Jefferson Texas is something like a time capsule from the mid-1800's set in the creepy sweaty swamps and mossy Cypress filled bayous just upriver from Caddo Lake. In the age of steamboats the town was once an important port and Texas' 6th largest city. But the clearing of an ancient log jam lowered the water level as well as Jefferson's status and population. Jefferson seems unwilling to let go of those old glory days when it was a center of commerce and the South was still fiercely independent. It still wishes the year were 1860 and steamboats with loads of people and goods were still enjoying the city center.
Since I grew up in East Texas, I had been to Jefferson a few times and some years ago I found myself on a Ghost tour. There are many reportedly haunted buildings in Jefferson, but we didn't encounter any ghosts on that tour. My ghost story occurred much more recently... about a year ago I believe.
It was a Saturday evening and my wife and I had nothing to do, so on a whim we decided to go visit Jefferson (about a 1.5 hour drive). We'd been there a few times before... 4th of July fireworks, Christmas season Home Tour, and a few other times just to meet friends, have dinner, and hang out.
So that Saturday evening, my wife and I had dinner and some wine, then strolled around the nearly empty streets (It must have been off-season for tourism), visited the General Store, then wound up at a bar/pool hall where we played some pool and had a few too many drinks. It was around midnight and I'd had too much to drive and we were feeling spontaneous, so even though we had no suitcase we decided to spend the night.
The Excelsior Hotel was nearby, and I'd always wanted to stay at that old place because it looked interesting and historic and I had some vague recollection that it was supposed to be haunted although I hadn't read up on any specifics about what guests had reported there. So we checked into the Blalock room #102, had a hot bath in the claw foot tub, then went to bed with the room still spinning a little from too much drink.
I believe it was around 3 AM when my wife and I were both awakened by loud noises upstairs. Everything is wood in that old hotel, so sound travels easily. It sounded to me like two children were running around the room above us and playing around on the bed. They would start on the opposite side of the room from the bed then run across the room, building up speed, and dive into the bed causing the headboard to bang against the wall very loudly. At least that was the image conjured in my mind to explain the sounds that I heard. It never even occurred to me until weeks later that what we heard might have been a ghost. My wife and I complained to one another... "what the hell are these people doing letting their kids run around in a hotel at 3 AM? They need to put their kids to bed!" At times it sounded like someone was bowling or playing skee ball... a long series of noises as the thing rolled across the room, then BAM as it slammed into the wall or whatever. At other times it just sounded like children running fast and slow and fast again. It would quiet down a bit and we fell back asleep. Then it started back up and woke me up again. At one point I considered getting dressed and going to the front desk to complain, but my wife was now sleeping through the noise and getting up seemed like too much effort so I eventually fell back asleep. The next day on the drive back we talked briefly about the irresponsible people letting their kids run amok upstairs.
I didn't really think anything more about it until a few weeks later we had dinner with a friend who has a fondness for Jefferson, so we told him a little about our adventure that night and as we were talking about our stay at the Excelsior it was only then when I was in storytelling mode that it occurred to me that the noises might not have been real children banging around upstairs, but perhaps it was paranormal. My friend said that on the ghost tour they said the guests had described what sounded like children running or even a heavy skee ball rolling across the floor. Legend has it that Steven Spielberg stayed a night there and when he tossed his suitcase into a chair, the chair tossed it right back at him. He was reportedly so freaked out that he got his crew up and left to stay at a more modern place in the nearby city of Marshall. His experiences there inspired him to direct the movie Poltergeist.
At any rate, we definitely heard something unusual that night and unbeknownst to me at the time, the sounds that we heard were the same type of sounds that others have previously described. I find it hard to believe that parents would bring a couple of kids to that hotel with them at that time of year, much less allow them to run amok banging around their room and jumping on the bed and slamming into walls at 3 AM. You could suspect that the hotel puts this on like a performance to perpetuate the legends and boost tourism, but the hotel doesn't seem to want to highlight the haunting as it more than likely hurts their bottom line. Their target market is not the Paranormal society, but rather history buffs, antique hunters, and brides to be.
