Ghostly sightings and eerie happenings abound in the Lone Star State's old frontier fortsThroughout the 1800s, military forts sprang up as oases of safety between long stretches of rough, undeveloped country. Mexican troops built fortifications to protect their territory, while the U.S. army sought to create a foothold in the new frontier of Texas and protect settlers from clashes with hostile Native Americans. Many a bloody battle was fought within these forts, during which scores of soldiers, missionaries, women, and children lost their lives. Time has eroded and even erased most of the walls behind which many found protection. However, some say that the spirits of those unfortunates continue to wander the deserted grounds where they met an untimely end. Although no evidence of Fort Fitzhugh remains, campers along nearby Elm Creek have ended up fleeing in the middle of the night to escape the gruesome spectacle of a young settler who was brutally murdered by a Comanche raiding party in the mid-1800s.

The former morgue at Fort Brown--where many victims of a yellow fever epidemic ended up--is said to be plagued with inexplicable electrical problems. At Fort Sherman, locals report they still hear the cries of a Cherokee widow who was killed by a soldier while stealing food to feed her three young children.Elaine Coleman is an award-winning author and former editor for two independent West Texas newspapers. She is a sixth-generation Texan and lives with her husband, Jerry, on the family farm near Winters, Texas, with three dogs, an old barrel racing horse, and sixty or so mother cows.