These 9 Eerie Texas Destinations Are Deliciously Spooky, Even in Broad Daylight

Most people want their haunted houses at midnight. I think the real test of a spooky place is whether it still lifts the hair on your arms at noon, sun out, birds singing, nothing to blame it on but the place itself.

Texas is full of these daylight chillers. Ghost towns baking in the sun, a bridge with a goat legend, a grand hotel that stood empty for half a century.

There is a cheerful kind of creepy waiting at each one, the sort you can visit with a camera and a picnic and still drive home before dark.

Below are nine eerie Texas destinations that stay strange no matter how bright the day. Pack good walking shoes, a full tank, and a healthy sense of wonder.

1. Terlingua Ghost Town in Terlingua

Mercury built this town, and mercury emptied it. Around the 1880s the Chisos Mining Company sank one of the largest quicksilver mines in North America into these hills, and close to two thousand people crowded the slopes above Big Bend.

When the mine gave out in the early 1940s, everyone simply left. Today it is a sun bleached scatter of adobe ruins, a roofless schoolhouse, and a folk art cemetery that might be the most photographed graveyard in the state.

The old company store survives as a trading post, and the Starlight Theatre still serves dinner where miners once lined up for supplies. Come at golden hour and the whole ridge glows like a struck match.

Every November the ghost town throws one of the world’s biggest chili cookoffs, which feels like a lovely joke on a place named for the dead. The living have very much moved back in.

Where: Terlingua Ghost Town, Terlingua, in far West Texas near Big Bend National Park. Free to wander by day; the sealed mine shafts stay off limits.

2. Fort Phantom Hill near Abilene

The name alone earns its spot on this list. Soldiers posted here in 1851 swore a lookout kept spotting a figure on the ridge that vanished the moment anyone walked toward it. Phantom Hill stuck.

The Army abandoned the fort in 1854, and somebody torched it soon after. Nobody ever agreed who lit the match, and that little mystery has never quite closed.

What remains is a field of about a dozen tall stone chimneys standing alone over the prairie, plus a handful of surviving stone buildings, quiet as a held breath. Wind is usually the only thing moving.

The old powder magazine and guardhouse are among the stone survivors, and the ruins anchor the Texas Forts Trail. String a few frontier posts together and you have a whole road trip of empty, echoing outposts.

Where: Fort Phantom Hill, roughly 11 miles north of Abilene on FM 600, in West Texas. Open, free, and self guided during daylight hours.

3. The Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells

Fourteen stories of Jazz Age glamour rise straight out of a small town, and for decades they rose over almost nothing at all. The Baker opened in 1929 with 450 rooms, a grand ballroom, and a mineral water spa that drew crowds from across the country.

Then it sat empty long enough to become the county’s favorite ghost story. Regulars of the legend speak of a Lady in White drifting the seventh floor and footsteps in halls where no one is walking.

In its glory days the mineral water spa drew film stars and oil money from across the country, all chasing the healing waters. Empty, it only grew stranger, a grand hotel with nobody home.

Crews are restoring the old giant now, so you cannot go in yet. But its silhouette still commands the whole skyline, and standing on the sidewalk looking up at all those dark windows is a genuinely eerie little thrill.

Where: The Baker Hotel, downtown Mineral Wells, northwest of Fort Worth. Closed for restoration, so admire this one from the street.

4. Old Alton Bridge in Denton

Locals call it Goatman’s Bridge, and the tale is exactly as goofy and unnerving as it sounds. A creature that is half goat and half man is said to guard the crossing, appearing to anyone who dares drive over at night with their headlights switched off.

The bridge itself is a handsome 145 foot iron truss, built in 1884 by an Ohio bridge company and now open only to walkers. A modern road hums along right beside it, which somehow makes the old span feel older.

Even in the afternoon, with dog walkers about and sunlight on the creek, the shade under those rusted beams feels a few degrees cooler than it has any right to be.

Paranormal TV crews and long-lens photographers love the spot, and the wooded trails along Hickory Creek make an easy stroll whether or not the Goatman decides to show himself.

Where: Old Alton Bridge, about 7 miles south of Denton in North Texas. Free public trailhead, walkable by day or night.

5. Marfa Lights Viewing Area in Marfa

Something glows out on the plain east of Marfa, and it has been glowing since the 1800s. The Marfa lights blink on at random, red and blue and white, bobbing and splitting and floating over the dark desert with no schedule and no obvious cause.

Scientists in 2011 made a strong case that some are headlights refracted from a distant highway. Plenty of people who have watched the orbs dance for an hour are not the least bit convinced, and that stubborn mystery is half the fun.

