Texas Governor's Mansion

A ghost picture...? We're not sure.

At the 2003 New England Ghost Conference--at which Hollow Hill's Fiona Broome was the opening speaker--a few of us were discussing whether some ghosts need an energy source to manifest. The context was EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena, or recordings of ghosts, talking) and whether ambient noise can be helpful.

Starting in March 2006, we're experimenting with extra 'noise' in our ghost pictures. The photo, below, was taken at dawn with a FujiFilm A345 digital camera. It was set to Night mode, so the lens stayed open longer. It's a hand held photo, so some blurring was unavoidable.

We took several photos like this one, but this picture stands out. We're not sure why.

We haven't yet identified anything in it, but it's one of those photos that we look at and think, Something's in this picture... but what?

We can see the apparent cartoon-style eyes in the tree. That's probably from the overlap between the tree and the balcony.

We're looking for something a little stranger than that.

Here's the background on some of the ghosts of the Governor's Mansion:

Disappointed suitor - In the mid-19th century, Governor Pendleton Murrah's nephew shot himself in the guest bedroom where he was staying. After that, the room was sealed for years, when his ghost continued to moan and sigh inside. However, the noises continued and the ghost kept rattling and turning the doorknob, so they reopened the room. It's upstairs, in the area that's not open to the public, and it's on the north side of the mansion. That's what's shown in this photo.

Sam Houston - This former governor, for whom the city of Houston was named, never finished his term of office. He haunts the bedroom with the bed that he bought for the mansion, and a large copy of his photo.

Pendleton Murrah - A loyal supporter of the Confederacy, this governor walked out of the mansion one day and rode to Mexico to avoid being taken prisoner by arriving Union soldiers. He died in Monterrey, Mexico, a couple of months later. He haunts outside and inside the mansion.

Pregnant maid - In addition to the men who haunt the mansion, at least one woman does. She's a maid who was unmarried and pregnant, and dismissed as soon as her condition became apparent. She waits outside the house, hoping to be invited back.

Below, you can see a normal flash photo of the same scene, taken minutes earlier.

We've received many great comments about this photo. We'll definitely continue our experiments with this photographic technique.

To read some of the best comments we've received, see Ghosts in Texas: What people see in the Texas Governor's Mansion photo

What do you see in this photo?

If you see anything odd in the photo at the top, let us know. As time permits, we'll add more webpages with the best comments.

Send your comments to: photos1 at HollowHill dot com.

(That's the word "photos" followed by a one, and it is one word. We've spelled that address, hoping to foil a few spammers.)

Be sure to tell us how to refer to you (name? initials? location?) if we quote you. Thanks!

And, if you'd like a printable copy of this unusual photo to examine more closely, here's a link a PDF copy of it: http://www.hollowhill.com/tx/austin/gov-mansion-pdf.pdf.

For more ghost pictures from haunted Texas, see The Ghosts of Haunted Texas.