Exploring San Angelo’s Haunted Bridge

The Lone Wolf Crossing Bridge is a place where San Angelo residents can go take their lock of love and attach it to the large heart full of other locks with the names of lovers, past and present. It’s a place where residents can go if they want to enjoy a serene and calming view of the Concho River and snap photos of nature at its finest while the breeze blows through their hair. It’s also the place people can go and reflect on the rich history of this Texas landmark.

Many stories of haunted sounds and sightings shroud the beauty of the Lone Wolf Crossing Bridge, and because of this, it has become a hub for local, state and national paranormal groups to study. It’s also the place where new paranormal investigators receive their training.

In fact, a few local paranormal groups, West Texas Paranormal and members from Graveyard Shift Paranormal and Dreamcatcher Paranormal, who conducted case studies on the Lone Wolf Crossing Bridge, documented their findings on their websites and on YouTube. San Angelo LIVE! also joined one member of West Texas Paranormal this week to see if we would witness what others have claimed.

Before we get to that, however, it’s important to understand the brief history of the bridge and why it appears to be a hub of paranormal activity.

The History of Lone Wolf Bridge

Many people have written and talked about the Lone Wolf Crossing Bridge, so some of this content may be repetitive; but the context of this history ties into what people say they have experienced over the years.

The Tom Green County Chronicles Of Our Heritage Volume One explained that the low-water crossing on the South Concho River came to be known as the Lone Wolf Crossing, and the bridge, originally built in 1888, is named after Lone Wolf, a Kiowa Apache Chief who allied with the Comanches and battled against the 9^th U.S. Cavalry from Fort Concho. In an 1873 battle, Lone Wolf’s son was killed near the area. When the Chief came to carry his son’s body home, soldiers drove him away.

The area close to the bridge was also part of a small settlement called the village of Lone Wolf, which housed 200 people. The majority of the residents had Mexican surnames. Sadly, the 1882 flood affected the Lone Wolf community when it washed away the town of Ben Ficklin and caused damage in Saint Angela. About 65 lives were lost in the flood.

Additionally, during the flood of 1936, many people died, and according to testimony of that time, many bodies flowed in the river close to the bridge, and some of those bodies got stuck underneath it.

Over the years, many people have claimed to see the spirits of these people on the banks close to the Concho River around the bridge and along it.

The Case Studies

When new members join West Texas Paranormal, Steve Haidinger holds regular training sessions for possible new members at the Lone Wolf Crossing Bridge. They do their studies on full moon nights because of claims that the energy is strongest at this time. Also, some people claim on foggy nights, residents can see a person hanging from the third bridge beam.

The group experienced equipment failure during these training sessions.

“On one particular evening, with a full moon rising, we set up our equipment for a workshop and training session. Within a few minutes, all our battery-operated equipment went dead,” read the group’s website.

When the equipment failed, one female investigator reported seeing a glowing orb rise from the Concho River; it floated to Glenmore Park. Also, investigators reported getting an “eerie feeling” below the traffic bridge, so the group set up their equipment and began asking questions using an Extremely Low Frequency (EFL); however, their equipment died once more.

The group also reported hearing a male voice telling them, “Hush! Be quiet!” Not to mention, they witnessed a shadow moving across the river.

Prior to joining West Texas Paranormal, Raymond Francis, went out to the bridge on two different occasions with co-workers and said, “We could hear rope creaking at about 12:30 or 1 a.m. in the morning. It went creeeeeeeeeak.”

Additionally, Francis said when he and his co-workers asked questions, the answers were real clear.

“They weren’t like, ‘Wait a minute, what was that?’ You could hear clearly what they were saying,” explained Francis.

Francis also stated on another night, he and another co-worker saw a shadow of someone peeking up and down on the west side of the bridge, but they determined it to be a tree branch.

The other groups, Graveyard Shift Paranormal and Dreamcatcher Paranormal, experienced similar situations. On April 13, 2014, the group published their findings on YouTube. The group set up their battery-operated equipment on a bank below the bridge where people claimed to have witnessed paranormal activity, and like the West Texas Paranormal group, one of their cameras failed despite the battery having been fully charged.

