From Denton to Edinburg, Texas cities are spooking their residents and tourists this Halloween

People go in and out of Discover Denton, enjoying an evening of Halloween and interaction on the square on Oct. 18. The North Texas city, renamed Halloween for the month of October, has been hosting 31 days of Halloween, including multiple activities per day and a town full of Halloween decorations. (Credit: Maria Crane for The Texas Tribune)

Subscribe to The Y’all — a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by Texas Tribune journalists living in communities across the state.

---

HALLOWEEN — Elm Street in this North Texas city is a nightmare.

There’s a phone booth covered in a neon green ooze. When you pick up the receiver, you hear a cryptic message. A sandworm bursts out of a local business’ patio. A cemetery with rows of tombstones is too close for comfort. The courthouse is lit up in a purple light like a haunted castle. If you walk around on the right night, you might see people carrying machines that beep as they search for roaming spirits while others work to end a witch’s reign.

Welcome to Halloween, Texas, the city formerly known as Denton.

Since Mayor Gerard Hudspeth ceremonially changed Denton’s name for October, residents and tourists have something to scream about. For 31 days, the city’s downtown has been transformed into this spooktacular village.

Cities in Texas and across the U.S. have long hosted events to celebrate Halloween, like trunk-or-treats and haunted houses. Denton cast a different spell this year to enchant guests and is the latest in the state to capitalize on people’s obsession with spooky season.

From costumes to candy and decorations, Halloween is a popular and ever-booming industry. According to WalletHub, a personal finance company that studies consumer spending, 73% of Americans planned to celebrate Halloween last year and nearly $20 billion was spent on the holiday.

Zach Grannan, a member of the North Texas Ghostbusters, speaks with kids and shows them his gear on Oct. 18. The North Texas Ghostbusters have set up their headquarters in the Discover Denton shop, bringing all their Ghostbusters gear and items to show off to the town. (Credit: Maria Crane for The Texas Tribune)

Denton — a city of more than 150,000 about 40 miles northwest of Dallas — has tapped into that market this year. The city kicked off its for at the start of the month and has multiple events planned daily through Halloween. The events range from movies at the park to coffin decorating at local businesses and searching for paranormal activity in known haunted buildings. There are decorations all around downtown, businesses crafting specialty menus for patrons, and events that range from fun for all to spine-chilling.

Texans are thirsty for a bloody good time. And other Texas towns have found ways to tap into their history to satisfy that lust.

Cities like Galveston — often considered one of the most haunted cities in America with 8,000 ghosts thought to be milling about since the 1900 hurricane leveled the coastal city — capitalize on these historic tales with ghost walks and more.

In the Rio Grande Valley, people have claimed to see a boy at the Edinburg municipal auditorium. They call the ghostly boy Juanito. He wears a white cotton shirt and sports a mushroom haircut. Residents also have claimed to hear unexplained footsteps and the venue's piano play on its own.

Edinburg also hosts one of the biggest Dia De Los Muertos events in the Valley called “Los Muertos Bailan” which will be held on Oct. 26 this year.

The city launched the event in 2015 and features live performances, a candlelit procession, food, vendors, and an altar that honors deceased members of the community.

The marquee Day of the Dead event draws up to 12,000 people from within the Valley and from outside the region.

"That brings in an economic boost to the city and the region, because once you're here, you have the mall in McAllen, you have a beach in South Padre and you have to go through many cities to get there,” said Magdiel Castle, assistant director of cultural arts for the city.

The Denton County Courthouse is lit purple during the month of October. Denton Mayor Gerard Hudspeth ceremonially changed the city’s name for the month of October to Halloween, Texas. (Credit: Maria Crane for The Texas Tribune)

There’s a lot of interest in events that highlight historical buildings and their ties to the supernatural throughout the state, said Chris Florance, communications director at the Texas Historical Commission. The commission doesn’t keep track of them because there would be too many to count, making it difficult to gauge how much these places impact tourism at a state level.

"You're going to have stories if the building is old enough that someone observed that sort of phenomenon,” Florance said.

They make exceptions when that folklore becomes deeply ingrained in a community’s history. For example, the "Marfa lights" earned a historical marker in 1988 despite no agreement on what the lights are or if they're even real.

The mysterious glowing orbs in West Texas, known as the “Marfa lights” have been spotted on the horizon after sunset. The first recorded sightings stretch as far back as 1883 and have been attributed to aliens, ghosts, or other paranormal causes.

"The fact is for 100 years or more, those folklore and those stories are part of the history of Marfa and so we mark it,” Florance said. "Beyond that, we don't formally track places that are thought to be paranormal.”

This leaves the promotion of these historical places with supernatural lore to local communities. In Edinburg, another site with ties to the supernatural is the old Hidalgo County jail, which houses the Museum of South Texas History.

Host to school field trips, the museum is well-known for its hanging room, where the only person to be executed there throughout the jail’s operation occurred in 1913. Lore says that man now haunts the building.

Francisco Guajardo, CEO of the museum, can downplay the paranormal — he worries about scaring children.

Children listen to clues on a telephone booth landline as part of an interactive installation on the square in Denton. There are three telephone booths located around town that people are encouraged to seek out and solve clues. (Credit: Maria Crane for The Texas Tribune)

“It's more important to me that we get fourth graders coming to the museum than not,” Guajardo said.

Family-friendly events were a focus for the celebration in Denton when officials began planning. Dustin Sternbeck, chief communications officer for the city, said conversations began last December when leaders were thinking about which holiday to celebrate on a citywide scale. Nearby Grapevine is known as the Christmas Capital of Texas, so Denton went for Halloween. This turned out to be a better fit, as it could blend in with the city’s Arts and Jazz and Day of the Dead festivals.

“When we pitched the idea to the business community and city leadership, there was an immediate buzz in the room,” Sternbeck said.

To drum up excitement and tourism, family-friendly Halloween movies like “Ghostbusters” and “Hocus Pocus” are being shown. There also are tours into Denton’s haunted locations and Cirque du Horror, an original Halloween musical.

“The beauty is there’s a little bit of something for everyone,” Sternbeck. “Whether you want to go on a date night or come out with your family.”

Sunnye Knight, director of the visitor center for Discover Denton, said it was a natural fit for Denton, which includes the University of North Texas and a thriving arts community. Leaning on its more recent history, the city helped bring back a once-beloved art installation, The Chairy Orchard.

The orchard was once the personal collection of hundreds of chairs run by a pair of neighbors who assembled the collection between their homes that closed last year. The city commissioned a new Scary Chairy Orchard outside of City Hall. Each “haunted” chair is designed by artists in the community. One chair has an inflatable UFO that beams light down on whoever sits down on it.

Chris Uzzle, president of the North Texas Ghostbusters, heads downstairs after completing a "paranormal investigation" from the Oak St. Drafthouse building on Oct. 18. (Credit: Maria Crane for The Texas Tribune)

Knight said early data suggests tourism is up tenfold. More than 200 people have visited downtown every day since the celebrations started, not including weekends.

“It’s spooky season, and everybody loves it,” Knight said.

Disclosure: Texas Historical Commission and University of North Texas have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.