Is This Hotel Really The Most Haunted One In All Of Texas?

Texas is a state full of legends and folklore. Anytime you decide to go looking for stories and interesting bits of history, you'll come away with a lot more than you bargained for. For instance, this one hotel that seems to be all the rage among those who love it when things go bump in the night.

Is this hotel really the most haunted one in all of Texas? It's definitely in the running.

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Welcome To Ballinger, Texas! Home Of A Really Spooky Hotel

Ballinger, Texas reminds me a lot of the little bitty town in Oklahoma I grew up in. The population hovers around 4,000 or so. It's full of historic buildings. There's a lake nearby.

There's also a really spooky old building that people swear is absolutely haunted.

That spooky old building is the Olde Park Hotel.

Just How Haunted Is Olde Park Hotel?

If you believe the stories that come pouring out of that place like cranberry juice from an elevator in a Stanley Kubrick film loosely based on a Stephen King novel...then it's very haunted. In all seriousness, it's status as being a haunted hotel is legendary.

It's so haunted that they don't operate as a regular hotel anymore. Now, they just book overnight stays for paranormal research groups.

I figure you've got to be really, really, haunted in order for it to shake up your business model.

Is It Ghosts? Disembodied Noises? Bad Plumbing?

Well, there's accounts of at least two of those three, and I'm suspecting there's been at least one clogged toilet in the history of this place.

The hotel was built sometime in the 1880s. Since then it's been collecting all manner of specters and spooky occurrences.

There's a spooky cowboy named Slim who is apparently looking for his conscience in the afterlife given how much he likes to whistle. That's a Pinocchio reference in case you missed it.

Jiminy Cricket, indeed.

You have the usual tropes you find haunting old western hotels. There's a woman who appears to have been in the employ of the brothel that used to call the Olde Park Hotel home. There's a few spooky kids roaming the halls, because there's always spooky kids. Kids are terrifying. Yes, there's even the spooky old lady roaming the halls trying to, I assume, remember which room is hers.

Sounds Like Every Other Haunted Hotel. What's The Big Deal?

The one "ghost" that I find most interesting out of the buffet of spirits to choose from, is the tall shadowy cowboy. Now, don't confuse this cowboy with Slim. Slim is looking for his conscience. This one is a little different.

The tall shadow cowboy appears everywhere in the hotel. He's not like some of the ghosts and finds himself somehow cosmically captive to an attic or something. He also supposedly acts as a kind of "sheriff" of the ghosts that haunt the Olde Park Hotel.

That's not something you find in every haunted hotel.

They Don't Let The Ghosts Get Them Down

The owners of the hotel have embraced the place's spooky...ness. As I mentioned above, they rent to paranormal groups. They also go big every Halloween.

Of course they do.

That was posted a few days ago. They're really excited about Halloween this year. I would be too if I could save some money and just let the real ghosts do all the heavy lifting.

If you're feeling brave, and you've got the means for a road trip to Ballinger, Texas; you might as well go check this one out.