A Scary Texas Barn

From: Dianne (ravyncat@yahoo.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Amarillo, Texas
Source: Form Submission

When I was little the house I lived in was haunted. So was our barn. Here are some experiences that me and my family had in the barn. These stories are all true.

The barn was always creepy. My parents bought the house and moved in sometime in 1976. (I was just 3, so I don't remember the exact date.) I do remember that I never liked the barn. When I was a child, my Mother never admitted to anything weird--probably in an attempt to not scare us. Now though, she talks about her experiences.

When I was about 4, my parents decided to build a chicken coop in the barn, so that we could have chickens. They needed a safe inside area because coyotes roamed the streets at night (sometimes still do during drought years). Our dogs would not stay in the barn, or even go near it.

Anyway, my parents had a fight, and my Mom remained in the barn building the chicken coop. This was late at night, between 12 and 1am. She says that it got very cold (even though it was summer time) and she could "feel" eyes on her. My Mother is very brave and this just made her angry. She looked around and saw noone, so she went back to work. Now she admits that it was very scary, but she was stubbornly determined to finish the job. Other than feeling watched, nothing happened to her. But...after that my Mom didn't allow me or my brother to play in the barn. She never told us why. This didn't bother me because the barn was always very dirty and I never liked it. It felt "wrong". For a few years our stable was haunted by the ghost of a deer. I posted that story in "A Deer's Revenge?".

I'm only mentioning this because it was weird, and somewhat barn related. When I was 10, my brother and I each got a pigeon. We also each got a rabbit. We had a large wooden rabbit hutch that we kept our pets in. This hutch was located in the stable area of our barn. It was sturdily built, to keep out coyotes, and the door was padlocked. As additional protection, this hutch was built up about 4 1/2 feet above the ground.

My pigeon was white, and my brother's was brown. Both rabbits were white. One night someone broke into the hutch and killed both our rabbits, and my pigeon. My brother's pigeon got away. (We could sometimes see her flying with a local pigeon flock. She never would come back home.) All the dead animals had broken necks. My rabbit had wire wrapped around her neck. The animals were found dead inside their hutch with the door swinging open. The padlock was gone.

When I was about 12, we kept 4 white geese with our chickens. One Thanksgiving Eve, someone broke into our chicken yard--fenced in old coral that led into the barn--and killed two of our geese. (Presumably to eat).The dogs chased them off, but our gander was left hanging by his neck from a wire that was stuck on the fence. (which was creepy).

After that, we kept the two remaining geese in our backyard, which had a six foot tall wooden fence around it. The next summer, coyotes jumped the fence and killed our two remaing geese. I was at a friend's house the night it happened, and so didn't hear anything. My Mom, Stepdad and Brother told me that it had sounded terrible--the geese had screamed and fought being killed--and woke up everyone in the house. My Stepdad ran out in the yard with a gun and saw 5 or 6 coyotes jumping over the fence.

That night as I went into the backyard to feed the dogs, I was startled by a sound. I distinctly heard our geese making their usual noises. it sounded like they were in the yard. I didn't see anything, and gradually the noises got fainter and went away. I never heard them again.

Writing this, I'm noticing the odd coincidence that rabbits, a pigeon, and geese, all had their necks broken while living near the barn. (Maybe I just had crazy neighbors.)

When I was a teenager, my parents remodeled the barn into a playhouse. My 17th birthday was very scary in the barn, but you can read about it in "A Haunted Birthday party".

When my Brother was about 16, he and a friend were spending the night in the barn. At this time the barn consisted of one large main room, roughly square, and three smaller rooms. One of the smaller rooms was original. It was by the frony door and had a sink in it. The two other rooms were small and built along one side of the main room where the chicken coop used to be.

My brother and his friends used to party in the barn. This night they were probably a bit drunk. My brother and his friend Josh were sleeping in cots with their heads being against the wall that also walled the sink room.

It was late, between 2 and 4 am.. My brother was trying to sleep, but he kept hearing someone talking, and then he heard taps on the wall. My brother figured that Josh was just trying to scare him, so he tried to ignore it. The taps kept getting louder, and he finally yelled at Josh to cut it out. In response the taps started again right by his head!

My brother jumped out of bed with the intention of beating Josh up. He turned on the light and was shocked to find Josh asleep. He was so deeply asleep that my brother had to shake him to wake him up. So...who was talking and tapping on the wall? (And yeah, I suppose it could have been the pipes in the sink...but we never had the water in the barn turned on!)

My Mom had basically avoided the barn since we moved into the house. Even though it was redecorated, noone liked going into it. One year we decided to store our Christmas decorations in the barn's attic.

This was probably around 1990. One Saturday in December, my Mom decided to get the Christmas decorations out of the barn. My brother and I were not at home. My Stepdad was also absent because he was a truck driver.

My Mom went out to the barn and carefully set up a ladder under the hole that led into the barn's attic. This hole was in the roof of the sink room. The floor is even cement. My Mom crawled up the ladder with a flashlight and started dragging boxes of decorations toward the attic hole. She said that she felt watched and was trying to hurry.

My Mom heard a loud crash and ran to the hole. The ladder had been knocked over, leaving her trapped in the attic! The barn door was shut, so no dogs were in the barn. It was a heavy carpenter's ladder that was evenly balanced. There was absolutely no reason for the ladder to fall. My Mom was scared now, because she wasn't expecting me or my brother home until late that night. She also knew we wouldn't think to look for her in the barn. She opened boxes and managed to rig wires into a hook which she used to grab the ladder and pull it back up. My Mom says she felt very menaced, but she was determined to not stay trapped in the barn. She got the Christmas decorations out of the attic, and went back to the house.

We never stored the decorations in the barn again. And my Mom still won't go into the barn unless she has to. She hasn't been in there for about two years!

One other quick note. This happened in 1993. My brother had another friend who needed a place to stay after they graduated from highschool because he was tired of living at home. This friend wanted to use our barn as a 'bachelor pad'. My Mother agreed that he could live in the barn, but only until he found a real place to live. This friend moved all his stuff in and stayed one night. The very next day he moved out, and went back home. He never explained why!

Recently I was visiting my Mom, and the barn is still creepy! It has fallen back into disrepair and is filthy and dark. It looks anbandoned and lonely like it did when we first moved in. It also still feels "off". I wonder if whatever "lives" in there just likes it better that way!