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Texas
| Ghosts
In Search of
Seguin's Milam Street Ghost
USING DEAD
RECKONING TO FOLLOW
SEGUIN'S
HEADLESS WALKER
by Ken
Rudine |
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When
I hear a ghost story from
a credible source, I become motivated to validate it. Such was the
case with my story and photos of the Saratoga,
Texas ghost road light and the Mission,
Texas nearby La
Lomita Church. Sometimes it takes me years to get around to satisfying
my curiosity, but there has always been something unique that occurs
when following a previously reported event trail.
My interest was piqued when I read Charley
Eckhardt’s 2005 story “The
Ghost on Milam Street.” This story is of the events at a Seguin
house near the intersection of Milam and College Streets. The Rudine
Team was completing a trip to Utah and had planned a stop in Seguin
on our return to Houston.
We were going to photograph the cemetery and house described in his
story.
We arrived in Seguin
about 3PM and checked into a motel, having driven in from
Van Horn. We drove on old Hwy 90 east to Milam and turned south
to Riverside Cemetery. Suddenly I noticed we were at “the intersection.”
Per my plan, we continued on to the cemetery. |
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At
the cemetery many (if not most) graves were of people who lived their
entire lives and died in the 1800’s. The grass had been mowed just
days before our arrival. Many headstones were unique or had long past
designs. |
Riverside Cemetery
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, October 2009 |
Riverside Cemetery
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, October 2009 |
Riverside Cemetery
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, October 2009 |
Riverside Cemetery
Historical Marker
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, October 2009 |
Riverside Cemetery
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, October 2009 |
Riverside Cemetery
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, October 2009 |
After the cemetery
photos, we drove north on Milam to College. It had been sometime since
I had read The Ghost
on Milam Street story but I was surprised to find a COIN LAUNDRY
on the corner, not the house. Confused, I took daylight pictures of
every house that could possibly be involved. Sitting in the car afterward,
my wife noticed a man was approaching us. I decided to go meet him
and introduce myself. Giving him my TE card, I explained what I was
doing. He asked, “if he knew me” while saying his name is Brad.
Then he said he is a 75-year-old retired mailman from Beeville
(who now lives on Milam St., 2nd from the corner). He knew nothing
of the event of our interest.
It was suppertime now and we had been out of Texas
for 3 weeks and we craved BBQ. We found Davila’s on Hwy 90 and enjoyed
his delicious mesquite cooked brisket and pork ribs. In business for
50 years, apparently the son now runs this business. Talking with
him about our quest, he mentioned that he knows of Charley
Eckhardt.
After
Seguin became
dark we returned to Milam and College to make night photos, which
might be revealing. Meanwhile I had re-read the
ghost story, but my wife has never read it. When we reached the
scene, a parked car caused my wife to park closer to College than
before and on the east side of Milam facing “the house”. We sat there
a few minutes in silence as I observed the coming and going of customers
washing and drying clothes. Suddenly my wife said, “That’s the house”,
pointing to the house just east of the laundry. Further she said I’d
like to be inside that room behind all that brush or trees on the
left. That room with the west wall between 2AM and 5AM, she continued
to experience what happens. That agreed with what I had just read
in the article, but she was getting this information from her psychic
ability. |
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The Headless
Walker's path is at the opposite end where bush and tree growth obscure
the house.
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, October 2009 |
I don’t know
how to explain or elaborate on the previous sentence, other than to
say this is one of her abilities from time to time. Last night for
instance, I was silently looking at pictures of us (on my laptop)
made on a porch at Marble Canyon, AZ. She was in another room, busy
balancing a checkbook and suddenly she started commenting about the
very pictures I was looking at. We don’t understand it but we have
just come to accept it as a gift.
Apparently
the house was unoccupied while we were around day or night. There
were no lights on and no car in the carport. We made night shots over
a period of an hour, trying to capture the scene, appropriately. We
did find some unexplainable fuzzy light areas on the roof of one shot.
We don’t know what that might mean. Whether we believe in ghosts
or not we do believe in the unexplainable that most folks call ghosts.
After all we did simultaneously experience the “cold spot” at Seul
Choix Lighthouse, MI.
© Ken
Rudine October
23, 2009 column |
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