The Hanging Trees

In an area named Red Mud, which is named for the red color of the dirt lining the canyon walls, is a small spot in the road where the trees overhang the road. In areas of East Texas and other parts of the country, this is no big deal but here in the Rolling Plains it is a rare thing indeed.

When I was back in school, it was a popular place to cruise through with girls. The legend is that these trees were once used to hang rustlers and others that needed the noose. I have never seen documentation that this ever took place but this general area is known to have strange goings on.

Down the road is a deep canyon and a hill known as "Nigger Hill" with the legend that a black man was beheaded there and every once in a while balls of light dance around and it is said that the man is searching for his head. I have seen these lights on a few occasions and though I am a great skeptic, it does send a chill down my spine witnessing them.
Texas Tech University came out to the area to study the strange lights in the area and could never definitively decide what caused this phenomena.

There was also an old abandoned church that had an alter for black masses. It has been torn down now but it was always creepy driving by it and wondering if any Satanists were actually practicing some sort of witchcraft in the old church. There was also a house along the road that local legend said was home to a gruesome murder of a woman and children by the husband and father.

I do not know if any of these legends are true. I only know that it helped get the girls to cuddle closer as the car passed beneath the branches of The Hanging Trees that would scrape across the top of the cab.

(I hope that no one is offended by my repeating the name of the hill. I did not give it this name and to change the name would be false. People of every race from the area know it by this name. Sometimes a name is just a name. Again, I would like to apoligize to anyone who reads these words and are offended.)