Like West Texas Paranormal, the Graveyard Shift and Dreamcather groups picked up responses on their audio recording equipment, and many of the words picked up included friends, busyness, summers, look down, Emma, Jake, story, count and country. Also, a medium with the group said she saw a party on the river, and a woman spoke of her child, Thomas. To review more about what the group found, click here.

San Angelo LIVE!’s Visit to Lone Wolf Crossing Bridge

Thursday night at 10 p.m. with the clouds in the sky and the smell of rain in the air, San Angelo LIVE! and Raymond Francis from West Texas Paranormal went out to Lone Wolf Crossing Bridge to try and validate the claims of paranormal activity. Two of our members who showed up first and sat waiting in their car saw someone with a vest carrying a red light, and so one of them texted the rest of us to see if anyone was on patrol in the area. We learned there wasn’t.

The person the members saw appeared and left over the west side of the bridge, in the same direction where city workers have been doing some work; but we thought it odd a lone city worker would walk along the bridge, turnaround and quickly disappear.

Also, about halfway up the pathway leading to the bridge, one person in our group felt the hair on her arms and neck rise and a heavy sensation around her that disappeared after she passed the area. In that same area later in the evening, another member of our group began to feel extremely sick. So much so, that he had to go to his car. As soon as he left the area, he no longer felt ill.

As he waited in the car, three of us remained on the bridge. We called out, “Is anyone here? Can you tell us who you are?”

Hoping we might catch a response, we had an audio recorder tracking everything and we snapped pictures using a professional camera.

Since we weren’t having much luck, we decided to walk toward the west side of the bridge where the person disappeared. That area didn’t have as much light as the bridge, and tons of trees surround the place so we figured we might be able to see something. All we noticed though were the shadows of the trees.

For a few moments more, we scoped the area and read the history marker standing proudly before the bridge. We then made our way back to the area where Francis originally heard the sound of creaking rope and the location where people say they have witnessed someone hanging from the beam. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear anything, but we noticed on the southern side of the bridge, the breeze blew the water and little waves glistened in the moonlight. The scenery was beautiful and breathtaking; however, on the northern side of the bridge, the water sat still and silent, which we found strange. We also noticed a strange glow further out in the brush and tried to get some good pictures to see if we could determine what it was, but had no luck because of how far out it was.

So, after an hour and a half of waiting for a response to our questions and to witness anything stranger than what we had, we decided to call it quits. As we began to walk away, the center light on the beam shut off. Francis said the light may be on a timer, which we all agreed, but we figured maybe the other lights would do the same; they didn’t. The light flickered back on as we walked toward our cars.

For a few moments, we stayed talking about the few things we experienced and agreed to listen to our audio recording Friday and also review the pictures. We then got into our cars and prepared to leave. One of our members, as she was leaving, turned to look back at the bridge hoping to catch something more, and that’s when she saw someone standing on the far side of the bridge. However, since everyone else had left, she didn’t want to go investigate on her own.

On Friday, at San Angelo LIVE! headquarters, we got down to the business of listening to our audio and looking at our pictures, but to our disappointment, we did not hear any voices. All we picked up were the sounds of crickets, cars driving along Avenue L and our own group asking questions. We did, however, notice some interesting orbs in two pictures that move, but Francis believes it was camera flare.

Therefore, all in all, our visit out to Lone Wolf Bridge wasn’t as successful as we would have hoped. Our technology never failed, and minus the few things mentioned, all we witnessed was a beautiful evening in a beautiful area of the city. Maybe, we lacked the right equipment; maybe, Lone Wolf Crossing Bridge isn’t haunted; maybe, we chose the wrong time to go out to the bridge; or maybe, as Francis said, the ghosts simply didn’t want to come out and play.

What are your thoughts San Angelo? Do you think the Lone Wolf Crossing Bridge is haunted? If you have had a strange experience there, we would love to hear your story.