Demon of Goatman's Bridge, Denton County, Texas

Jun 1

Goatman Alton Bridge — **Honestly, I think with a new coat of paint, some gold trimmings, and an exorcism, the bridge would be great**

On November 15th, 1967 a newspaper reports police were called to the Old Alton Bridge to investigate yet another abandoned car. There had been a rash of mysterious disappearances in the last year near the bridge, police often had to make their way to the area only to find an unsolved mystery.

Some cars looked as if they had been abandoned in a hurry but other than that, there were no other clues. Along with the disappearances reported from the nearby towns, the police began to suspect if the legend of the Old Alton Bridge was true… if, in fact, a demon-haunted the area.

The legend had become so prevalent the bridge was more locally known as The Goatman’s Bridge and if you took a trip to it with your headlights off then at the far end you’d come face to face with the Goatman himself.

PART 1 - The Old Alton Bridge

“Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters”

Stephen King, The Shining

In 1846 Texas legislature formally established Denton County with the small community of Pinckneyville as the county seat of government. Due to the lack of fresh water available the small community only housed one resident for several years, in 1851 the county seat was changed to the town of Alton, which contained Hickory Creek nearby.

Soon residents began moving to Alton; a hotel, cemetery, a couple of shops, a school, and a post office were built. But the problems with creating fresh water, safe to drink and use was still an issue and in 1856 the county seat was moved once again to present-day Denton.

Over the next several decades through the Mexican-American war and the Civil War, the population of Texas exploded, from two hundred thousand in 1850 to one point six million in 1880. With the increase and expansion bridges were built all along Texas, one such bridge was the Old Alton Bridge over Hickory Creek in 1884.

With many residents moving out of Alton for the more populous towns, the one-lane 145-foot-long iron bridge was erected with the hopes of reinvigorating the town. Unfortunately for Alton, this didn’t happen and Alton became a ghost town. The one area still used for a time was the cemetery where the dead from many surrounding towns and communities were buried.

Though Alton closed, the bridge was still heavily used to establish a quick route between Denton and Dallas. Still, in 2001 a new bridge was constructed nearby and the Old Alton Bridge became solely a pedestrian bridge.

Unsurprisingly having been around for over a hundred years rumors and legends started spreading about the bridge, stories of death, and rituals in the nearby forest and on the bridge. Many report an old feeling or strange noises and today the bridge is more widely known for the demon that inhabits the area, The Goatman.

PART 2 - The Demons at the End of the Bridge

“When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.”

George A. Romero, Dawn of the Dead

Oscar Washburn - The Goatman

In the 1930s a man by the name of Oscar Washburn was growing his business and his family consisting of his wife and two children. He lived just north of the bridge but his business of selling cheese, milk, and meat, all from the goats he owned, had him traveling to all the nearby towns and communities.

Although many saw Oscar as dependable and honest, enjoying his company and products, there were a few who disliked him due to their racist and ignorant views since Oscar was a black man. Despite the hate from these individuals and the re-emergence of the Ku Klux Klan, Oscar continued building his relationships with the communities. His customers soon started referring to him as the Goatman, a name Oscar embraced.

In August of 1938, when more customers wanted to start traveling to Oscar for their goods this created a problem for him as he lived in a secluded area with his family and would be difficult to find without instructions. Thinking efficiently Oscar decided to put up a sign at the nearby Old Alton Bridge reading “This way to the Goatman’s”.

Unfortunately, this action angered the klansmen in the local government and they decided to use violence in retaliation. During the night several klansmen drove up to the Alton bridge turning their lights off as they crossed it, from there they drove to the nearby home of the Washburns.

They kidnapped Oscar bringing him and a noose with them to the bridge. After they had beat him severely they put the noose around his head, lifted him up, and tossed him over the bridge. When the murderers looked over the side of the bridge they only saw the hanging rope, Oscar’s body was gone. They hadn’t heard a splash and the waters remained still below them.

Worried he was still alive, several Klansmen ran down to the creek but found nothing, the other klansmen rushed over to Oscar’s home and brutally murdered his family, burning down his home in the process.

Oscar’s body was never found.

After his death, people in the local towns started reporting strange sounds coming from the forests near the bridge. Some reported screaming, the sounds of hooves walking along the bridge, and others claimed to see red eyes staring at them from the dark if they lingered too long on the bridge.

Many believed the spirit of Oscar had returned deformed from the hate and violence he endured and was now out for revenge. Legend says if you approach the bridge with your headlights off before you make it to the other side you’ll see the red eyes of the Goatman waiting for you believing you to be after his long-dead family.

To this day many still report seeing and hearing the sounds of the goatman. A pair of friends investigating the bridge late at night, reportedly heard a growling monstrous voice telling them to get off of the bridge. One ran but turned around in time to see his friend dragged by an unseen force and tossed into the waters below.

But Oscar’s story isn’t the only origin for the goatman’s appearance.

The Fires at Dallas and Denton

Another legend goes back to July 8th, 1860 when the towns of Dallas and Denton among others were hit with mysterious fires. Some believed it to be an attempt at a slave rebellion and the ugly face of racism showed up once again.

