Ghost Busting At The Menger

by Shelly Kneupper Tucker on October 31, 2009

I felt the chill begin at me knees, and swiftly rush to my heart. I felt as if I had entered an industrial freezer, but it was only the hallway of the Menger Hotel. Gooseflesh rose on my arm as I gasped. Beside me I heard my friend Judy gasp at the same moment. “There is one here!” she whispered excitedly. “Yes,” I said. There is!”

It wasn’t the first time we had “felt” a ghost that evening. We had walked into several “cold spots” on the third floor and on the fourth. That shouldn’t be surprising since reportedly the historic Menger Hotel in San Antonio is haunted by anywhere from thirty-two to forty ghosts (depending on which tale you choose to believe).

Haunted stairwell in the Menger Hotel

We were standing in this stairwell between the third and fourth floors. No, we were not feeling a draft from the window. I checked. There were no air conditioning vents nearby. And, I couldn’t take this picture with my camera until after about ten minutes of trying.

This happened to me before when I was in a haunted area — my camera wouldn’t take a picture, but just said, “Busy.” I could turn it different directions and snap a picture. If Judy stood in front of the camera on the stairwell, I could take a picture (I swore upon my mother’s grave that I would not show you pictures of her … those pictures were doggone scary!). Otherwise, all I got was “Busy.”

I snapped the picture above when a group of giggling teenagers approached. At that moment, Judy looked at the Ghost Radar application on my iPhone and said, “It says, ‘gone.’”

We could no longer feel the cold, and I could easily snap pictures after the teenagers arrived. We decided to move to another part of the hotel and search for more. The halls are like rabbit warrens, turning every direction and branching out.

There is definitely a ghost in this area!

We felt another area of extreme cold on this stairwell. It ended in a “T.” I snapped the picture above and pivoted to take a picture down the hallway. At that moment, I saw something “flit” past that table. It was the size of a bat. I turned to tell Judy, who was turning to tell me that she had seen something flit past, too!

At that moment, there was a thunderous crash inside a locked closet beside us. We almost jumped out of our skins. Judy was backing away, but I walked up to the closet below and tapped on the door. I said, “If you are in there, tap back.”

Haunted closet?

Drat! Nothing happened. I guess I was too sassy to the ghost.

Around another hallway, where we once again felt that chill, I stepped ahead of Judy. She called out, “Ghost radar is saying, ‘tea.’ T. E. A.” At that moment, I almost tripped over a room service tray laden with a teapot, teacups, and teabags. Judy had not yet stepped around the corner to see it!

I snapped picture after picture all through the night, but we never found an “orb” in any of them. I think that’s because my camera kept saying, “Busy.” The ghosts wouldn’t let me take pictures of them!

But, we had a blast (a very chilly one at times) on our very own haunted ghost tour of The Menger. It was MUCH more fun than the tour we had tried to take earlier in the night! The one we paid $15 each to endure.

If you go to San Antonio, AVOID The Alamo City Ghost Tours. These people were so greedy for money that they booked more than 100 people to go on a tour with ONE TOUR GUIDE! They herded us like cattle through the streets of San Antonio, and we couldn’t hear a thing the man was saying. You would think they could have hired an extra guide or two. It wasn’t very professional, but I don’t think they cared. At $15 a head, that tour group made out like bandits!

We had some fellow tourists who were as fed up as we were. One of them called out to us, “We are going to go haunt a bar! We are going to Durty Nelly’s.” We had decided to ditch the tour, too, but had no intention of going to that bar! I’ve been to Durty Nelly’s once, and that’s all I need. But, I didn’t tell them that! They looked like the type who would enjoy a rowdy bar!

Ghost Busters in San Antonio

Our jaunt through the haunted hallways of The Menger made up for the earlier event. If you plan to ghost hunt there, however, I would suggest a time other than Halloween. There were so many giggling kids in there that it scared away the ghosts!

Did I sleep well knowing that I was surrounded by spirits? Heck, yes. That bed was so comfortable that I slept like the dead! Except … the dead don’t “sleep” at The Menger Hotel!