Haunted Roads In Texas

For my birthday, my wife was kind enough to watch the kids while I went to explore East Texas. With a heat index over 100 degrees, I didn’t trust my pair of 4 year olds to regulate themselves and not get heat stroke. So off I went to camp in Tyler and then explore Stagecoach Road in Marshall TX. In case you hadn’t hears one of the more famous haunted roads in Texas is Stagecoach Road.

Stagecoach Road was once the main road between Marshall TX and Shreveport LA. It dates back to the 1850’s and the first thing that you will notice is that the road has been dug down over the years. In places, traffic has worn the road down 8 to 9 feet. It is a very cool road and an interesting ride.

On a haunted road in Texas.

It is also reportedly haunted. Many people have experienced strange phenomenons, mainly at night. The usual occurrence is strange hand prints that end up on their vehicle.

You see, Stagecoach road has a long history and not all of it was good. A number of lynchings reportedly occurred along the road and a woman was reportedly beaten to death there after townspeople found she drowned her children.

I am not a big believer in the paranormal so I couldn’t wait to hit this historic and unusual road.

Driving Stagecoach

There is nothing particularly challenging about driving this allegedly haunted road. You have to watch out for other traffic because the road really only accommodates one vehicle. There are numerous cut outs to the side to allow others to pass. Should you encounter other traffic, it would not take too much backing up to let them pass.

I encountered no other vehicles on a weekday morning. Take notice of the auto headlights being on. This was actually a bright sunny Texas day. The tree canopy cut out that much of the sun that the auto lights kicked in.

If it were raining heavily, I would avoid this road unless you have four wheel drive. It is maintained but it is only a sand road.

This was a very interesting ride and I recommend it to anyone who is in the area. How often can you find a road that is almost 200 years old. The vibe is slightly creepy but if you are not a believer in ghosts, there should be no issues, unless you take it on at night that is.

After Driving Stagecoach

Once I exited Stagecoach road, I exited onto the highway and started making my way back to Dallas. My doors were off the jeep and I decided to make a stop to reapply some sunscreen to the already burned left side of my body. To my surprise, I found something interesting.

This hatch glass was completely clean of prints prior to making this run. It looks like a hand print of a small child. Perhaps the monkey decal proved too interesting to not touch. Of course, there is the possibility that something just splashed on to the glass in some miraculous way, but…..

Those are clearly the ridges of a fingerprint.

I have never been a believer in ghosts, but……

Creepy.

Oh, and just in case you think that those are perhaps my fingers…..

Ghost fingerprints on Jeep?

Quite a bit smaller than my hand. Definitely a child’s hand print.

Getting To Stagecoach Road

If you want to get to stagecoach road, you need to turn East on Poplar Street of of HWY 59. Search on maps for Marshall Lube Auto Center and get directions. That will get you there.

Travel east and Poplar St will turn into Harris Lake Road. Keep driving until you get to a fork in the road. The right fork will be Old Stagecoach Road, you will recognize it immediately.

Keep going straight and you will eventually be let out on HWY 43. There will be a couple of side streets along the way. Just keep more or less going straight.

Note, this road is maintained but it is an entirely sand road. I would not drive it without 4wd in the rain. I would also not recommend traveling it in a low clearance vehicle. I encountered a few ruts which could give a low clearance vehicle trouble.