Weird Texas: Your Travel Guide to Texas's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets

Weird Travel Guides

by Mark Moran, Wesley Treat, Heather Shades

Praise for Weird Texas : “If your taste extends to the odd side of traveling, this is your ticket"  — Booklist; “…lives up to its promise of providing an overview of weird things found in Texas"  —Austin American Statesman

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History, Paranormal, Humor, Reference, Ghosts

288 pages, Hardcover

First published July 25, 2005

Reviews

[TK Keanini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am pleased to have documentation that Texas was weird before I arrived.

This is a great book to reference when we have guests from out of town stay with us and ask the question "Well, what is there to do in Texas?"

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too heavy on all the hearsay Ghost Stories but, being from Texas, I found the monuments, art and other unusual artifacts across Texas worth reading about and also potential places to explore.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books like this with offbeat real-life stories. Well, at least stories of where some of the legends come from. This book is heavy on ghost stories, but even ghost stories give you a look in to history and hoe people think.

[Joe Blow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes me proud to from the greatest nation in the world, TEXAS. Great pictures, great stories and a fun discussion piece.

[The Cat In The Hat · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting. picked this up on a jaunt to schulunberg, tx at Frank's. read it all night to finish....

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enthralling - makes me want to hop in the car and explore the state for the next few months. Well, maybe not the Big Thicket in the dark...

[SusanwithaGoodBook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in 2019 I discovered the "Weird" series and read about Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana before our travels there, but being a Texan, of course, I had to read the one about my state. It helps, too, that one of the authors is a Treat (probably a very distant relative of my husband's prolific family).

Anyway, this was fun, though these Weird books tend to focus too much on ghost stories and not enough on local attractions. Still, I loved the "Ancient Mysteries" chapter and the "Unexplained Phenomena" I've always been fascinated by the stories of the Marfa lights in West Texas and Bragg Road lights in East Texas. There are similar stories in many places, so I'm sure there's a natural explanation for them, but I can see why people are weirded out by them.

If you're a Texan you should probably read this. It's history and trivia you probably won't get anywhere else.

[Sjoerd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am going to Texas, but this book doesn't help. Which is a pity, because the Florida and California editions were great.

The writers were charismatic, Texas just doesn't have my type of weird. Gravity hills, strange lights, yet another ape man, some ghosts.

Mweh, would not recommend.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and fascinating.

[Valerie Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, quick read; purchased at BookPeople in Austin.

[Richard Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has taken me 13 months to read this catalog of eccentricities of Texas. I already knew some of the stories, and I suppose this conforms to the genre of Weird fill in the blank.

[Mark Badoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unorganized haphazard stories. Reads like a magazine from the 90s.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strange tales of Texas. Fun ghost stories and sightings, help you feel like a local, but a lot of similar stories told slightly different ways

[angelofmine1974]

No stars. DNF.

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/HzKqTrDy2Y8

Enjoy!

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good mix of stories but the ghost stories were all so similar that it got a bit tedious.

[Brannigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found some new places to explore

[Rolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting stories, but a lot feel like retreads. You’d be better off looking up fun places to visit on Atlas Obscura.

[StarkHOUTx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, but I’ve been to many of these places and can’t seem to find where they took the pictures of the witch’s castle? Actually, a good chunk of the witch’s castle story doesn’t add up.

[Ted Izatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is always fascinating to read tales about Texas. I love local legends and secrets, always wondering just how true they are.

[Scott Butki · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was interesting and well done.

It included local weird stuff like the Cathedral of Junk in Austin (a future field trip, for my charge, i think) and some dated stuff like Leslie Cochran
who has died since the book's publication


I was more interested in what it had to say about other weird stuff around other parts of texas

A quick light read

[Omar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really surprised at some of the stuff I learned, and I'm not supposed to do a regular review, I'm supposed to take stories I liked, research them, and then cite my sources.

First:
EXTREMELY FRIGHTENING FOR CHILDREN
La Llarona (pronounced "LA Ya-ro-na", literally translating to "the cryer")
The tale is supposed to be about a poor widow with two kids, living near the Rio Grande. She finally found a rich person that wanted to marry her, but the man wouldn't agree to marry her unless she got rid of her kids. The woman was overcome by greed, and in the middle of the night heartlessly stabbed her children and drowned them in the Rio Grande. She went to the rich man, thinking he would be proud of her, and marry her, but as she showed up on his doorstep with blood on her gown, he refused to marry her. She suddenly realized what she had done, ran back to the Rio Grande, and began frantically wandering the banks, looking for her children. She is cursed with a head of a horse and to forever wear her bloody gown, wandering the banks, crying out, "Mis ninos! Mis ninos!" or "my children".
Legend also says if she sees anybody traveling the banks at night, she will say, "Aqui estan mis ninos!" or, "Here are my children.", and take you away.
Source 1
Source 2

Second: (and last)
Odd
Mysterious Lights
In the town of Anson, Texas, located approx. 20 miles north of Abilene, is the location of strange lights. If you ever visit Anson, turn right at the Alsupps, and travel until you arrive at a graveyard just outside of the town. Then turn right onto a dirt road, and at crossroads, turn your car so it is looking at the main road, and turn your engine off. Flash your headlights 3 times, and you will see them.
Source 1

[Hope · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up a few years ago when I was still living in Texas, but it sat unread on my bookshelf for four years. I'm not sure why I decided to read it now, except, as those who know me well can tell you, I have a mild obsession with Texas. It was heartwarming to read about some of the sights I had seen and happened upon during the countless miles I logged on Texas backroads and highways.

