Spirits are high at new Fort Worth ghost tour
A new year-round ghost tour set around the Fort Worth Stockyards promises to scare up the past of Cowtown.
US Ghost Adventures launched its first tour in Fort Worth — Cow Town Ghosts: Hauntings of the Wild West — in December. The company has other Texas tours, including in San Antonio. It also hosts tours in Austin, Dallas, Houston and Galveston.
Fort Worth has been on the company’s radar for the past few years given its long history and ties to Western culture, said Andrew Luciano, US Ghost Adventures director of expansion: food and drink tours.
“Not to mention it’s very old, so obviously very storied and, in turn, being extremely haunted,” he said, “which is what we like.”
The ghost tour starts with information about the infamous section of downtown Fort Worth once known as Hell’s Half Acre after the violence and crimes of yesteryear. From there, guests are taken
on a one-hour, 1-mile walk past historic and potentially haunted buildings.
A few highlights of the tour include the Stockyards Hotel, where notorious criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, aka Bonnie and Clyde,
stayed and where some say their presence is still felt. Other stops include the White Elephant Saloon and Miss Molly’s Hotel.
The fact that more than 100 years ago, the Stockyards were packed with gunslingers, outlaws
and other characters adds to the allure of a ghost tour in Fort Worth, Luciano said.
“Those souls still wander the streets, inhabiting many of the buildings that are still up and standing, still causing havoc in the afterlife,” he said. “Really, it just makes for an ideal ghost tour location.”
While Cow Town Ghosts is indeed a ghost tour, Luciano said, it’s also a history lesson.
A ghost tour allows the city’s past to be brought to life in a way that’s more entertaining than depressing, he said.
Each stop has been researched to give guests as much history as possible while also getting their blood pumping, he said.
“Not only are ghost tours told to our guests but also the historical background that gave the spirits meaning,” Luciano said. “Guests can expect to have a little bit of fun, a little bit of a scare and a little adrenaline to the system.”
Tickets can be purchased at usghostadventures.com for $25. A 30-minute tour extender is available for $6 and for a $7, an EMF (electromagnetic field) detector is said to alert tour goers to any potential spirits nearby.
The Cow Town Ghosts: Hauntings of the Wild West is held nightly at the Livestock Exchange at 131 E. Exchange Ave.