Newspaper editor Charles R. Pryor printed the accusations and even printed a lie stating several had confessed. Rumors broke out across the state people believed slaves and abolitionists were working together to poison, murder, and rape. Mobs gathered to hunt and hang any they thought could have been part of the fires.

Legend says one man hanged by the racist mob was a slave goat herder from Creole named Jack Kendall, the mob took him near where the Old Alton bridge would eventually be built, and lynched him. Through incompetence the rope caused his head to separate from his body and through the use of voodoo, the body raised itself back up, ripped a head from a nearby goat, and placed it on himself.

And so the Goatman was born. The mob ran in fear before the goatman could exact his revenge on all.

The Occult

The final legend of the goatman tells of a group of occultists convening on the bridge attempting to prove the tales of the goatman are true by calling upon his spirit. After performing the ritual, a pair of red eyes appeared at the end of the bridge, and growling followed as a demon emerged from the portal the occultists had created.

Taking the form of a satyr, a half-man half-goat monster the demon was now trapped on this side of the portal. The occultists ran off and now that Goatman demon is trapped on this side hunting anyone who crosses his bridge as he waits for a way back home.

With so many legends and stories surrounding the goatman and his origins, which of the stories told today are even real?

PART 3 - The Truth on the Other Side

“I told you and told you there was nothing to be afraid of”

Grover from “The Monster at the End of this Book” written by Jon Stone

Let’s start with the first story of abandoned cars and a rash of disappearances at the Old Alton Bridge, after extensive research including checking digitized copies of old newspapers from 1967 this appears to be made up. I searched several different newspaper archives and found no paper in the Denton, Texas area has any articles describing an abandoned car or disappearances near the bridge.

I decided to expand my search for years prior to 1980 just in case and found only two articles, one from May 6th, 1959, and another from November 7th, 1923, neither of which contained references to the abandoned cars or disappearances being anywhere near Old Alton Bridge.

Next, I tried to find the origin of the rumor, at least when it first appeared online as there may be a source.

I was able to trace the rumor back to a frequent commenter on various websites from 2010, this commenter always posted the same thing on websites that mentioned anything about the Old Alton Bridge during that year, stating

“There have been several disappearances on and around Old Alton Bridge. Most notably, one that occurred on November 15th, 1967. The Denton newspaper at the time did an article on a car found abandoned on the bridge.”

I believe his original comment is from July 2, 2010, on a website called RandomConnections.com, the link is at bottom of the page under Sources. I believe this is the original as it goes into more detail including the car was a mustang and provided a link to the commenter’s own website.

Unfortunately, the website is down but using the Wayback machine I was able to view the website from back in 2010 and unsurprisingly the claim of the abandoned cars was there but no sources.

The claim appears to have been made up by this commenter or heard by them and believing it to be true they just retold it for website clicks.

Next is the legend of Oscar Washburn, it turns out this legend is also just a legend. There was an Oscar Washburn who lived in the Denton area but 20 years earlier, he was not a goat farmer and was white. I couldn’t find any official records of Oscar Washburn being a goat farmer in the 1930s.

The next legend actually has some truth to it. During the 1860s there were mysterious fires that occurred in multiple Texas towns and unfortunately, there was a mob that sprung up attacking and killing innocent people due to Charles R. Pryor’s lies.

But there are no records that a man by the name of Jack Kendall existed at that time nor did his death occur. Especially since, I think, a reanimated corpse ripping the head off of a goat and placing it on their neck would be bigger news.

There’s also a variation to this legend saying that Jack Kendall killed and ate his family and was hung after being convicted, the same events then transpired after being hung. The elements of this story can be rooted in the fear of voodoo creating a highly misunderstood view of it and stories of zombies and reanimation stemming from this fear.

As far as the fires, historians believe they actually started from the improper storage of matches during the extreme summer months. At the time matches did not have a striking surface on the outside of the box and they were known to ignite accidentally.

Finally, our last legend is that of occultists creating a portal to hell where a demon emerged to become the goatman. I believe this one stems from the Satanic Panic that reached its peak in the 1980s.

In the legend, the goatman was an already established legend and the ritual from a few to summon him accidentally made him real. During the satanic panic, many believe rituals and occult items would lead to devil worship and evil spirits crossing over. These fears were further pushed by the media and the misunderstanding of teenagers. It’s then no wonder why a legend involving a demon would have an occultist ritual origin.

Today many people still report seeing things or hearing things at the Goatman’s bridge, people can take tours of the bridge, especially Halloween tours because of course some legends state you can only see the goatman on Halloween.

They say if you knock three times on the bridge or honk your horn near the bridge the goatman will be waiting for you on the other side. Maybe there’s a different origin for the goatman and the legends we’ve gone over today are the ones passed around because the truth is not known.

There are legends of Goatmen all across the United States; there's even another in Fort Worth. Maybe the Goatman is not who the legends say he is or maybe the Goatman is just waiting for the right person to knock.

But how about you? Would you take a trip to the Old Alton Bridge and knock at the door of the Goatman?