The main reason I kept reading is because the book reminded me of all the ghost story books I used to read when I was a kid. I came to realize ghost stories are a lot scarier to me now than they were then!

The writing is not great. The book is essentially a webpage in hardcover. I guess I shouldn't expect much from what is really a coffee table book/travel guide, but I thought it was a little thin on information, and the illustrations were mostly someone's fantasy of apparitions.

Also -- where is the MAP???!!! Even having lived for six years in Texas and traveled extensively in the state, many of the remote locations were unknown to me. I found it shocking that there wasn't a map showing the locations where these wonders were located.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend buying this one. And, for the record, the Marfa lights are not car headlights. No way.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It isn't that Texas isn't Weird. But I feel like this book could of gone weirder. The two most troubled areas of the book would be "Unexplained Phenomenons" and "Abandoned in Texas."

Unexplained Phenomenons is almost purely about the ghost lights in Texas. These lights are in fact interesting, but it seems a bit lazy to not feature anything else in the chapter. What makes the "Weird" series so interesting are the small blurbs about a wide variety of topics.

The chapter on abandoned structures started out interesting up until they closed the book with an essay. Although the article was well written, it felt vague and therefore out of place. It didn't seem to give any specific places to go, or anything out of the ordinary. Maybe if the essay was shorter, it would of felt more appropriate as a closing.

Putting these two chapters aside, the book was great. The places and stories featured in the book gave a lot more depth to Texas. Like any of the "Weird" books, I recommend it to any tourist or anyone who lives in the state.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first heard of this series a couple of years ago. I thought about purchasing it last year but it was too pricey at the time. This year our school district is making a big push for students to read expository texts and 7th graders are strongly encouraged to read about Texas. I found a cheap copy on eBay and am now adding it to my classroom library.

Some of the tales I've heard before; I enjoy watching "Country Reporter", a show about quirky Texas. Some I hadn't. I wish the authors, editors, or publishers wouldn't photoshop the pictures. I don't like their illustrations intruding on my imagination. A common gripe of mine was realized in this book when they included descriptions of photographs rather than the photographs.

Still, it's a fun book I wouldn't mind showing visitors. Next time I travel around, I'll check with the book. As it turns out, I've missed a few opportunities to experience Texas' quirkiness the last time I left the Metroplex.

[Chy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book got left at my house about four years ago by a friend. He's been over multiple times and shrugs about it, so it got organised into my books. I've thumbed through it over the years, but only recently actually sat down and read it. It's pretty entertaining. Personal stories and bits from the author keep it fresh.

I also was finally able to find a "haunted" road we'd tried to find when I went to school in Huntsville. Because this book was able to tell me the actual name of the road. (We only knew it was called "Demon's Road.") We found our own creepy road, however, that was not in this book.

But besides the ghostly stuff, there was a lot of interesting "weird" stuff about my state. A lot of them I knew, a few made me want to go visit places I found out are actually near me, and some made me glad I live nowhere near those places.

[Maddy Shew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before I read Weird Texas I wasn't a fan of nonfiction. I liked the fiction mysteries, but after reading Weird Texas I realized the true mysteries were even more interesting. As I continued to read I got more drawn in, because the author left little cliff hangers until the end when he summed it all up. My favorite part was in the box of organs story, when the kid said he saw the ghost. Then as they drove back they found the box of organs. The author used very suspenceful word choice. Words that made the scene sound very mysterious and gorry. My favorite line out of the 10 stories I read had to be "There, in the dead of the night, she heartlessly stabbed her children, then threw them into the river, where they drowned" (Treat, pg. 12). This caught my eye, and made me want to continue reading

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another Weird book I can check off my list now, however this one was disappointing. Texas is such a huge state, but most of the material in the book was quite boring and not all that interesting. Many of the tales were ghost related and recorded from a bunch of kids who went to this place or that because of a legend. If I wanted that I would just talk to people and listen to their stories that are completley outrageous and full of tall tales. There was some historical stuff, but very little and what was put there did not seem to be researched all that well. It also seemed like they only hit certain areas and said the hell with the rest of the state. It was not all bad, I did enjoy a few of the findings. The cemetery part was pretty cool, LaLorna legend I had heard of but still liked, and the Museum of funeral history is something I would love to visit.

[Lizpeveto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked it up because it was about TX. I enjoyed it because a lot of the places mentioned I have visited including Saratoga's Bragg Rd. As a teen several of us drove out there but didn't see the lights or anything weird; but the driver did try to spook us by saying he ran out of gas - ha. I grew up in the area and traveled to many of the areas including Batson, Sour Lake, Trinity River and Village Creek and so it was a little bit like going home. The Marfa Lights I have seen for myself and look just like the photos. Several odd/spooky places in SA and surrounding area, most especially Exchanted Rock which is a wonderful place to hike and see bluebonnets in the spring. I've read better trivia about TX so probably would not recommend this book.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Features similar beastly and ghostly tales from other Weird books. But, this vast wasteland can be interesting. The massive sinkholes, the toilet-seat decorator, the natural formed pit where Confederates stored some of their prisoners during the Civil War...

[Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting material that had not already knew about Texas, but a lot was a rehash from popular history and AAA guidebooks. Best part was the discussion of Charles Whitman. Worst was its discussion of Jack Ruby.