Old Alton Bridge Goatman’s Denton Texas

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Goatman’s Bridge also known as Old Alton Bridge located in Denton, Texas. One of those places that when you come to town and ask about hauntings that the first place everyone will point you to. 

The bridge comes with personal stories, gossip, and myths. It’s just one of those places that has a story of it’s own.

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The bridge is located between Lewisville and Denton in Texas. While it’s only open to foot traffic for decades you used to drive over it.

The red metal with wooden bridge flooring was moved to the side. The bridge is replace with a concrete bridge.

It’s now open to foot traffic that leads to trails and a creek below. The question is, is Goatman real and does he really haunt this little piece of history.

THE HISTORY of goatman’s bridge:

November 15th 1967: police discover an abandoned car beside Old Alton Bridge, five miles south of Denton, Texas.

A rash of mysterious disappearances are becoming alarmingly routine on a chilling stretch of road.

That road is known by locals as “The Goatman’s Bridge.” What’s interesting is the back story of Goatman’s bridge.

Bridge Construction

The bridge was constructed in 1884, the bridge connected Lewisville to Alton. The turn of the century brought a black goat farmer and his family to a residence just North of the bridge.

A few short years later, Oscar Washburn was known as a dependable, honest businessman was attacked.

North Texans endearingly began to call him the Goat man. However the success of a black man was still unwelcome. Klansmen in the local government turned to violence after he displayed a sign on Alton Bridge: “This way to the Goatman’s”.

Old Alton Bridge - Goatman's Bridge Denton, Texas

Thought one night in August 1938, with their headlights off, Klansmen crossed the bridge, dragged the Goatman from his family, and lynched him over the side.

Peering over into the water, his murderers saw a rope, but not his body. In a panic, the Klansman returned to the Washburn residence and killed his entire family in cold blood.

Since the disappearance of the Goat man there have been many strange sightings on and near Old Alton Bridge. Some say Oscar Washburn’s spirit still haunts these woods and the bridge.

Locals used to tell a story (when you could drive on the bridge) to pull your car onto the bridge, turn off the engine, place keys on top of your car, and hook three times.

The Goatman would then appear.

After numerous abandoned automobiles and missing persons. A new bridge was constructed directly downstream. But Old Alton Bridge, the Goatman’s Bridge, remains still open to foot traffic. 

Oscar Washburn was never seen again and has been presumed dead since his attempted murder.

Old Alton Bridge - Goatman's Bridge Denton, Texas

And, the Goatman is evidently not alone. Other reports tell of a woman’s spirit who wanders the area allegedly in search of her lost baby. Is it the spirit is that of La Llorona, who is well known as haunting the rivers of the Southwest.

We’ve also heard stories of a young woman that went missing that wanders the woods pointing people to clues of her death.

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THE MYTHS:

Oscar Washburn is known as the Goatman He is sighted on the bridge often. Also in the tunnel of trees that is down the road from the bridge.

The missing girl is known to say things. Pointing people to evidence like bracelet or items she could have been wearing.

She is said to be seen in the field next to the tunnel of trees and walking through the tunnel of trees.

Mother is a story of a woman’s spirit who wanders the area allegedly in search of her lost baby.

Cults are said to do rituals in the area often. While I’ve been going there for over a decade I have only see this once and it was quite some time ago.

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THE EVIDENCE:

For years Goatman’s has fascinated me with all the spiritual hype you hear about it. When I first moved to Texas my friends and I would spend hours out there always trying to find some piece of evidence or see the Goatman for ourselves.

Of course the lore was different by word of mouth so he always seem far more spooky then the origins of his story.

The Story

One night, I took a ride out to Goatman’s with some friends I was in my early 20’s. We pulled up to the bridge there was a car wreck into the side.

The windshield was shattered. There was two very large younger men completely freaked out. Talking about a guy with a huge goat head that smashed in there windows.

We called the cops and they arrived on scene to check them both out. They weren’t drinking so that ruled that question out which was my first assumption.

The police thought is was someone playing a prank but I can say those boys felt completely different. It was often you would see cars wreck on the bridge. I figure mostly from fear or drinking. That night took the cake though.

Years Later

Some years later I visited with my good friend Denise. It was Halloween night at midnight. We took a ride out there. We walked the bridge which for some reason that night I didn’t want to be there. Something felt so wrong.

