghost that that's a woman that wanders around looking for her children as well, and that's that she wanders around and gets people to jump, that's like the thing. But she's also looking for her kids. But they've also put up so many fences now that the bridge hideous and no one's going to jump off that bridge. Those fences that are like that like a tunnel kind of, they're kind of like just I don't know, they look so bad. They're like not even like chain link. They're just spikes that just go up like they really do not. I mean, it was a beautiful view from this bridge. Obviously that's why it's the suicide bridge. But yeah, that's the ghost story, is that there's a woman wandering around that gets you to jump because she's looking for her kids. And there's which is also the woman looking for her children around the river or whatever. Classic then yeah, yeah, there's a lot actually huh weird. Yeah, it's one of those through lines. That's one of those weird through lines of all cultures that have that kind of weeping woman. Yeah. But you know, also around that bridge, they said there's disappearances, like people disappear. I wonder if it's like a dimensional thing, like there's a you know, maybe someone did open a portal and people are disappearing into it and then goat man is coming out of it. It's possible. Everything is possible. Texas in general has a lot of stories, so probably gonna find some more. But anyway, that's the story of the old Alton Bridge. Akaa, Goatman's Bridge. If you've ever been there, or if you know of anybody, guys, let us know. I want to know about your experiences. Oh yeah, right in, yeah, right in? Yeah. Did you see the woman? Did you see the goat guy? Did you get thrown? Like? Would you visit? Yeah? It seems like a lot of people have experiences there. It seems very active for whatever is there, because it doesn't seem like there's a definitive answer. It just seems like there's something there. Yeah, I would go because well you would go up because Zak Beggins went that. I might go just because it on YouTube, or Zach Megan's touched these walls. Zach Began's was thrown against these floorboards. I have to go caress these floorboards. Oh man. But anyway, that's all I got. Well, what are we going to talk about next week? I don't know. I really don't know, but it'll be a surprise, all right, I'll see you then. All right, bye bye