 |
|
|
The Other Side of "THE TRACKS"
When Lone Star Spirits was first placed on the internet, I began getting stories about the "Haunted Train Tracks" and I was fascinated with the legend. When I first heard about them, I had just gotten back from a trip to San Antonio and was irritated with myself for not finding out about them beforehand. Over the years I've learned more about them, though I have never been there myself, and my interest in them has changed focus, it is still there. They've gotten all kinds of media attention, from books to radio to television, the most notable being Unsolved Mysteries when they conducted the famous baby powder experiment. They are also one of the most investigated locations in the state. Our own Pete Haviland has been there and even though the road was flooded at the time he got a great photograph with a strange anomaly. If you own a copy of Haunted Texas Vacations: The Complete Ghostly Guide, just turn to page 237 and take a look at it. Alamo City Paranormal, one of the oldest and largest paranormal investigative teams in Texas, has also investigated The Tracks on many occasions. They have brought in advanced technology and their findings have been fascinating. Many other investigators have gone and gotten strange phenomena on film, video and audio tape. There are also hundreds of average people every week who experience The Tracks. According to the legend, in the 1930's or 1940's a bus stalled on the tracks. They were unable to get the children out of harm's way before the bus was struck by a train, killing all of the children on board. In their grief, the city of San Antonio named the streets of the nearby neighborhood after the deceased children. Now, if you stop your car 80-100 feet from the tracks, put your car in neutral and take your foot off the brake, the children will push your car over the tracks and out of harm's way. If you lightly dust your car with baby powder, the finger prints of the children will show up in the powder (and possibly the bus driver's as well). Until very recently, I thought this legend was limited to one set of tracks in one town. Over the Halloween season I got messages about at least one other town, and possibly a second, that has an identical legend. The confirmed location is a small town in the panhandle called Merkel, TX. I asked the reporting viewer if she was sure this wasn't the San Antonio tracks. What she said was that yes, she was aware of the San Antonio legend, and asked her source if he was sure they were not the same tracks. Her source told her that he was certain that they were not the same tracks. Another possible location for a haunted tracks legend is Waco, TX, and recently I have seen some discussion about a set in Austin. I don't give any weight to the Austin story simply because the names of the roads in question are identical to the names of the roads in San Antonio - and that's just too much coincidence. As I mentioned before, Pete Haviland has gotten an anomaly in a photograph at that location. If you don't have a copy of the book, it's a set of vortices. At first you might think that they are street lights. There are two reasons that we ruled that out. Number one - The light would have to be red and green (not arrow) at the same time, which is not likely. Number two - there were no street lights in the shot. Other photos that I have seen show numerous orbs. I can't say for sure that they are authentic because I have only seen images posted on the web and I was not present to vouch for the conditions at the time they were taken. Alamo City Paranormal has brought in FBI fingerprint analysis equipment to analyze the fingerprints found on the car after it rolls over the tracks. Thus far they only have a few prints that they can't explain, and not enough for a full analysis. Other phenomena reported by various investigative organizations is EVP - specifically children's voices. The legend is fascinating, but thus far it is completely unsubstantiated. Investigators have searched newspaper records, police records, and school district files and cannot find any reference to a wreck at that site involving a school bus. People were not so backward in the 1930's and 40's that such a thing would be unreported. There would be a record of it somewhere, but after all of the investigative research, no record can be found. The streets in the neighborhood are not named after any deceased children. They are named after the children of the developer, and they are still very much alive. You're probably saying, "That's all well and good, but how do you explain the rolling vehicles and the fingerprints?" Most of those cases have perfectly natural explanations. Alamo City Paranormal had the road surveyed not too long ago. What they found is that when you start 80 feet or so from the near track, you are going down an imperceptible slope. The road drops about 12 inches in a span of 65 feet. At that point, you're 15 feet out and the road levels off for 5-7 feet, then rises about 6 inches over the remaining 8-10 feet. If you went down 65 feet of slope, you gained enough momentum to carry you over the rise and over the track. Most people start 80-100 feet away from the track. It's the ones that start on the track or less than 10 feet away (and there are a few of those) that remain unexplained. As far as the fingerprints go, the explanation is equally simple. Do you remember touring your museum and being told that you couldn't touch because your skin would leave oil behind? That's what the FBI is looking for when they dust a crime scene for prints - the oil from the "perp's" fingertips. That oil can stick around for weeks. The only way to get rid of it is to scrub your bumper before you powder it. Most of the people who get prints in the powder are actually getting their own, or those of a child or cat who has touched their car in the past week. It's the few who actually scrubbed the bumper first that remain unexplained. If you want to experience the tracks first hand and be sure that you had a genuinely paranormal experience, here are a few guidelines to follow:
Another thing that has been recommended is to bring a smooth-surfaced ball to the location. Remember to bring your regular ghost hunting equipment as well. Remember, though, these tracks are still in use so watch for trains. It seems to me that the story behind The Tracks is a work of fiction, but that there is definitely something there. Research is shown that the power of suggestion can induce a haunting. Convince people that a place is haunted, and things will start happening. One famous example of this was the Phillip experiment conducted by the Toronto Society for Psychical Research in which a group of mediums was able to create haunting phenomena while focusing on a fictitious ghost. I believe that may be the case with The Tracks. Approximately 500 people per week show up expecting to experience supernatural phenomena. Either their focused energy has attracted a spirit (or a horde of them), or there could be some form of psychokinesis at work in the few cases with no natural explanation. Alamo City Paranormal believes that the legend warrants further investigation. I must agree with my counterparts at ACP, it is, at the very least, a fun legend. Unfortunately the level of traffic at the tracks has brought some ne'er-do-wells to victimize those who would experience the tracks first hand. According to one SAPD officer, they've already busted one gang of criminals who waited in the bushes to assault and rob people when they got out to check their bumpers for prints. It's also brought and endless stream of undesirable elements to the neighborhood, the least of which is traffic congestion. For those reasons, LSS does not give out the location of the tracks. There are many resources available that will identify the intersection in question, we are just not one of them.
Information used in this article can be found in "Documenting Urban Myths: The Ghost Children" by Janis Raley, "Another View of the 'Ghost Tracks'" by Officer C.J. James, "The Haunted Railroad Tracks" by Brenda Pacheco, and "Moral of the Haunted Tracks" by Stephanie Hernandez The information about Alamo City Paranormal investigations was received via e-mail directly from Martin Leal, president of ACP. Martin can be reached via e-mail at jleal@stic.net
Shameless Plug . . .
Happy Haunting! |
© 2006 Lone Star Spirits |
