If you have never visited Texas, your images of the largest state of the lower 48 may include only cowboy hats and oil wells. You may think of the 1980s television soap opera when you think of Dallas, and of alternative music when you hear about Austin. Chances are that you don't have many ideas about the Texas Panhandle. This northernmost region of the state, bordered by Oklahoma and New Mexico, contains grassy plains, deep canyons, windmills--and ghosts.
Amarillo is the Panhandle's largest city, with a population of approximately 200,000 people. In addition to the town's living residents, there are tales of a few who have died but still linger there in some form. Tales tell of Tradewinds Airport hosting one or much such spectral residents. Although today it offers charter services and airstrips for small aircraft pilots, it was a private airstrip back in the 1950s. According to legend, a local pilot used to take his girlfriend out in his plane--until the day his wife confronted them, killing the pair of illicit lovers and then herself. Reports tell of mysterious traces of perfume on the runway in evenings and the sounds of an argument, followed by gunshots in an empty hanger. Supposedly, on the anniversary of the event, you can see a ghostly plane taxing to that fatal hanger.
Built in 1922 to house a community swimming pool, as a way to escape the Panhandle heat, this building has undergone several changes. After the swimming pool was covered over, the building acquired a dance floor, and some upper areas were converted into gambling rooms. It has provided a performance stage from performers ranging from Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison in the 1950s to the Dixie Chicks in more recent days. The former gambling rooms have become an antique mall and cafe. Perhaps because it held so many good memories for so many people over the decades, a few seem to have decided to linger there after death. Some observers have reported seeing ghostly couples spinning on the dance floor. Others tell of cold spots and furniture mysteriously moving, seemingly on its own, overnight.
The town of Canyon lies 14 miles south of Amarillo and is home to Texas A&M University, the Big Tex roadside attraction cowboy statue from the 1950s and the Panhandle Plains Museum. In the middle of the car and wagon room in the museum sits an old ambulance wagon and, at times, some say, a ghostly woman, known as Sara Jane, stands next to the wagon. People who have seen her report that her appearance is accompanied by the smell of blood, as well as headaches and feelings of panic.
If you're in the vicinity of the small Panhandle town of Bangs in the mood for some spookiness rather than Christmas cheer, drive down Highway 67. Stories say that along this road, long ago, on Christmas Eve, a man killed his wife and children, then set the house on fire. Supposedly, you can see the yellow glare of spectral flames in the ruins of the house on the anniversary of the dark deed.
