The Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle may be all open skies and wide horizons, but it hides some seriously haunted history. From Amarillo to Old Tascosa, this dusty stretch of Texas is home to swing-dancing spirits, railroad phantoms, haunted hospitals, and gun-slinging ghosts who refuse to rest.
We kick things off at The Nat Ballroom in Amarillo, a former 1920s indoor pool turned glitzy dance hall. Jazz legends like Duke Ellington and Buddy Holly played here, and some say the music never really stopped. Visitors report phantom footsteps, rearranged silverware, and a ghostly lady in white wandering the old gambling hall upstairs, her dress stained red with what might be wine… or something worse. Paranormal investigations have picked up everything from cold spots to disembodied singing.
Next up, the Santa Fe Building, a towering 14-story relic from Amarillo’s railroad heyday. Abandoned by the 1980s, the building came alive again with whispers of typewriters clicking, elevators moving on their own, and ghostly figures in gray suits watching from down the halls. Even after renovations, staff still report strange sounds and an eerie feeling that someone…or something…is still clocked in.
Then there’s St. Anthony’s Hospital, once Amarillo’s largest Catholic hospital, and the rumored site of over 70 exorcisms. Though it closed in the early 2000s, explorers have captured chilling photos, reported extreme temperatures, and even described smelling sulfur, a classic sign of demonic presence. One staffer swore he saw a ghost patient asking for help… an hour after he’d died on another floor.
The journey ends in Old Tascosa, once one of the wildest towns in the West. Gunfights, saloons, and outlaws ruled this dusty outpost until floods and time turned it into a ghost town. At Boot Hill Cemetery, visitors hear phantom gunshots and see shadowy figures. One woman, believed to be Frenchy McCormick, who stayed behind long after the town died, has been seen walking the ruins in silence. Today, the site is home to Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch, a second-chance home for kids, but even there, stories persist of cowboys watching from the ridgeline and doors that slam without cause.
From haunted ballrooms to ghost towns that won’t fade, the Texas Panhandle is full of echoes…of music, violence, healing, and heartbreak. So if you find yourself out on a back road in the Panhandle, keep your camera ready… and maybe don’t turn your back on the past.