We just had dinner this weekend with the same friend that loves Jefferson TX and we retold our ghost story, so I thought I'd also share it here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson,_Texas
http://theexcelsiorhouse.com/
(This post was last modified: 2019-04-15, 04:39 PM by Hurmanetar.)
Since I grew up in East Texas, I had been to Jefferson a few times and some years ago I found myself on a Ghost tour. There are many reportedly haunted buildings in Jefferson, but we didn't encounter any ghosts on that tour. My ghost story occurred much more recently... about a year ago I believe.
It was a Saturday evening and my wife and I had nothing to do, so on a whim we decided to go visit Jefferson (about a 1.5 hour drive). We'd been there a few times before... 4th of July fireworks, Christmas season Home Tour, and a few other times just to meet friends, have dinner, and hang out.
So that Saturday evening, my wife and I had dinner and some wine, then strolled around the nearly empty streets (It must have been off-season for tourism), visited the General Store, then wound up at a bar/pool hall where we played some pool and had a few too many drinks. It was around midnight and I'd had too much to drive and we were feeling spontaneous, so even though we had no suitcase we decided to spend the night.
The Excelsior Hotel was nearby, and I'd always wanted to stay at that old place because it looked interesting and historic and I had some vague recollection that it was supposed to be haunted although I hadn't read up on any specifics about what guests had reported there. So we checked into the Blalock room #102, had a hot bath in the claw foot tub, then went to bed with the room still spinning a little from too much drink.
I believe it was around 3 AM when my wife and I were both awakened by loud noises upstairs. Everything is wood in that old hotel, so sound travels easily. It sounded to me like two children were running around the room above us and playing around on the bed. They would start on the opposite side of the room from the bed then run across the room, building up speed, and dive into the bed causing the headboard to bang against the wall very loudly. At least that was the image conjured in my mind to explain the sounds that I heard. It never even occurred to me until weeks later that what we heard might have been a ghost. My wife and I complained to one another... "what the hell are these people doing letting their kids run around in a hotel at 3 AM? They need to put their kids to bed!" At times it sounded like someone was bowling or playing skee ball... a long series of noises as the thing rolled across the room, then BAM as it slammed into the wall or whatever. At other times it just sounded like children running fast and slow and fast again. It would quiet down a bit and we fell back asleep. Then it started back up and woke me up again. At one point I considered getting dressed and going to the front desk to complain, but my wife was now sleeping through the noise and getting up seemed like too much effort so I eventually fell back asleep. The next day on the drive back we talked briefly about the irresponsible people letting their kids run amok upstairs.
I didn't really think anything more about it until a few weeks later we had dinner with a friend who has a fondness for Jefferson, so we told him a little about our adventure that night and as we were talking about our stay at the Excelsior it was only then when I was in storytelling mode that it occurred to me that the noises might not have been real children banging around upstairs, but perhaps it was paranormal. My friend said that on the ghost tour they said the guests had described what sounded like children running or even a heavy skee ball rolling across the floor. Legend has it that Steven Spielberg stayed a night there and when he tossed his suitcase into a chair, the chair tossed it right back at him. He was reportedly so freaked out that he got his crew up and left to stay at a more modern place in the nearby city of Marshall. His experiences there inspired him to direct the movie Poltergeist.
At any rate, we definitely heard something unusual that night and unbeknownst to me at the time, the sounds that we heard were the same type of sounds that others have previously described. I find it hard to believe that parents would bring a couple of kids to that hotel with them at that time of year, much less allow them to run amok banging around their room and jumping on the bed and slamming into walls at 3 AM. You could suspect that the hotel puts this on like a performance to perpetuate the legends and boost tourism, but the hotel doesn't seem to want to highlight the haunting as it more than likely hurts their bottom line. Their target market is not the Paranormal society, but rather history buffs, antique hunters, and brides to be.
We just had dinner this weekend with the same friend that loves Jefferson TX and we retold our ghost story, so I thought I'd also share it here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson,_Texas
http://theexcelsiorhouse.com/
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