Then we proceeded down the tunnel of trees. Once in the tunnel and with new technology in hand I turned on the voice recorder.

I asking questions. I got something unexpected. A very loud scream and someone telling us to leave.

We heard it real time and captured it on the voice recorder. I wish I still had this evidence but since it’s been years I don’t have that to share anymore with you.

WHAT WE RECEIVED:

I knew since I was going to write this article I knew I had to go back to Goatman’s to collect some evidence.

Now bearing the SP7 Spirit Box (now a SP11 is available), a cell phone with a app that spirits can talk through, and a camera my husband and I went to visit several times. Several times we received nothing.

I felt like a porta was open. My husband is also a skeptic. I felt the sensation that someone was there.

Hence we started to ask questions. Below is some screen shots that show you what we received on the app.

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I asked Oscar a question. I considered the him Goatman. Is Oscar still here with what happened.

I received this on the phone cord. After it, it also said plastic. I couldn’t find a record of much on Oscar. After a few more questions he also seemed to answer another.

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I asked him what they did to his family and received the answer sharp. I believe Oscar is saying something sharp. After that we received soldier and tinkering with the bridge sounds.

The soldier I assume is from the camo shirt my husband was wearing.

The words were interactive but we still want to test the app more. We didn’t received any EVP’s while we were there. We hope to investigate more since this place has always drawn me to it.

There is an energy that is so peaceful there but on occasion something or someone else makes the place feel just off like a portal opens.

THE CONCLUSION:

I’d love to know if you’ve had an experience at Goatman’s Bridge. If you have please comment below.

We will keep this article updated as we move forward with our visits to Goatman’s. We always like to hear about new developments so any thing you can share would be amazing!

More Spooky Places To Visit:

Goatman’s Bridge also known as Old Alton Bridge located in Denton, Texas is one of those places that when you come to town and ask about hauntings that the first place everyone will point you to. The bridge comes with personal stories, gossip, and myths. It’s just one of those places that has a story of it’s own.

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5 Comments

  1. We just did a photo shoot there and there’s a woman with black hair and a green shirt faint in our photo. My friend on fb JUST pointed this out so I googled about it and saw a woman roams the bridge. I’m totally freaked out!!

    1. I went to Goatman’s bridge last night and had the most terrifying experience of my life. I also took a fair amount of photos, and when I showed my mom she began to point out entities in them. One of them is a woman in a bluish/green shirt or dress with dark hair walking through the trees. Crazy to read your comment because it’s exactly what appeared in my photo!
      We also saw a lot of ghostly white faces with black cloaks in some of the photos. Very, very scary.

  2. For some reason a couple weeks back some things started happening one day some keys went missing(2 the same day different times) and we checked for them and for some reason they appeared on countertops we had checked beforehand me and my partner were aroused & for some weird reson a goat ,bridge,& door came to our minds and we never heard of the goatmans bridge till we started talking about how we had the same exact thought and their is the bridge 2 hours away from us we stopped work and went to the bridge with our minds where set that we were being called out to open a kind of door or a portal I would assume we where their roughly searching for a while when we ran across this little secret path in between the trees not a walk way more of like a secret walk way between the tress as we moved in deeper and deeper not noticing how far we had gone let me remind you these last few weeks in Texas it has been hot as hell and somehow in the middle of the day roughly 2-4 pm on that little path it got super cold and creepy my partner claims he couldn’t move for a couple seconds I was also shook at the fact of that it got so cold and we said hey we need to walk back the more we looked into the path we could see odd things we decided to fall back but the cold followed us out the path and lead us to a small area next to the bridge that is empty my partner had a dream of the same place we started acknowledging the area and I started meditating to see if my conciosness would cause anything everything was silent but a thought in my mind said we needed to go deeper to the path and we didn’t for personal reasons we checked the bridge again looked for arches but found nothing a day later I have a dream of the location under the bridge and what I see is a man hanging from the bridge I got back to my partner about it and he asked if I read that somewhere? I told him I never read up on it while he’s been studying it and told me the story but we feel something different lately like its a magnet I would say we can’t stop thinking about it work is the only thing that keeps me from going back we have footage of our first visit but haven’t taken the time to truely look at it that is my experience thought I could share it with you.