Shortly after taking office in December 1989, McCulloch County Judge Randy Young was working late at the courthouse when he became distracted by noises coming from above.
“I was bothered by constant banging and sounds of many people running across the room,” he recalled. Young assumed the clamor came from the third-floor Extension office, where 4-H students conduct regular meetings.
The clatter continued until 11 p.m., and Young decided to pay a visit to the 4-H leaders and advise them to send the children home to bed.
“I left my office and climbed the stairs to the third floor to find the lights out and the offices closed,” Young said. “No meeting had been held.”
The judge’s encounter with the unexplainable is just one event in a string of abnormal occurrences that have left some occupants of the McCulloch County Courthouse to wonder just what – or rather who – is lurking nearby.
Rumors of courthouse ghosts have floated around for years. However, a snapshot taken by tourists in August 2004 of their children by the Heart of Texas monument on the courthouse lawn triggered new interest in the phantoms. The photograph captured an image in the window on the south side of the building that looked like a man peering outside.
An individual from the community called the Ghostseekers of Texas, a team of researchers, to investigate. County Clerk Tina Smith referred the group to the commissioners court, which granted Ghostseekers permission to monitor the courthouse.
The Ghostseekers have made four visits to McCulloch County and plan to return in the near future.
“They firmly believe that there is activity…and several spirits in the courtroom,” Smith said.
Like the county judge, Smith had a close encounter of the spooky kind soon after taking her oath of office. She was in the “vault” of the county clerk’s office where public records are housed, speaking with two attorneys who did not agree with a record on file.
“They were being mean,” she recalled, “and at the time it really shook me up!”
The trio was standing by two long tables in the vault, with one man in front and one man on the right. All of a sudden, one of the books from a shelf high over their heads flew out and slammed onto the table.
“We all just kind of looked at each other,” Smith remembered. “One of the men said, ‘That nearly hit me on the head!’ ”
All three were silent, and Smith walked out of the room.
“They were never ugly to me again!” she said in jest.
Many courthouse employees have heard unexplainable noises, especially those who work near the vault where the public records are housed on rollers. When the rollers are pulled out, the wheels make a squeaking noise. Every now and then, employees will hear the familiar squeaks and proceed to the vault area to offer assistance.
“Sometimes they go look, and no one is there!” Smith said.
Other odd occurrences include the pronounced aroma of gardenia “just floating through the air” or a very strong cigar smell, Smith said, even though there is no smoking allowed in the courthouse.
One day the elevator service technician came in to have Young sign his inspection report and asked the judge if he had had any problems. Young said he never rode the elevator and was therefore unaware of any problems.
“I also mentioned that it gave me the creeps when the elevator periodically cycled to each floor late at night, causing me to go to the hall to check to see who was in the courthouse, which has automatic security locks,” Young said.
“When I found no one exiting the elevator, I concluded that the elevator must automatically run to circulate the oil,” he continued.
The inspector chuckled and said, “There’s no automatic cycling on that elevator. It only runs if someone pushes a floor button!”
The Ghostseekers have yet to offer a firm explanation for these unusual events, said Ed Hernandez, a reporter for the Brady-Standard Herald who accompanied a six-person research team on one of their stakeouts in the courthouse.
“Going in I had a set of parameters for myself,” Hernandez said. “I would have to be reasonably skeptical and not believe everything, but reach conclusions based on data.”
At an initial briefing, James Dixon, vice president of Ghostseekers, explained that many ghost hunters and paranormal investigators believe that a spirit is the result of energy left when the human mind is no longer the conductor of this energy. The energy lives on and is often seen as an electrical disruption in the atmosphere.
The disruption is a shapeless mist or an orb, so called because it is usually round and trying to take shape, Dixon told the group. On rare occasions, the spirit takes on a human look, called an apparition. Signs of a spirit trying to make contact include moving objects, cold chills, or doors and windows slamming shut.
“Before we started, James advised us that batteries would be subject to draining,” Hernandez recalled. The group videotaped everything accessible and then waited until dark, using the time to set “ghost-snares” in the county clerk’s office vault. The snares consisted of black plastic bags sprinkled with baby powder set about 18 inches apart. The object was to see if anyone or anything stepped in the powder and left tracks.
After dark the team split on different floors, videotaping and using an electromagnetic field meter (EMF) to measure the highest levels of electrical energy.
Dixon received a message from the first floor that equipment on that floor had been drained of energy. Almost simultaneously, Hernandez’s battery pack went dead, as did the tape recorder and a digital camera.
“The scenario was the ‘MO’ the rest of the night,” Hernandez said. “Forty to 45 minutes were to be the optimum battery lives.”
In the vault there appeared to be some movement of sorts, but upon investigating the snares, the group only found mud between two of the bags.
“We took pictures and taped noises throughout the night,” Hernandez said. “Some of the seekers said they had been touched. How, I wondered, was it that no one else was?”
The stakeout continued until 4 a.m.
“I went home confused, but not convinced,” Hernandez said.
The next night was more of the same, but the hunt was called off about midnight. Dixon told the group that he is convinced there is paranormal activity present; he just doesn’t know how much or to what extent.
“As for me, I am still skeptical – but my battery pack did go dead,” Hernandez said. The Ghostseekers plan to conduct yet another visit.
The county judge isn’t convinced, especially after last Halloween when Young worked until 2:30 a.m.
“I can say that I ‘spent the night’ with the ghost…but he (or she) must have been gone on Halloween rounds because absolutely nothing unusual happened,” he said.
“Though, I don’t believe in ghosts, if we have one, it appears to be friendly, or at least ambivalent, maybe even a little mischievous and joking!” Young continued.
Smith said she doesn’t use the term “ghosts,” but prefers to call them spirits.
“I guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder,” she added.
As one might imagine, Smith and others involved have taken quite a bit of ribbing from many who don’t take the occurrences quite so seriously. But Smith is used to it – after all, she was born on Halloween.
Julie Anderson