2019-4 Remembrances speical Edition1
City of Schertz
Remembrances Special Edition 2019-4
Prepared by: Schertz Historical Preservation
Committee
Ghosts along the Cibolo
When the topic of ghosts and goblins arises,
as seems to each Halloween, the story
settings are most often thought of as being located in ancient buildings, homes or
cemeteries. Undocumented anecdotal recollections are most often the source of
the stories that surround these tales of Halloween horror and/or fright. Lots of
towns throughout America claim to have their own special haunted house or
graveyard. Schertz is no exception.
Probably the most fruitful search for ghosts within the city limits of Schertz would
lead one to visit one or more of the eight inter-city cemeteries during the midnight
hours. Schertz may well have the distinction of having more cemeteries per square
mile of territory than any other city of its size in the state of Texas. These
cemeteries are the resting places of many of the city’s earliest settlers. The size of
each burial allotment ranges from a single gravesite to several dozen sites. The
tombstones vary from well preserved to crumbling concrete markers. The ages of
the burial plots date from the middle of the 19th century to mid-twentieth century.
The City’s Historical Preservation Committee has dubbed the location along which
these cemeteries is situated as “The Trail of the HARP” (Historical Ancestral
Resting Places - HARP). The burial plots are mostly German settler family
cemeteries with the exception of two Mexican plots. All but one are placed along
the path of the Cibolo Creek which itself offers both anecdotal and physical
evidence (found artifacts) of early Native American presence, a fact that lends
itself to stories of alleged ghost appearances. The lives of those who reside in
these historic cemeteries have experienced the best and the worst of life along the
Cibolo Valley throughout the centuries. Do their spirits call out to the living from
time to time? Some among us would say they do.
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One of the city’s historic landmarks from the era of the mid 1950s is the Starlight
Dive-in Theater. Former owners Bobbie and Nelda Chestnut shared, in an October
2014 edition of Schertz Magazine, that “an undocumented anecdote” about the
theater has it that the drive-in is haunted. Could it be that the theater itself is not
the culprit? Instead, could it be the fact that there is one of the HARP cemeteries
that lies in the immediate shadow of the old drive-in’s movie screen?
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Another place in town that has long been the subject of an anecdotal ghost legend
is “Woman Hollering Creek”. This small tributary that crosses FM 1518 on the
south side of town and eventually empties into the Cibolo Creek is said to have
once been the scene of a vicious Indian attack on a family settlement along the
banks of the Creek. The story goes that the screams of the woman who was
captured and tortured by the Indians can still be heard along the banks of the Creek
from time to time.
There may be ghost encounters yet to be reported upon emanating from the homes
and buildings that have housed some of our city’s oldest and most notorious
citizens. Thirty such homes, buildings and homesteads have thus far been
designated by the City of Schertz as “Historic Landmark Properties”. May the
residents of such historic places rest comfortably with the knowledge that ghost
stories seldom end badly.