The Ott Hotel & Haunted Liberty

Liberty is one of the oldest towns in Texas, chartered in the days of the Mexican colony, and towns that old collect their share of ghost stories. This short evening drive strings together the places where Liberty's history and its hauntings overlap — a 1920s railroad hotel with a reputation for footsteps in empty halls, the courthouse square where a Spanish-colonial town was laid out, and the old cemeteries where the county's founders rest. Treat the ghost tales as folklore rather than fact; they are the stories locals tell, hedged and enjoyed rather than proven. What is solid is the history underneath them — the railroad that built the hotel, the oil boom that filled it, and the deep Spanish and Anglo roots that make Liberty older than most of Texas. Drive it after dark for the full effect, and keep your interest to the public streets and grounds.