Haunted Patterson Road

Patterson Road in Houston, Texas is supposed to be haunted. This road borders Bear Creek Park and runs between Highway 6 and Eldridge Road. [Google Maps]

Most of the roadside is overgrown with dense foliage. At night, the frogs make sounds that are too loud to ignore. There are also many other noises in the woods; they're probably woodland animals, but they are very odd noises.

One evening in early May 2005, two of us investigated Patterson Road. We visited it in daylight first, and checked it with a compass. (Photo on right, above.)

We saw anomalous needle swings in excess of 30 degrees on the right side of the Langham Creek bridge as you're facing Eldridge Road.

Daytime photos were generally normal, except for one:

At Langham Creek

Detail of photo

The sun was quickly setting when I took this photo with a digital camera. There was no light to create that "misty" effect at the upper left corner of the photo. There was no fog, no rain... nothing to account for that mist. You can see it in more detail in the photo to the right; that's an enlargement of the corner from the left photo.

The Langham Creek bridge is supposedly the haunted one. According to local legends, the ghosts of Civil War soldiers tap on your car if you park on the bridge with your lights out.

Unfortunately, Patterson Road is busy at night with sporting events at nearby Bear Creek Park. We do NOT recommend parking your car on the roadway with your lights off.

We did pause on the bridge after dark and there were many tapping noises, but nothing that couldn't be explained by the car settling and the bridge shifting slightly under the weight of the car.

However, the Bear Creek bridge is a different story...