Goatman’s Bridge – just a registered historic landmark shrouded in macabre local legends….
4 min read
“Goatman’s Bridge” is the popular nickname for what’s formally called Old Alton Bridge, just an iron-truss span that once connected Denton, Texas, to Copper Canyon.
The through-truss bridge was built over Hickory Creek on Copper Canyon Road, south of the old townsite. Built by the King Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio, it was first built to carry horses but would later carry vehicles across the creek.
It continued to be used until about 2001 when it was replaced with a concrete-and-steel bridge and a new road, which straightened out a sharp curve. Before the new bridge was built, motorists were required to honk their horns on the one-lane bridge to let other travelers know they were coming.
The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in July 1988 and closed to vehicle traffic in 2001, and today It is open only to pedestrians.
It sounds good. But why “Goatman’s Bridge”?
Well…because many who have crossed it at night have claimed to have seen the demonic figure of a man with a goat’s head waiting for them at the other side.
All this come from a popular local ghost story.
Half a century after the bridge was built, an African-American man named Oscar Washburn settled with his family near the bridge. Earning his living raising goats, he was soon called the “Goatman” by the locals. He was an honest businessman, and his goat raising business was a success.
But, unfortunately, some did not welcome a successful black man within their midst.
As story goes, it was 1938 when he have been murdered on the bridge at the hands of local members of the Ku Klux Klan. Commonly shortened to the KKK or simply “the Klan”, is the name of several historical and current American white supremacist, far-right terrorist organizations and hate groups. Their primary targets are African Americans, Hispanics, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Italian Americans, Irish Americans, and Catholics, as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals, Muslims, atheists, and abortion providers.
In this case, when Oscar Washburn posted a sign on the bridge that advertised “this way to the Goatman,” it angered local Klansman.
On a dark night in August 1938, the Klansmen crossed the bridge without their headlights, then burst into his home and drug him from his family to the bridge.
It’s said that they lynched the goat farmer, hanging him with a noose over the side of the bridge, but when they went down below to confirm the goat farmer was dead, he had disappeared.
The hateful Klansman then went back to his home and killed the rest of his family.
But there are around also other versions of the same story, including one that suggests the bridge is actually haunted by the Goatman’s wife while, another, blames the work of Satanists.
Either way most versions of the tale tend to include a warning that knocking three times on the trusses of the bridge runs the risk of bringing out the Goatman.
Not by chance, over the decades, there have been numerous alleged sightings of a ghost-like apparition with a goat head haunting the area.
Some locals have claimed to see glowing eyes staring at them on the bridge, while others have claimed to hear splashing in the creek directly below, followed by unsettling laughter.
The tale continues that when travelers crossed the bridge at night with their headlights off, they would meet the Goatman on the other side, while several other reports tell of numerous abandoned cars that have been found near the bridge, with their occupants missing.
Others report seeing a ghostly man herding goats over the bridge, while others say they have seen an apparition staring at them, holding a goat head under each arm.
More disturbing stories even include people having seen a creature that resembles a half-goat, half-man.
Of course, none of the ghost stories surrounding the bridge are based on any specific historical facts, but it’s a good story, right?
