There are a few places with in an hour or two from me that the "Ghost Hunters" have said were haunted.  I'm too scared to go to them!

Boo........Boooo..........Booooo...........Boooooo...........Boobies.

I've shown a few people this already, but it's worth repeating.

My mom is majoring in Psychology and has to take a paranormal psychology class.  My mom does not believe in ghost at all.  She actually laughed at the fact that she had to take this class.  One assignment that she had was to pair up with someone and go around town and find places that are supposed to be haunted and take some pictures, just to see if something "popped up".

Well, she Googled some places around her home town that are supposed to be haunted and they went to take some pictures.  They went to this building that is supposed to have someone that appears in the window sometimes (it's an abandoned grocery store).  She took a few pics, checked them out, and called me.  She asked me to look at her pics to see if I saw anything (she didn't tell me what to look for).  She was a little freaked out.  Here is the pic she sent me:







They took the pic at a little after 10 PM.  She said they were the only ones out there so it couldn't be someone else's reflection.  They took 3 consecutive pictures and this is the only one it showed up in.  It's not in the window (where they thought it would be).  It's in the bottom right hand corner. 

THE GREAT STORM OF 1900

Galveston, Texas…founded in 1836, has a history as old and haunted as the entire state of Texas. Pirates and civil war soldiers, victims of the Great Storm of 1900… these are the phantoms that wander its streets. In the early 1800's the island was the headquarters of the famous pirate. Jean Lafitte, who used the remote surroundings to hide his treasure and further his clandestine trade. Legends abound of the buried treasure left behind by Lafitte, and treasure hunters still seek the lost booty. Lafitte was ordered to leave Galveston by American forces. He sailed away aboard the “Barataria Bay" in 1821, and was never heard from in these parts again.

During the years of the Texas revolution, the island was used as the naval headquarters for the rebel fleet. Santa Ana was held prisoner on the island following his defeat in the battle of San Jacinto; this was the beginning of the island’s tenure as a prisoners’ hold. Many buildings on the island were used to jail those captured during the Civil War-- the island changed hands twice, so both Union and Confederate soldiers and sympathizers were at one time held prisoner here. Some of the buildings were also used to hospitalize wounded from both sides of the war, and a few of them still stand to this day. There are reports of both Union and Confederate soldiers who died on the island staying behind to haunt the infirmaries where they spent their last days. It is said you can walk up the stairs of a Strand building, only to find a Confederate soldier standing in your way.

 The Great Storm of 1900  No discussion of Galveston would be complete without mentioning the most traumatic event in its history -- the Great Storm of 1900. Galveston was the first city in Texas to have electric lights and street cars, a post office, a naval base, a newspaper, a public library and hospital, and other amenities of civilization. The area known as “The Strand" encompasses some of the most historic buildings in the old city, including the 1894 Grand Opera House, museums, shops and eateries. The Galveston Strand was once called "The Wall Street of the Southwest" because its location and climate attracted so many of the formidable "old money" families of the Northeast. This storm, now known to have been a category 5 hurricane, is still the worst natural disaster in US history. Its death toll was estimated to be between 6,000 - 8,000 people, with 4,000 homes and other buildings leveled. Galveston was never the same.

When the storm was approaching, national Weather Bureau authorities assured residents that the low tide level of the Gulf of Mexico indicated a minimal destructive force of sea and waves. On the morning of September 8th, there was an almost carnival atmosphere as people assembled along the beaches to watch the incoming storm. However, they had begun to realize the full impact of what was about to assault them and were fleeing in terror as night fell. The storm pounded Galveston in the dead of night with full might. Winds whipped trees and cable car lines, fence posts and signs, hurling them at residents who were literally running for their lives. Torrents of rain blinded them as they fled throughout the streets, causing them to fall over those who had fallen in their path. Trains en route to the island were called back too late, and washed away with their trestles, while entire houses collapsed in the furious onslaught. With the powerful wind came the rising waters, and the crowds who clung wherever they could in the face of the oncoming deluge were panicked. People clustered on roof tops or in tree tops, or grabbed onto anything that would float, then watched in horror as friends and neighbors were swept past them to their deaths.

Galveston was reeling in the wake of the horrible storm, but the clean-up began as soon as the waters receded and the winds and rain died down. Bodies were everywhere; and those collected immediately after the storm were hauled out on barges for burial at sea. But nature had one last cruel trick to play…washing bodies up on the beaches by the thousands as soon as the tide turned. Temporary morgues were set up in the mercantile district, now called the Strand, and the bodies of the dead were set on huge pyres for burning. In some cases, sympathetic citizens would bury as many of the victims as possible in their courtyards and back lots. To this day, it is not unusual for renovators in the older areas of the city to unearth bones from plastered walls or shallow back yard graves…bones presumed to be those of flood victims.

In 1902 Galveston engineers began the construction of the 17 foot seawall that still stands on the Gulf side of the island, and the last segment of the 10-mile structure was completed in 1963.  And, in an amazing feat, the entire city was raised to a level that could withstand conditions similar to those of the Great Storm of 1900.

Who’s Knocking?  Do the ghosts of the lost dead still haunt the old streets and historic buildings of Galveston? Reports of a ghostly frigate sailing in Galveston Bay under a moonless sky are still made to this day. Could this be the famous Barataria Bay, captained by the ghostly Lafitte? It is said you can walk up the stairs of a Strand building, only to find a Confederate soldier standing in your way. Or you can be relaxing with a cup of coffee and a newspaper, only to look up and find you are being studied from afar by the ghost of a long dead soldier. The sheer devastation of the Great Storm of 1900, though, seems to have provided the island with a large number of ghosts. In one Strand shop, a body is sometimes seen apparently floating in thin air near the rafters -- a remnant, no doubt, of the floods of the Great Storm when it washed in and was caught against the ceiling. Reports are even made of phantoms standing atop the sea wall and gazing rigidly out to Sea, perhaps awaiting the next killer storm? Other reports are more troubling, like that of a family who recently visited a Galveston beach and were alarmed by the weeping woman and small child following them over the sand. When the family finally stopped and turned to confront them, there was no sign of either the woman or her child…it seems that nearly every place on the island, inside a home or out on the wide open beach, has a ghost or two.

This info taken from the following: 

http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/toptenhaunted/toptenhauntedcities/

http://www.lonestarspirits.org/articles15.html