A round adobe viewing station makes the wait comfortable, with mounted binoculars, benches, and low red guide lights so your eyes stay ready for the show. It never closes.

The state gave the site a proper upgrade back in 2003, and Marfa itself has become a magnet for artists and film crews. You can chase mystery orbs and gallery openings on the same weekend.

Where: Marfa Lights Viewing Area, 9 miles east of Marfa on US 90, in far West Texas. Open and free, 24 hours a day.

6. Miss Molly’s Hotel in Fort Worth

Right above a Stockyards saloon sits what is billed as Fort Worth’s oldest bed and breakfast, and it began life in 1910 as a rather less wholesome business, a parlor house with a very colorful past.

Guests today report cold spots, small objects that wander off and turn up elsewhere, and a playful presence that seems fond of company. The eight themed rooms upstairs lean all the way into the building’s history.

Bathrooms are still down the hall, the decor still winks at the old days, and overnight ghost hunts fill the calendar for anyone who wants to meet the resident spirits properly. It is spooky, but it is a wink and a grin kind of spooky.

Each room carries its own name and story, and you are steps from the twice daily Stockyards cattle drive. A haunted night pairs surprisingly well with longhorns clopping down the brick street outside.

Where: Miss Molly’s Hotel, 109 and a half West Exchange Avenue in the Fort Worth Stockyards, North Texas. Open for stays and paranormal nights.

7. The Grove in Jefferson

Jefferson is a genteel East Texas river town of antique shops and cozy inns, and tucked among them is a house that keeps landing on national most haunted lists. Built around 1861, The Grove wears its wraparound porches and formal gardens like a proper Southern lady.

On the hour long tours, visitors describe a Lady in White gliding through the garden and footsteps crossing empty rooms overhead. Cold spots seem to drift from parlor to hallway like an unseen guest making the rounds.

The current owners are gracious hosts who clearly love the place, ghosts and all, and the tour is as much a walk through Texas history as it is a chance to feel a shiver.

This Old House once counted The Grove among the most haunted homes in the country. The gardens are planted with heirloom roses and herbs that would have grown here when the house was new.

Where: The Grove, 405 Moseley Street, Jefferson, in East Texas. Guided tours on weekends; reservations recommended.

8. Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site in Anderson

Some places feel haunted simply because so much history has passed through them. Henry Fanthorp built this dogtrot log inn in 1834, and it quickly became the stagecoach stop everyone in the young republic seemed to pass through.

Sam Houston, Anson Jones, and Robert E. Lee all slept under its roof in its heyday. Nearly two centuries later the cedar log walls still stand, and a gleaming Concord stagecoach replica waits in the barn out back.

On the second Saturday of the month you can actually climb aboard for a ride, which is about as close to time travel as Texas offers on a Saturday afternoon. Did you know it is one of the oldest standing structures in the whole area?

The site reopened in 2024 after a careful refresh, and the ninety minute guided tour walks you through rooms furnished as they were when the mail coach still rolled up out front. History sits close enough to touch.

Where: Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site, Anderson, near Navasota in Southeast Texas. Guided tours; monthly Stagecoach Days with real rides.

9. Yorktown Memorial Hospital in Yorktown

Save the truly bone rattling stop for last. This 1950s hospital, once run by an order of Catholic nuns, closed decades ago and has been settling into shadow ever since, which has made it one of the most sought after ghost hunts in the state.

Booked overnight investigations hand you an EMF meter and a set of dowsing rods, then turn you loose in the dim corridors to see what answers back. Reports of drifting figures and unexplained sounds keep the calendar full.

There is even a candlelit session timed to the 3 a.m. witching hour, for the brave and the well caffeinated. Recent owners bought the building to preserve it, so the eerie old halls should stand for years yet.

Sessions run in two shifts, an early evening start for the merely curious and a near midnight start for the truly committed. Pick your level of nerve and bring a friend who will not bolt for the car.

Where: Yorktown Memorial Hospital, Yorktown, about 75 miles east of San Antonio in South Texas. Access by booked paranormal tour only.

Plan Your Daylight Ghost Run

The best thing about a scary place in the sunshine is that you get all the shivers and still make it home for dinner. Pick a corner of the map, cue up a spooky playlist, and let Texas show you how strange it can be with the lights on.

So grab a friend who spooks easily, keep your camera charged, and go find out which of these nine gives you the best goosebumps. Just maybe plan the drive back before the sun slips down.

Featured image: Juan Rios via Miss Molly’s Hotel